FAIRCHILD BUOY DAMAGED

Southland Times, Issue 24027, 18 January 1940, Page 6

FAIRCHILD BUOY DAMAGED

ACCIDENT ON WHARF AT BLUFF EXPLOSION OCCURS DURING REPAIR WORK While electric welding operations were being carried out on the Fairchild Rock buoy at Bluff about 3 o’clock yesterday afternoon a violent explosion occurred and slight damage was done to the structure of the buoy. The explosion was loud enough to be heard all over the town and it was violent enough to shake all the buildings in the business area of the Port. The cause of the explosion and the extent of the actual damage are not yet known. No one was injured. So severe was the explosion that the windows of the Ozone Oyster Canneries, about 20 yards from the buoy, were cracked and in the office every article was dislodged from the shelves. A distinct tremor was felt by persons in the main street, and hotels and other buildings were shaken. The Fairchild Rock buoy has been on the ferry wharf for the past few months while undergoing an extensive overhaul. It was brought to Bluff by the board’s tug Awarua after it broke away from its moorings recently. The ends of the buoy were slightly distorted and a piece of the steel plating about two feet in diameter forming the collar surrounding the sounding apparatus which passes through the buoy was torn away. PREVIOUS ACCIDENT

The Bluff Harbour Board has been unfortunate with its new buoy, this being the second accident which has occurred since it was first installed less than a year ago. On September 15 the buoy broke away from its moorings in Foveaux Strait and drifted about 35 miles from the Fairchild Rock before it was recovered by the board’s staff more than 24 hours later after an all-night search by the tug Awarua. Excellent seamanship was displayed by the men who attached the beacon to the tug, working in a small rowing boat in a heavy sea. A second search had to be made some time later for a concrete block, weighing five tons, and a length of cable which had been lost when the buoy broke away and this was recovered at the first attempt. The buoy, a lighted and whistling beacon, weighs 10 tons. It was being repaired when the accident occurred yesterday.