TRANSFER OF CABLE

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 266, 5 August 1932, Page 10

TRANSFER OF CABLE

Tedious Task Completed RECORDER AT AUCKLAND Dominion Special Service Auckland, August 4. After an absence from Auckland of over 14 weeks, the cable steamer Recorder, still, despite her change of name, familiarlly known as the Iris, returned to port this afternoon and went to her moorings at Devonport. The work of transferring from Wellington to. Auckland the New Zealand end of the cable that previously linked Sydney and Wellington proved one of the longest and most tedious jobs ever undertaken by the ship. Adverse weather made the work considerably longer than anticipated. The Recorder sailed from Auckland on the afternoon of March 24. the day before Good Friday. The work of getting the cable ashore at Muriwai proved a most difficult operation, and unfortunately was not accomplished without loss of life. On the morning of Sunday. April 17, the Recorder’s whaleboat, in which four men were endeavouring to land the shore end of the cable, capsized In the surf and one of the sailors. Mr. J. Tyrrel, wai drowned. The other three sailors succeeded in getting ashore with the 'id of a lifeline. Mr. Tyrrel’s body was later recovered from the surf. Although the ship has been absent for so long, she will not remain many days in nort as she is to sail again shortly for the vicinity of Norfolk Island, where she is to effect repairs to the Norfolk Island-Sydney cable.