CRUISE OF STRATHAIRD

Taranaki Daily News, 26 November 1934, Page 7

CRUISE OF STRATHAIRD

DIFFICULTY AT AUCKLAND BERTHING OCCUPIES TWO HOURS. WHARF DAMAGED ON DEPARTURE. VISITORS TOUR NORTH ISLAND. By Telegraph—Press Association. Auckland, Last Night. The liner Strathaird, of 22,284 tons, left Auckland for Wellington at midnight on Saturday. During the ship’s stay of a day and a half in port 800 tourists were busily engaged sightseeing in the city and further afield. One large party made a day trip to Rotorua, rejoining the liner at Auckland, while others engaged on a rush North Island tour, including calls at Rotorua, Tongariro, National Park, Waitomo and Wanganui, and will reconnect with the Strathaird at Wellington tomorrow. In view of the difficulty in berthing the liner at Princes Wharf on Friday special care was exercised in taking the ship into the stream last night. The liner was berthed with the bow to the mainland after nearly two hours had been spent in trying to bring her in stem first to facilitate departure.

As the vessel backed out in the stream the starboard side of the hull grazed along the fender piles, which acted as a buffer at the corner of the wharf, where the fender piles were three deep. The Strathaird pressed with her whole weight and forced the piles out of position, dragging them away from the chain fastenings to the wharf and breaking off the top of one pile. Portion of another pile was scraped away and a thick bolt was bent where it caught projections from the liner's, hull, ....... The delicate task of berthing the Straithaird, the largest passenger vessel to visit Auckland, occupied two hours on Friday, imposing on passengers anxious to make the fullest use of their restricted period in port a vexatious wait, and evoking from, some of them ironical cheers as the liner at last drew alongside the wharf. Expert opinion was later expressed that the protracted incident emphasised the necessity for at least two tugs being available to assist in the berthing of large vessels. The Auckland Harbour Board has only one tug. A contributing cause to the delay ■ was the fact that the Straithaird had propellers which, it was stated, made it more difficult to manoeuvre the liner into position for berthing. There was never arty question about the depth of water being sufficient. Three times the vessel approached the wharf, but attempts to berth her stern first failed on each occasion. Once it appeared likely that the vessel’s stern would bump against the wharf, but she was checked in time and swung past the end. Little difficulty was encountered when it was decided to berth the vessel in the ordinary way. She proceeded head in to the basin and dropped her port anchor. Then with the aid of a tug and mooring lines run out from the starboard side to the wharf the linei- was slowly edged into the wharf, coming alongside without causing a tremor. Four tugs are customarily used at Sydney for the handling of vessels of the Straithaird’s size.