VESSEL'S LONG VOYAGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21112, 20 February 1932, Page 8

VESSEL'S LONG VOYAGE.

ARGUS REACHES NAPIER. SHORT OF FOOD AND OIL [BY TELEGRAPH.— ASSOCIATION.] NAPIER. Friday. The small motor-vessel Argus, bound for Wellington from England, via Papeete, in ballast dropped anchor in Napier roadstead this morning, having run out of fresh provisions and being in need of oil for her Diesel engines. The vessel is the property of the tiolm Shipping Line and has been on the high seas on this voyage since September. • The Argus has been brought to New Zealand to replace the Progress, lost at Ohiro Bay last May. She was purchased in Penzance, and after being docked and overhauled, proceeded to Cardiff and loaded coal for Georgetown, British Guiana. From there she went to Trinidad and Jamaica and loaded a cargo of bitumen for New Zealand. After passing through the Panama Canal the vessel proceeded to Papeete. ' i • Captain L., Mack is in charge of the Argus and has associated with him Mr. T. Curtis as chief officer, Mr. W. Vent, chief engineer, Mr. Douglas, assistant engineer, and a crew of four seamen and a cook. The Argus was built in Foxhal, Holland, in 1928. She is a steel vessel 137 ft. long, 26ft. beam and lift, deep, and is o£ 430 tons. gross and 270 tons net register. The propelling machinery consists of a benzine motor engine of 250 horse-power, which .drives the vessel at a speed of from eight to nine knots. She is fitted with electric light and- the latest submarine signalling device. The Argus has only one mast, with ft single derrick for working cargo, but it is the intention of the owners to instal another mast and extra cargo-working machinery.