Saturday, March 3, 1973
DANGEROUS GOODS ANCHORAGE TO BE REOPENED
The Western Dangerous Goods Anchorage, which was closed on
February 20 after a number of cases of explosives were accidentally
dropped in the area, will be reopened from noon next Tuesday (March 6).
In reaching this decision, the Director of Marine said he had
considered all aspects of the situation.
"Since the accident occurred," he said, "research has been
undertaken to ascertain as far as possible the spot where the explosivos fell
into the water."
The buoyancy factors relating to the cases, possible directions in
which the explosives might have drifted before settling on the seabed and
the nature of the seabed itself had all been taken into account, he added.
The operations on these aspects were carried out by Marine Department
officers and a Royal Navy diving team.
After four days of diving and searching the seabed, no cases were
found but the Director said he was confident "the cases had lost buoyancy and
sunk into those parts of the seabed where soft mud was present."
Practical tests carried out by officers of the Mines Department had
shown that it would take explosives in similar cases not more than 14 days to
become ineffective, he said.
The Director expressed his thanks to all those involved in the exercise.
In particular, he thanked the Commodore, Hong Kong, for offering the
services of naval divers from H.M.S. Tamar and HMS Mohawk. He also thanked
the divers themselves for their unstinted efforts.
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