Wahine Hulk Still In One Piece

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31985, 12 May 1969, Page 1

Wahine Hulk Still In One Piece

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, May 11.

The three sections of the Wahine hulk are still attached despite the battering the ferry took in the storm last Thursday.

But damage caused by the storm has wrecked salvage plans and it may now take until the end of next year to clear the wreck from Wellington Harbour.

This was revealed today during a five-hour survey of the wreck by Navy divers and salvage men on board the salvage vessel Holmpark.

The survey showed that an oil slick, which developed during the battering, has now dispersed and no longer threatens the harbour or salvage work. The master of the Holmpark (Captain M. J. Anderson) said after the survey that the Wahine had not, as was previously thought, been broken into, three separate parts. The front of the ship had settled down into the water, the central portion had settled even further on a slight angle and the stern had keeled right over on to its side in deep water.

“But those parts, which you could call the skeleton of the ship, are still intact and while badly twisted and bent

are holding the whole structure together,” he said. Because of these structural changes it would be necessary to formulate a new salvage plan.

“We had a plan which would have worked and was nearing completion,” he said. “But now we will have to start from scratch again with a new plan.” The new plan could not be formulated until further investigations on the wreck were carried out

“We will still be using foam for some of the salvage operation, but we now have to face the necessity of doing a lot of under-water cutting, and this is a long slow process,” he said.