Ship Turned Back With Shaft Leak

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31333, 1 April 1967, Page 14

Ship Turned Back With Shaft Leak

(New Zealand Preu Association)

WELLINGTON, March 31.

Harbour board divers tomorrow will investigate a leak in the propeller shaft of the freighter Waiwera, which caused her to dash hundreds of miles out of her way to Wellington.

The 11,000-ton Shaw Savill ship is expected at Wellington heads at 8 a.m. tomorrow. The ship was well out in the Pacific on a voyage from Napier to Panama when the leak was discovered early this week. There was no suggestion that the ship was endangered, but the master, Captain C. A Borthwick, took no chances and headed for Wellington, the nearest harbour with adequate facilities. The ship’s pumps kept the amount of water in the shaft under control as the vessel

came through heavy seas. The New Zealand manager for Shaw Savill (Mr M. J. Smith) said tonight that no report had been received from the Waiwera since yesterday afternoon. The vessel was expected to confirm its arrival time with harbour board authorities early tomorrow morning. The Waiwera, carrying fruit, meat and general cargo, would be the heaviest lift made by the floating dock should investigations determine it necessary to dock the ship.