DELAY TO STEAMER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23033, 10 May 1938, Page 10

DELAY TO STEAMER

DUTCH SHIP WITH SUGAR CHELSEA BERTH OCCUPIED The Dutch passenger and cargo steamer Swartenhondt will be delayed several days at Auckland because of the impossibility of obtaining a berth at Chelsea to discharge her cargo of sugar. The Swartenhondt, which is expected here to-morrow from Singapore* via Java and Port Moresby, will discharge her general cargo at a city wharf, but she will have to wait until Monday for the departure of tho British motor-ship Cedarbank for Sydney to allow her to move to Chelsea. The Cedarbank has been unloading sugar from Java at Chelsea since Thursday. As the Swartenhondt has a large quantity of sugar, it is likely that the difficulty will result in a delay of four or five days in her departure for Wellington, Sydney and Singapore. The Dutch service frequently brings sugar cargoes t*o Auckland and its ships have been singularly unfortunate on several occasions in clashing with the presence of another overseas ship occupying the Chelsea berth. As the vessels carry a fairly large number of passengers every attempt is made to secure despatch in unloading, but delays of this nature have proved to be inevitable. On one occasion the sugar was lightered from a citj- wharf, but the cargo carried by the Swartenhondt will be too large for such an arrangement to be practicable this time.