CABLE REPAIRS
BREAKS IN COOK STRAIT The cable steamer Iris, which has not visited Wellington for several years, arrived yesterday from Auckland to take in cable preparatory to repairing cables in Cook Strait. The Iris is to repair two breaks in the cable between Lyall Bay and White Bay, one being two nautical miles from Lyall Bay and the other seven miles further out. A leakage due to a fault in the cable between. Otoronga and White Bay, 2-J miles out from the latter place, is also to be made good. If the weather is favourable the ship will leave Wellington at daybreak to-day for the Strait.
First commissioned on February 14, 1904, His Majesty’s cable steamer Iris has now been in service for 25 years, during the whole of which time she has been the sole protector of over 15,000 miles of cable in the Pacific Ocean. Included in the ship's company are five members who hare served on the vessel since she was put in commission. Under the care of the personnel of the Iris is the cable system stretching from the Dominion across the Pacific, a system which is ever 1i1... • to develon some fault. It is their duty to find the cause >f the fault and immediately to rectify it. Five members of the ship’s company, Captain H. R. Hughes, the chief engineer, Mr. J. D. 8. Fleming, the paymaster, Mr. R. Banister, the cable foreman, Mr. J. Bookham, and the chief cable jointer, Mr. J. R. King, have been on the vessel since the original crew was signed on. Probably nowhere else in any part of the world have five men served on the same ship under the Imperial Government for so long. Captain Hughes joined the Iris as a junior officer and worked his way upward until he was appointed commander of the vessel in 1923. The chief engineer. Mr. Fleming, has also risen with the passing of time. Both he and Mr. Banister have taken an active interest in Association football in New Zea-' land, Mr. Banister having served on the executive of the Auckland Football Association for 15 years.
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Bibliographic details
Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 130, 26 February 1929, Page 10
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357CABLE REPAIRS Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 130, 26 February 1929, Page 10
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