Apia Harbour

Blasting Coral From Apia Harbour Dangerous Job Performed

By NZ Navy Men

THANKS to the efforts of three petty officers of the RNZN, the channels leading to Apia Harbour, Western Samoa, have now been made reasonably safe for shipping. Encroaching coral growths threatened to block some of the channels altogether.

The three men, Chief Petty-Officers De L. A. Graham-Cameron, and D. W. Bell and Petty-Ofiicer J. H. Kane, did most of their underwater work with only div ing goggles for equipment. The first depth charges were ignited by cable but it was found that the connection was continually being cut by the jagged coral.

Thereafter the best spots were selected by diving and reconnoitring and then the charges, with a waterproof safety fuse already lit, were dropped on the selected position from above.

Misfired fuses were the most exciting part of the business. These could not be ignored, and it was the unhappy task of one of the officers to dive down to inspect the faulty explosive, remove it or insert a new fuse in it, and then escape to a waiting dinghy. Sharks, poisonous coral and tumbling surf added to the hazards of the operations, Samoans were impressed by the spectacular demolitions. Somehow, the story got abroad that the Navy men were to make entrances to every lagoon village in a similar fashion, and they were re ceived everywhere with expressions of honour —even to the extent, so the story goes, of one petty-officer being given a Samoan title which translated means “Chief Blasting Harbours.”