MYSTERY DERELICT

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 547, 27 December 1928, Page 12

MYSTERY DERELICT

STRUCK TWICE BY SHIPS SIGHTED FOUR TIMES Officers on inter-State snips trading between Melbourne, Adelaide and Fremantle are perturbed at the inactivity of the authorities in investigating a mysterious object that has been reported by ships tour times since 1925, and which had been struck twice. A fortnight ago the s.s. Australia struck a submerged object and severely damaged her propeller. The vessel is still undergoing repairs at Adelaide. There has been a slight variation in the reports of the position of the derelict, and experienced officers say that it is drifting in a small circle. Unless it is located and destroyed they fear a disaster. T&e four occasions on which the derelict has been sighted are: On March 31, 1925, the Katoomba sent a wireless message to the Navigation Department that she had sighted a derelict in Lat. 35.30 S., Long. 122-3* E. On January 29 last the Cymeric. in Lat. 35.5 S„ Long. 129.55 E., sightefl an object which she believed to be a small iceberg. In almost the same position on July 23 last the Dimbooia struck an unknown object. The overseas freighter Australia, on Novemne 19, struck a submerged object in La 35.22 S„ Long. 127.44 E. Search Hopeless The position of the object is Esperance, in the Australian Bign. and is right on the shipping r ? ut f: The Deputy-Director of NavigaU (Captain Davis), when asked about the matter, said there was no cau for alarm. . _ “For us to send out and search __ it would be hopeless,” be said, all probability the objects rel> °, r have just been some floating cargo, or trees, brought on the sn v ping route by the westward drift. “There are always some object floating about at sea, and all that be done is for ma iters to keep a , lookout. Even then they t seen. If a ship strikes a tree, it is going to stop to pick it up. ™ jects reported were certainly on steamer route, but they were LL taken there by the currents and soon drift away.” _