DELAY TO LINER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22777, 10 July 1937, Page 14

DELAY TO LINER

REMOVAL OF CRANES

DANGER OF TIDE RIP DEPARTURE OF MARIPOSA When two electric cranes were moved tho length of the ship as a precautionary measure hundreds of streamers joining passengers on the Matson liner Mariposa with friends 011 King's Wharf last night were piled into torn and twisted bundles. The removal of the cranes delayed the departure of the liner for Sydney by about 45 minutes. The Mariposa carried her record number of passengers between Auckland and Sydney and large numbers wero present on King's Wharf to farewell the ship, the majority waiting until her lines were cast off. An exceptionally h«gh tide, which ebbed in a rip off the end of tho wharf, presented a danger that the flaring bows of the Mariposa might strike the cranes. As the cranes could not be moved from the end of the wharf —opposite the after hatches of the liner—until the gangways wero cleared, a delay resulted. They were finally moved to a point forward of the ship's bows. As the Mariposa moved astern into the stream the effect of the rip was plainly evident, her bows swinging quickly downstream as tugs held her secure aft.