CABLE STEAMER IRIS

Hokitika Guardian, 7 June 1930, Page 2

CABLE STEAMER IRIS

TO BE OFFERED FOR SALE,

AUCKLAND'. June 3

I.t is probaLle that. the. cable steamer Iris, which has been stationed at Auckland for nearly cX) years, will shortly ioe offered for sale. Since the Imperial and International Communications, Ltd., bought the, British submarine cables and amalgamated service with the newly-invented beam wireless system the older method of communication has suffered, Beam wireless and wireless telephony huvo proved so efficient that .submarine cables are already obsolescent The opening of the wireless telephone between Wellington and Sydney which is already working, is expected further to decrease the amount of work carried by the inter-colonial cable as lias happened in other countries, and although it is not officially admitted it is stated that the WellingtonSydney cable already needs overhaul. Meanwhile, the Iris is lying idle awaiting her fate, Her overhaul is several months overdue, but has been postponed. Her crew has 'been further reduced, and the remainder are awaiting orders. The old Iris will be missed if she goes. Built by D. J. Dunlop and Co.. Glasgow, in 1902. she has spent most of her career lying at moorings off Devonport. Her short absences when she has been sent to sea to lepair and overhaul submarine cables have always left a blank in the harbour. Captain Hughes and four of her officers have been in the ship sinco she was built, which must be very nearly a -record. Always she has done her work without much trouble, and her career has been markedly uneventful. Once she achieved passing fame when she chased Von Luekner in the scow Mon and recapturc-d him at the Kermadecs after lie had escaped from the internment camp at Motuihi. During the war she mounted a small gun for’ard, hut there is no record of its ever having been fired at anything more dangerous than a target.

Several other vessels of a similar type will probably go with the Iris. They arc .stationed at various ports round the Pacific keeping their sections of the international cables in repair, but if the owners decide that the cables ar e not worth the expense most of the steamers will be disT>os n d of either to shipowners or shipbreakers. At present the feeling is that one or more fast repair ships will be retained, making Singapore their home port, while others will he scrapped.