NAURU PHOSPHATE SUPPLY

Taranaki Daily News, 16 January 1931, Page 12

NAURU PHOSPHATE SUPPLY

BETTER SHIPPING FACILITIES.

IMPROVED DEVICE AT. ISLAND.

The ' problem of shipping- phosphate at the exposed anchorage at Nauru Island lias been largely solved by the erection of a huge cantilever arm. The apparatus was constructed, by a Manchester firm, and is one of the most interesting harbour devices in the world. The equipment took three years to build and it was completed two months a "o.' ' , ' ’ ' •' The pecularities of Nawu necessitate the. laying of deep-sea moorings in about 200 fathoms of water. The island is practically a mountain top and its sides descend beneath the sea at an angle of about 45 degrees, making ordinary anchors and chains useless. There is no protection from the ocean swell except when the wind is off-shore. The only, method of shipping has been by lightering, and although launches, lighters and surf-boats have handled up to 2000'tons in a two-shift day, the svstem has required many hands and there has been ■ a loss of phosphate in shipping. The cantilever device has a huge forked end to permit loading in both fore and afte holds simultaneously- . ‘ Describing the new apparatus in the New Zealand Journal of Agriculture. Mr. A. F. Ellis, C.M.G.; New Zealand representative on the British Phosphate' Commission, says:— “Preparatory to shipment the phosphate is stored in the shore bin, having a capacity of 12,000 tons, and is removed from there by means of a. rubber belt conveyor running in a tunnel the full length of a bin, thence up an inclined gallery, discharging its load of 500 tons per hour at the compensating hopper half-way along the cantilever. At this point the stream of phosphate is divided, and. passes in galleries along the two swinging arms by two smaller conveyors. At the extreme end of each arm of. the cantilever, an extension boom can be run out, giving a further overhang. The conveyors discharge their load at the outer end of this extension boom, and the phosphate drops by a telescopic chute direct into the vessel’s holds.

“The entire plant is operated electrically, and is controlled from a small •cabin at the end of each arm. An operator sitting there can swing the arm out over the vessel as soon as she is moored in. position. With this facility of control, loading can be stopped instantly, the extension boom run back, the arms swung round toward the shore; and the vessel left clear for putting to sea in a very few minutes.”