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IN THE "RIP"

CABLE WORK IN COOK STRAIT PHENOMENAL TIDES Phenomenal tides are being experienced in Cook Strait at the present time, when under ordinary circumstances thev should be at their, slackest. For some days past the Tutahekai has been engaged in repairing the Oterangi cable—the one of the five cables that gives most trouble, as it has to traverse the Terawhiti "rip" over a very bad bottom of constantly shifting gravel and deep ocean valleys, and in doing this work tho mill-raco tides experienced, together with a lot of _ westerly weather, hampered the operations considerably. Both ends of the broken cable were buoyed at the beginning of the week, but on Friday morning it was discovered that one of the buoys had been sunk, probably by a passing steamer, as it was right in the fairway. There avo times in the Strait when the body of the buoy is swept under and kept there by the force of the tide, leaving only tho basket-top visible, which object is not so easily picked up, and the steamer has to stand off and on until slack tide allows the buoy to float normally. On this occasion the wait brought nothing to view, so that there was only the one conclusion to come to. Work was impossible on Saturday owing to a dense sea-fog, which was very thick off Terawhiti, though a fresh southerly breeze was blowing. At tho first slant the missing end will bo recovered, and the rcquireu splice Cook Strait is probably one of tho worst places in the world, for cables. At its best there is always the bad bottom, and strong tides, and now and again, as aX present, there are periods of phenomenal tides. On Friday tho Tutanekai (under Captain Whiteford) was steaming slowly ahead looking for the buoy, but to glance over her bows at the swirl of waters that were rushing madly by one would have imagined that the vessel was flying along at a 20-knot speed. >The chasmic condition of certain portions of the floor of the Strait has been ascertained by marine survoys, dredging, and by experience in cable work. Cables, and in particular the troublesome Oterangi one, have been pulled up for repair, when' it has been discovered that sections are draped with marino growth a foot in length, whilst in other parts tho cable's armour has been polished bright and worn thin by the ceaseless wash of tho gravel bed where it.has chanced to rest so uneasily. Those parts, boarded with marine vegotation, are thoso which stretch across ocean chasms. Ocean cables lie quiet in their deep bods. No surgo of the troubled waters above disturbs their rest 2000 fathoms deep, and repair jobs are few and far between. Our deepest water for a Cook Strait cable is 218 fathoms, but there are holes in the Strait that have been plumbed to a depth of 400 and oven 600 fathoms. Why they never fill np with tho masses of shifting gravel that is forovor on the roll is perhaps the finest testimony to the forco of tho rip tides of the great mill-raco outside our port gales. This action certainly accounts for the plentiful'supply of sea gravel, so nicely rounded, that forms the beaches'at Ohiro Bay and on towards Terawhiti.

Mr. A. Shrinipton, Chief Electrician, is in charge of the cable-repairing work that is being done by tho Tutanekai at present.

Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19170129.2.49

Bibliographic details

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2989, 29 January 1917, Page 6

Word Count
571

IN THE "RIP" Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2989, 29 January 1917, Page 6

IN THE "RIP" Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2989, 29 January 1917, Page 6

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