SURVEY SHIP HERALD.

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 140, 14 June 1924, Page 24

SURVEY SHIP HERALD.

The new survey ship, H.M.S. Herald, left Sydney recently on a''cruise which is expected to last until January. H.M.S. Herald, which has been specially equipped as a survey ship by the British Admiralty, is to operate in the Torres Straits, where Thursday Island will be one of her depots during the long months occupied in the survey work. It had been expected that H.M.S. Herald would have been equipped with the sonic depth. finder, which was demonstrated in Sydney last year on the United States cruiser Milwaukee. The apparatus, however, has not yet come to hand, and will not be installed on the vessel until after her return to Sydney in January next. Meanwhile the old method of sounding will be used. The sounding apparatus in use on H.M.S. Herald is operated from a winch aft, whence the line is taken aloft through a block, and the sounding is effected with the aid of two spars which are boomed out, one amidships and another aft. The sounding weight consists of a piece of lead weighing about 2001b. The work carried on in northern waters will consist of sounding and surveying, both operations being carried on more or less simultaneously. It is stated that another four years' work remains to be done in the Torres Straits and northern waters of Australia.

When engaged on survey work practically the whole of the • available daylight will be used. It is proposed to work about eleven hours a da}', during most of which time the vessel' will be steaming at the rate of four knots, while the night hours will be devoted to calculations. It is expected that the vessel will steam about 10,000 miles in northern waters, while engaged in survey work. In addition the operations of 11.M.5. Herald herself, four of the sbip's boats will carry on inshore work independently. The four boats, with their crews, stores, and equipment, will be placed ashore at various points along the northern coast, and camps will be made for weeks at a time, while the whole coast line and littoral sea is accurately charted. The boats . will also make an examination of the sea bottom, and carry out work which the parent ship is unable to perform.