CABLE SHIP’S BUFFETING

Taranaki Daily News, 28 December 1929, Page 8

CABLE SHIP’S BUFFETING

IRIS HAS PROLONGED VOYAGE GREAT SEAS SWEEP STEAMER. FIERCE STORMS IN TASMAN SEA. (By Wire —Special to News.) , Auckland, Last Night. Mountainous seas which washed the decks both fore and aft and gave the crew a particularly trying time were experienced by the cable repair ship Iris which returned to Auckland at 9.35 o’clock this morning after an absence from port of 15 days. The vessel, which has been repairing faults in what was formerly the Eastern Extension Telegraph Company’s cable at a point approximately 240 miles west of Wellington and 125 miles from Cape Farewell, received a severe buffeting. - The ship left Auckland on December 11 and arrived at the position of the fault two days later. A commencement was made with the repairs, the cable being picked up after two hours of grappling. During the course of operations the weather became dirty and it was found necessary to buoy the cable ends and to abandon the work until the weather moderated. High seas and northwesterly gales, however, prevailed till December 19 and the Iris, lying hove to, received the full intensity of the storms. When the weather improved thfe task of repairing the cable went ahead quickly, and the last of the 24 miles of new length was laid at 8 o’clock’ on Christmas morning. Except for twelve hours constant gales prevailed and the seas were enormous.

The crew was glad to be back in port after the unexpectedly long trip. One officer remarked that he had never seen seas to equal those encountered, while members of the crew said that for three whole days the waves broke over the vessel continually and seemed to meet midway between the bow am* stern.