CABLE REPAIRS.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 385, 17 March 1937, Page 6

CABLE REPAIRS.

Recorder Reaches Auckland. Press Association—Copyright. Auckland, March 16. Looking trim and smart after a complete overhaul recently at Hong Kong, the Cable and Wireless Ltd. steamer Recorder returned-to Auckland after an absence of eight and a half months, and anchored near the naval base. Apart from the three months the spent in do.cik, she has been very busily engaged on her work of cable repair. After a week at Auckland she will leave again to -give needed attention, to the cable between Auckland and Sydney. The Recorder, which was for many years known as the Iris, left Auckland on June 30 of last year for Norfolk lisland, in ftjlie neiighbourhood of which she effected several cable repairs. Having coaled at Sydney, she went to Singapore, stopping to make repairs off Poit Darwin on the way. With Singapore as a base the Recorder was kept very busy on cable lines between Penapg, Singapore and Ratiavia, until on November 7 she went off to the Taikoo dockyards, at Hong Kong for an extensive overhaul

and special survey that occupied about three months. The Recorder was lying alongside the dock and work had only just started upon her when a fire broke Out in the fcrehold that occasioned loss of lif 5 and for a time threatened serious damage to the ship. The outbreak was first discovered about 6 p.m., and it was not until the next morning that it was subdued. A fire brigade on the deck side poured in water, and the vessel’s main engines pumped through the ballast tanks uti til the hold yras flooded. When the fight was over it was discovered that a Chinese coolie of the ship’s company, about 17 years of age, had been overcome with the fumes and had Ijso his life. He had apparently been working in the bold when the outbreak occurred. The cause ol' the outbreak was not discovered, but fortunately the damage proved com ! paratively easy to repair. i On returning to Singapore from i Hong Kong the Recorder received ori ders' to return to Ne w Zealand.