LINERS VISIT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 84, Issue 85, 12 April 1940, Page 10

LINERS VISIT

SYDNEY EXPECTATIONS I PREPARATIONS IN HAND BERTH FOR QUEEN MARY. SYDNEY, April 1. It is believed on the waterfront that : the Cunard-White Star liners, Queen • Mary and Mauretania, are on their way to Sydney. This view is strengthened by the fact that the most extensive dredging operations for years will start next : week. The Mauretania, it is said, will arrive first, followed about a week later by the Queen Mary, which will have to take the longer sea route because her great .size will prevent her from using the Panama Canal. Dredge Working Continuously. For some time, a dredge has been working continuously in Woolloomooioo Bay, off the wharves which are regarded as the only ones in Sydney ■ harbour capable of accommodating these great liners. It was alongside one of these wharves that the 42,000-ton liner, Empress of Britain, berthed when she ; visited Sydney on her world cruise in i April, 1938. £ A note to mariners, published today, states that the western channel is to be closed to shipping. Veterans in the port cannot recall similar action before. The public notice tells pilots and , masters that from 10 a.m. on Tuesday, the western channel will be closed until further notice, to all shipping except ferries and smaller harbour craft. Ferry steamers and the smaller craft that still will be allowed to use the western channel, must go dead ' slow when within a radius of 300 feet : of the dredge and when actually pass-1 i ing the dredge, the engines must be ' j stopped. Most Suitable Channel. • The western channel is more suit--1 able for a big liner than the eastern. It ; has greater width, and after a liner : enters the heads and turn to port into i : the channel, it has a long straight run ' as far as Bradley’s Head. The Empress of Britain used this ' channel on her visit to Sydney. She came straight into the port, dropped anchor in the channel for medic? 1 examination, and then continued along the channel to Bradley’s Head. Although she stirred up more mud ' than any other vessel had done as 1 she swung to go stern into the Woolloomooloo wharf, the manoeuvre was completed with ease.