STORMY TASMAN

Evening Star, Issue 22638, 3 May 1937, Page 9

STORMY TASMAN

CABLE SHIP'S WORK DELAYED MOUNTAINOUS SEAS SWEEP BRIDGE Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright SYDNEY, May 3. (Received May 3, at 11 a in.) When the cable ship Recorder reached port the officers told of six stormy weeks spent in the Tasman Sea, which for the past month has been in one of its worst and most variable moods. In addition to a number of heavy “ blows,” the Recorder encountered three separate cyclones, all of great severity, and on each occasion she hove-to_ for a number of days while mountainous seas often swept over the bridge. On occasions the crew would be engaged in lifting cables from the .ocean bed when a storm would work up in less than an hour, damaging the lifting gear before the crew had time to cast it off. , Very little of the work the crew set out to do—the relaying of portions of the cable between Sydney and Auckland —has been accomplished in the sis weeks since the vessel left 4 ucldaad, as it was impossible to work in the extreme weather conditions. Another attempt will be made after a short stay at Sydney.