Selecting Site For Deep Cove Wharf

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30213, 19 August 1963, Page 12

Selecting Site For Deep Cove Wharf

(From Out Own Reporter) DEEP COVE, August 17. Two nautical advisers, Captain H. Buegg, of the Marine Department, Wellington, and Captain D. Miller, of the Union Steam Ship Company, cruised for two hours by launch on Friday afternoon along the precipitous bushclad southern shore of Deep Cove, Doubtful Sound. Within 20 minutes of reaching the Cove by float-plane, they began their search for a suitable site for the construction of a wharf.

The wharf is for the proposed floating hostel, the 9876-ton former Tasman liner. Wanganella. as well as other ships, almost certain to include 6000-ton freighters of the Union fleet, oil tankers, and probably bulk cement carriers Deep Cove is the key centre and base for the entire £3l million Manapouri power project. While Captain Miller, on board the launch, took notes, the men discussed the question of a suitable turning basin for the Wanganella near the head of Deep Cove which is 20 miles in from the mouth of the Sound When Captains Miller and Ruegg, accompanied by the project manager's representative of Utaih-Williamson-Bur-nett. Mr J Bonwick and the executive surveyor, Mr R Le Grande, had completed their initial shore-line and depth investigation by launch, the two captains transferred to a floatplane. They flew, at low-level down the length of both Malaspina and Doubtful Sounds, past Bauzi Island The Shelter Islands, and Secretary Island —all near the mouth of the Sounds—checking the general topography and familiarising themselves with the layout When the crayfish boat Miss Akaroa, which has been sheltering off Chalky Point reaches Deep Cove, the two captains plan to take some echo-soundings from her across the Doubtful Sound entrance Captain Ruegg said he had carried out an initial survey on Doubtful Sound from the Mated in 1961. in readiness for the present project Some

beacons were ins* ailed in the Sounds a.t thai time Captain Miller said that most of his company's freighters that would be carrying cargo into Doubtful Sound would be of the 6000-ton class. The company had about 18 of this type of ship Captain Miller said he thought the installation of direction-finding gear at Doubtful Sound would be a good thing. This was because there were frequently ‘‘walls of fog" right along the Fiordland coast, and they completely covered the entrance to Doubtful Sound Without aids it would be too difficult to find the entrance Travelling up Doubtful Sound from the ocean, said Captain Miller, would be a magnificent trip scenically The water was deep, without shoals or rocks Captain Ruegg said that a well-charted cluster of rocks near the entrance to Doubtful Sound stood out so well that it could be picked up easily by any §Jiip equipped with radar When a reporter suggested to Captain Ruegg that many New Zealand coasters were not equipped with radar, he replied: “It is up to the shipping companies concerned to have the right equipment " Mr Bonwick. who has been brought from the Melbourne office of Utah Australia to help get the Manapouri power project launched, said that until the wharf was built at Deep Cove, the Wanganella would be moored by several anchors The location of the proposed wharf was still under discussion Until the wharf was built, all machinery and equipment, including heavy bulldozers, would be brought ashore by barge.