LISTENING FOR SHIPS

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31754, 10 August 1968, Page 23

LISTENING FOR SHIPS

The Gothic tragedy again demonstrated the value of the service given by the Post Office radio stations. Through stations at Auckland, Wellington, Awarua (near Invercargill), and in the Chatham Islands, the Post Office provides a complete coverage for coastal and international shipping over a large portion of the globe. New Zealand is divided into three regions for the coastal coverage, but the international shipping service is shared between Awarua and Wellington; the southern station receives messages, and Wellington Radio, high on Tinakori Hill overlooking the capital, operates the transmitting services. It was through Awarua’s continuous radio watch that the first faint message from the Gothic was received. While he was covering all the frequencies in the eight megacycle maritime band, a Post Office senior telegraphist, Mr D. Down reached 8364 kilocycles just in time to pick up the brief signal XXX MAUQ in Morse code. Immediately recognising the international urgency signal of XXX, and knowing that MAUQ was the code call for the Gothic, the Post Office radio stations at once swung into a well-practised emergency routine. Such emergency messages are heard quite often from distant parts of the world through the coast stations at Musick Point (Auckland), Wellington, Awarua and the Chathams.

In this case, though the Gothic was far distant from New Zealand, it appears that Awarua Radio was the only coast station in the world that heard the signal, and it was therefore the responsibility of the New Zealand Post Office to help.

The world is divided into eight regions for the clearance of Commonwealth shipping traffic, New Zealand’s zone extending almost to Panama in the east, right to Antarctica in the south, halfway across the Tasman to the west, and north to near Hawaii.

A feature of Wellington Radio is the large magnetic shipping wall map that pinpoints ships throughout the Pacific and from the operating room that it overlooks broadcast transmissions to ships

are made every four hours around the clock. At Awarua Radio the main task is the other side of the story—listening for messages from ships, and it was through this “ear” of the Post Office radio system that the world first knew of the Gothic’s troubles. The Post Office also has two other large radio staions, a Makara (receiving) and Himitangi (transmitting) through which New Zealand's international radiotelephone, radiotelegraph and radiophoto services are operated. The photograph shows Mr M. Searle adjusting a ship’s position on the magnetic wall map at the Post Office’s Wellington radio station. The chart shows the extent of New Zealand’s responsibility.