SUNKEN AUCKLAND TUG

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 272, 13 August 1938, Page 7

SUNKEN AUCKLAND TUG

« Efforts To Dredge Mud Away By Telegraph—Press Association. Auckland, August 12. The Auckland Harbour Board’s tug Te Awhintt still lies partly embedded iu the mud of the harbour bottom where she foundered on Thursday morning after being struck below the waterline by the starboard propeller of the Federal Line’s motor-ship Essex while heli>ing to berth her at Central Wharf. Preparations to lift her into shallower water were continued to-day, but it is not expected that the lifting will be done until early next week, possibly on Tuesday. Efforts were concentrated to-day upon dredging away enough of the mud on the Te Awhina’s port side to allow a diver to investigate the damage done. When she foundered the tug took a list over on to the side where she was holed. As a result, the diver who has been working on the vessel has been unable to discover the nature of the damage. Mud is completely blocking the hole, and, although a grab dredge was manoeuvred alongside to clear away some of this obstruction, the hole has not yet been revealed. The diver, however, was able to assist the dredge by giving instructions about the way the mud has to be dredged.

No apparent damage was done to tlie Essex, but an investigation of the starboard propeller was carried out by a diver. It was found that four blades of the screw were slightly chipped, but no cracks were visible in the metal, and the fastenings were intact. This is regarded as only minor damage, and as the seaworthiness of the ship is not affected, it was stated that she would follow her usual schedule and leave next Tuesday for Southampton and Lon don after completing loading at Auckland.

A preliminary inquiry into the sinking of tlie Te Awhina is being undertaken by the Superintendent of Marine at Auckland, Captain Wilcox. He said his report would be forwarded to the Marine Department at Wellington, and the Minister of Marine, Hon. P. Fraser, would decide whether n magisterial inquiry wag necessary. The Te Awhina, which is of the twinscrew type, is of 220 tons gross. She was built in 1908 at Paisley.