COASTAL SURVEY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23205, 1 June 1937, Page 10

COASTAL SURVEY

COMMENCEMENT SHORTLY ADMIRALTY SURVEY SHIP PROTRACTED NATURE OF WORK (Special to Daily Times) AUCKLAND, May 31. The long-awaited survey and charting of the New Zealand coast line will be commenced in the near future by the Admiralty survey ship Endeavour, which is expected to arrive at Auckland about the middle of the month. The Endeavour, which is commanded by Captain Wyatt, R.N., left England at the end of February, and is at present at Newcastle, Australia. She is due to leave for the Dominion shortly, and at least for the earlier part of her protracted stay in New Zealand waters she will have her base at Auckland. Master mariners and other experts have held for years that a new survey of the Dominion’s coastline is long overdue. The Marine Department has concurred in this view, but specially-equipped ships are required for the work, which is of a highly specialised and technical nature. As a result, it was necessary to wait until one of the Admiralty survey ships was available. Under an arrangement made by .the New Zealand Government with the Admiralty, the British Government will provide the Endeavour complete and will bear all expenses in connection with the pay and maintenance . of the officers and ratings, leaving the Dominion authorities to provide the fuel and the cost of the docking and refitting. The New Zealand Government has already expressed its appreciation of the very generous manner in which Great Britain has met the needs of the Dominion in a matter of great importance to a maritime country. The complete survey of the New Zealand coastline and outlying islands is expected to take five years or longer. Much, of course, depends on the conditions encountered on the surveys. The Endeavour is a ship of 1280 tons, built on lines somewhat similar to those of the cable steamer Recorder. She was first commissioned in 1912, and has been engaged exclusively on hydrographic duties. She carries a complement of 139. The general procedure followed by the Admiralty survey vessels is to put to sea in the early spring and to remain at sea almost continuously for about eight months, returning to port at short intervals for the purpose of refueling, taking on supplies and granting leave to the ratings. During the winter months the survey ship returns to her base, where her expert officers prepare detailed information from the data obtained on the surveys, and also work on new charts of the coastline, which are subsequently issued through the Admiralty. In all probability the Endeavour s first task after her arrival in New Zealand will be to undertake a complete survey of the Hauraki Gulf and the approaches to Auckland. Later on during hev stay in New Zealand she may use southern ports as bases for her operations.