JOURNEY’S END

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 277, 23 November 1945, Page 4

JOURNEY’S END

KAIONE AT BRISBANE GOOD TASMAN CROSSING Making a faster passage than was originally expected, the suction-hopper dredge Kaione arrived at Brisbane at 1.30 a.m. yesterday. She steamed 1400 miles across the Tasman Sea in nine days, less one hour, from wharf to wharf, a good performance for a vessel of her type. \ Advice of the Kaione’s arrival was received by cable yesterday by the chairman of the Wanganui Harbour Board, Mr. E. A. Millward. The vessel left Castlecliff at 2.30 a.m. on Tuesday of last week. Her new owners are the Queensland Lime and Cement Co., Ltd.

The dredge was expected to take 10 or 11 days for the passage, but encountered good weather practically all the way across the Tasman. ’She missed most of the high westerly winds experienced at Wanganui for several days after her departure. It was estimated that the dredge would average about five and a-haif knots, but radio advice received In Wanganui toward the end of last week advised that the vessel was steaming at an average of 7.3 knots. The Kaione carried a crew of 23, including several Wanganui men. She was under the command of Captain F. G. Taylor, deputy-harbourmaster at Wanganui. Two passengers were Colonel D. E. Evans, a Lloyd's surveyor and head of one of Australia’s major shipbuilding yards, and Mr. D. S. Geary, manager of the Queensland Lime and Cement Co., Ltd. They negotiated for the purchase of the vessel.

The Kaione will dredge coral In Moreton Bay at the mouth of the Brisbane River. She is expected to dredge, convey and discharge coral at the rate of 20,000 tons a month. The distance from the point of loading to that of discharge is 37 miles. It will be the first occasion on which a suction-hopper dredge has been used for this purpose.