LONG TOW ENDS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 13, 29 December 1931, Page 8

LONG TOW ENDS

FLOATING DOCK ARRIVES AVERAGE SPEED OF FOUR KNOTS MUCH INTEREST IN WELLINGTON Wellington, Dec. 28. Completing its 13,000 miles voyage, Wellington’s huge jubilee dock arrived off Penearrow a little before 5 o’clock this afternoon. Favourable winds had made easy the final stages of the journey and the dock, with its two small but powerful attendants, the Zwarte Zee and the Witte Zee, swung into Port Nicholson with only the slightest of breezes momentarily stirring the surface of the harbour. Overhead two aeroplanes fr m the Rongotai aerodrome sailed in the haze of a summer sky. Along the wharves strolled hundreds of people, while every vantage point on the nearby hills had its little group of persons whose imagination was stirred by the romance of the long tow.

The massive bulk of tho dock made a striking mark in the harbour seascape. A number of launches and yachts sailed round the dock as it moved slowly in the direction of the mooring site. The ferry steamer Muratai, packed with passengers, made a trip to the Heads to accompany the dock up the harbour. The Harbour Board tug Toia met the voyagers and escorted them in. On the Government steam tender Janie Seddon were doctors, officials and guests. The small harbour tug Natone also acted as an escort. Tho inspection of the crews of the dock and tugs by the doctor was made as the craft camo up the harbour. At 7.10 p.m. the huge anchors of the dock were ’dropped several hundred yards from tho Jubilee Wharf at Thorndon, where the dock is to be permanently moored. This work will begin to-morrow. There will be no official ceremony in connection with the dock’s arrival until it has been actually delivered to the Harbour Board by the contractors, which will be about the end of February. It is hoped that it will then be possible to have one of the New Zealand Shipping Company’s liners actually in the dock so as to enable itie function to take place in fitting circumstances on the ship itself. Although they appeared uniformly happy that tho end of the long tow was reached, the Dutchmen on tho two tugs Zwarte Zee and Witte Zee, as well as those on the big dock itself, were neither excited nor talkative when tho dock was travelling slowly up the harbour on the last stages of its journey. Altogether there were 18 Dutchmen on the Zwarte Zee, 15 on the Wittee Zee and 10 on the dock, including the three respective skippers, Captain B. L. Hart, Captain B. Weltevrede and Captain Jan Van Braat

They had brought the dock 13,627 miles at an average speed of four knots since leaving England on July 15. The trip was a summer one all the way and passed without serious incident. Captain Hart and many of the others speak English. The police took in charge two stowaways who had travelled from Nelson on the Zwarte Zee.