Amphibious Landing

Of Honiara Power Plant

From Our Own Correspondent

Honiara, Bsi, July 30.

THE July Malaita brought the third of the new engines for the Honiara power-house. Al though all three engines have now been delivered, the second and third alternators have not arrived, and the electricity supply of Honiara is still dependent upon the first engine which was installed last year.

The two cases containing the engine bed and cylinder block of the engine that arrived by the Malaita weigh five tons each, and as the only means of unloading them was to use the Bomb Disposal Unit’s landing craft, considerable difficulty was experienced. There was no crane available capable of lifting the weight, and a bulldozer had to be used to skid the heavy cases off the landing craft.

Unfortaunately the load on the LCM caused the front landing ramp to lean and the vessel being vee bottomed could not be hauled up on the beach and therefore filled with water. It was pumped out suf ficiently to allow it to be anchored

against the jetty at Point Cruz, but here intervened one of those things that happen in the Solomons; The crowd of native fishermen on the jetty decided that the barge would be an ideal place from which to fish and the weight of the fisher men, all on one side, plus the water already in the barge, made the barge sink for the second time.

The crates were retrieved by the use of the bulldozer and sustained little damage. An overhaul of the barge engine was necessary.

H Frank McNulty, who helped to sail Wanderer II from England to Tahiti, arrived in Sydney in June on the MM liner Tahitien.