Ship’s cargo rerouted

Press, 27 April 1984, Page 5

Ship’s cargo rerouted

Lyttelton-bound cargo aboard the damaged Coastal Trader will be unloaded in Auckland today, according to a Shipping Corporation spokesman. The cargo would be brought to the South Island by rail or by the Union Steam Ship Company's vessel Union Nelson, said the spokesman yesterday. The Coastal Trader, which calls at Auckland. Lyttelton, and Dunedin, was forced to return to Auckland on Monday morning after an engine-room fire disabled the starboard engine. The Shipping Corporation expects the 2500-ton vessel to be out of service until May 18. The vessel's Dunedinbound cargo, which contained a quantity of sugar, was uplifted by the Union Company’s vessel Maramar at Lyttelton yesterday. The Maramar was in port

for only three hours on her way to Dunedin from her regular calls at Nelson and Wellington. The Shipping Corporation said it did not envisage problems with freight while the Coastal Trader was out of the service and was looking at alternatives. A spokesman said the vessel was taken off the run for two or three weeks each year for her survey and during those times corporation clients had made alternative arrangements. Refrigerated goods which had been aboard the vessel for five days were unlikely to perish as power had been maintained to the containers. he said. The main alternatives for freight movement across Cook Strait remain the use of rail, the Pacifica Shipping Company’s vessel, Spirit of Free Enterprise, and the Union Company's Union Nelson.