Unknown Ship In Australian Bight

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31016, 23 March 1966, Page 19

Unknown Ship In Australian Bight

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright.)

SYDNEY, March 22.

A ship using a Soviet radio call sign has been transmitting weather details from the Great Australian Bight for 10 days.

The ship’s latest report, using the radio call sign U.Q.A.E., was received in Sydney at 3 a.m. today.

It is believed to be the

freighter seen in the same area where a submarine was reported off the West Australian coast last week. She gave a position today which would place her about 120 miles south-west of Eucla, a small town on the Eyre highway near the South Australian and West Australian border. Weather men who have been using the information supplied by the ship do not know what she is doing in the bight. They said today the information was coming through “fairly regularly,” at about six-hour intervals.

A meteorologist at Sydney Weather Bureau said today the ship was not stationed in one spot, but was moving about.

“The information she had been sending has been very helpful to our forecasts,” he said.

“It is good to have a ship in one general area for long periods.”

Java Floods. —Central Java authorities have asked Djakarta for boats and helicopters to evacuate 300,000 people from flood-stricken parts of the island.— Djakarta, March 22.