U.S.S.C. Confident Wahine Can Be Salvaged

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31657, 18 April 1968, Page 30

U.S.S.C. Confident Wahine Can Be Salvaged

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

LONDON, April 16.

The Union Steam Ship Company is confident that the Wahine can be raised and put back into service, a spokesman for the P and O Line said today.

However, the spokesman said the Union Steam Ship Company—owned by P and O—was anxious to find a replacement vessel to run the ferry service in the meantime.

available till .August, preliminary work could begin well before then.

Joseph Page, aged 77, of 158 Cambridge Street, Levin.

The representative of another Japanese firm, the Nip-

This means 50 bodies have been recovered. One person is still missing. Searchers are still looking for Mr J. A. Cox, of Wellington.

All negotiations by the Union Steam Ship Company and the New Zealand Government to charter a vessel would take place in New Zealand, he said.

wires would run to anchors and back to winches on barges. By pulling on these the ship would be brought back to an even keel. The buoyancy tanks and the large cranes would also assist. He could not give an estimate of how much it would cost, but considered it to be a very expensive job. Mr Okusako left Wellington this morning for Auckland and will return to Japan in two days time where he will have consultations with engineers and experts of his company.

A team of 100 men using the principles of shear legs fastened to the hull, buoyancy tanks and large cranes would probably be used if his firm obtained the contract to salvage the Wahine, said a Japanese salvage expert, Mr K. Okusako, who is in Wellington inspecting the wreck. Mr Okusako, from the Fukado Salvage Company, said that the cranes would be the two mammoth ones at present engaged in the extension of the Auckland Harbour bridge. They have a combined lift of 500 tons.

He said he thought a price would be submitted in two or three weeks.

Although the large cranes at Auckland would not be

A tug, the Fuji Maru, which is due at Sydney on April 22 to tow a freighter to Hong Kong, would also be employed. Mr Okusako said that after shear legs had been fastened on to the hull of the Wahine,