MINE SWEEPER ARRIVES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3802, 25 January 1927, Page 34

MINE SWEEPER ARRIVES.

AUCKLAND, January 17. The mine-sweeping trawler Wakakura, which is the latest addition to the New Zealand Navy, arrived in port to-day after having been seven months at sea. On deck she is clean, and bears no evidence of her long jaunt, but one rather expects spick and spanness from the navy. As the craft was never built for a long sea voyage, her 1 accommodation is scant, and the stairways are all straight up and down like a ladder alongside a haystack. It may be imagined the trip was not altogether a pleasure cruise. Nothing resembling a refrigerating plant exists on a mine-sweeping trawler, so food was sometimes of tfie biscuit and bully type made so familiar during the war. Sad to relate, the rum gave out at San Diego, and as the ship touched at nothing but American ports after that the crew have their .own ideas about prohibition. An' order that gave obvious pleasure to the lower deck this morning, almost as soon as the little vessel tied up to the sheerlegs wharf at Calliope Dock, was to send a demijohn across to the Philomel for some of the navy nectar. On November 19, when the trawler was about halfway between San Diego and Honolulu, the circulating pump gave out. The engine room staff rigged an auxiliary pump, but the Wakakura could make no headway against the gale. She then accepted a tow from the American battleship Pittsburg, and was safely taken 1100 miles to Honolulu. Here repairs were effected, and the voyage to New Zealand was resumed. Lieutenant R. A. Macdonald is in command, his officers being Lieutenant E. W. Reep and Gunner W. A. R. Imrie. In charge of the engine room is Mr M. A. Hanson, who has with him three stoker petty officers, a leading stoker, and fourstokers, who might have been expected to say hard things about the kit of contraptions down in the engine room, • but they were very cheery about it this morning, and refused to revile the old craft. Coxswain A. Foster has a leading seaman and five seamen, and there is also a telegraphist, who • as in charge of the modest wireless outfit on the boat. The thing that puzzled a landsman this morning was where everyone stowed himself—not to mention the parrot and the cat. It was only after looking down at the very slim quarters that one realised why the companion ladders were all straght up and down. The Wakakura is fitted with all the latest gear for picking up enemy mines, and another part of her job is to tow targets for warships when at gun practice.