BEACONS ADVOCATED

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 59, 2 December 1933, Page 9

BEACONS ADVOCATED

Radio as an Adjunct to Navigation

AMERICAN CAPTAIN’S VIEW

Dominion Special Service.

Auckland, December 1.

A proposal to establish radio beacons at the approaches to Hauraki Gulf made at the last meeting of the Auckland Harbour Board by Mr. E. H. Davis received enthusiastic support from Captain G. B. Wait, master of the Matson liner Mariposa, which passed through Auckland to-day. Foggy weather off the coast and in Hauraki Gulf was responsible for a delay of two hours in the Mariposa’s arrival at Auckland.

“I do not wish to cast any reflection on existing aids to navigation at the approaches to Auckland,” Captain Wait said. “Of their kind they are as good as anything in the world, and your lighthouses, both in their disposition and maintenance, give no cause for complaint. But it must be remembered that, with present-day shipping, time and safety are important factors. Delaj r s due to fog are often serious and, with the installation of radio beacons, they can be minimised or avoided altogether.”

Captain Wait said he had set a course from Suva to Auckland on dead reckoning. Land had not been sighted when, at 11 o’clock on Thursday night, the liner ran into thick weather. Speed was reduced and wireless communication was established with the Government wireless station at Auckland in an effort to obtain bearings. “This merely made confusion worse confounded,” Captain Wait said. “For the purpose of obtaining bearings and enabling us to make port on time, the effort with radio was worse than useless and I should not attempt that method of fog navigating again. AH we could do was’to steam at reduced speed and feel our way carefully through the fog. In the absence of radio beacons, powerful fog horns -on lighthouses would have been a decided advantage. In other parts of the world, Captain Wait saidj radio beacons were 'considered as necessary as lighthouses for the purpose of aiding navigation. Off Hawaii there were two beacons. Although fog was hardly ever experienced there, they were used as aids to. navigation in tropical rain storms. Exceedingly foggy weather could be experienced off the New Zealand coast and, in view of thitt fact, radio beacons were really a necessary adjunct.The majority of shipping companies would be only too willing to pay for the cost of the service provided. The Mariposa was due at Auckland at 7 o’clock this morning, but. owing to the fog, she did not enter the harbour until 9 o’clock.