PROLONGED JOB

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26559, 6 September 1947, Page 6

PROLONGED JOB

REPAIRS TO VESSEL FOUR MONTHS IN DOCK Almost five months have passed since the motor ship Sheaf Mount arrived at Ravensbourne to unload cargo from Morocco. Four months of that period have been spent in the. Port Chalmers dry dock, which she entered on May 9. Various factors have been responsible for such a long repair job, which, under normal circumstances, might have been completed in a matter of weeks. The main reason has been the acute shortage of labour particularly boilermakers —obtaining at the present time. The Sheaf Mount is at present scheduled to sail from Port Chalmers on September 16 for Australia, to load for India. It is possible, however, that the. ship's sailing might be delayed still further. Work on the Sheaf Mount has entailed the renewal of many thousands of rivets in the null. On her last voyage to the United Kingdom from Vancouver, heavy seas loosened the rivets and the Diesel tanks were affected. A further trip out from the United Kingdom made things worse, and the ship was docked here after completing discharge of her Morocco cargo. The Sheaf Mount is a new ship belonging to W. A. Souter Co.’s merchant fleet. She was built at Burntisland in 1944. . In common with other shipping owners, the Sheaf Steam Ship Company suffered heavy losses in the war, and the Sheaf Mount is one of the newest ships in the line. Her enforced inactivity at Port Chalmers will mean considerable financial loss to the owners. , . , Besides the work being done on the hull of the ship by dock workers, the crew has been busy brightening up the vessel's appearance with coats or paint. Officers and men have been afforded ample, opportunity to become acquainted with Port Chalmers and Dunedin. Two of the crew have made use of their ships long stay in a strange port by playing regularly for one of the Soccer clubs in the Saturday competition. The docking programmes of several vessels have been upset by the length of the Sheaf Mount’s stay. It is yet uncertain whether the intercolonial trader Karetu. which is at the Union Company's wharf at Port Chalmers undergoing survey, will go into tne main dock when the Sheaf Mount is completed.