Converted For Cable Laying

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30559, 30 September 1964, Page 1

Converted For Cable Laying

(From Our Own Reporter) WELLINGTON, September 29. The m.v. Photinia, under charter to British Insulated Callender’s Cables, Ltd., will arrive in Wellington on Saturday to prepare for the laying of the Cook Strait power cable.

The Photinia is a 10,000 tons deadweight, bulk cargo ship built in 1961 and converted for cable-laying work.

Three of the vessel’s six holds contain the coils of cable weighing 5000 tons and the steel structures to support them. Another stores the engineering gear for the laying operation, a fifth contains the machinery to drive the laying equipment and a Voith Schneider bow propeller to improve the manoeuvrability of the ship. The engines there can produce about 1500 h.p. There is a mass of equipment above deck and because of the height of gear on the foredeck the upper bridge of the Photinia has been raised.

The sixth, aft hold has been converted to living accommodation for cable hands and specialist workers. The freighter has been equipped with extra navigation apparatus and the instruments needed for cable laying. Preparatory work on the ship at Wellington will take about two weeks before it does trial exercises in Cook Strait Then the cable laying will begin. The Photinia is owned by Stag Lines, Ltd., North Shields. It is 480 ft long and has a breadth of 60ft.