RHODESIA: BRITISH-BUILT HYDROFOIL CRAFT ON WAY TO LAKE KARIBA AFTER EVADING BRITISH SANCTIONS BLOCKADE.

Record ID: 230671

  • Title: RHODESIA: BRITISH-BUILT HYDROFOIL CRAFT ON WAY TO LAKE KARIBA AFTER EVADING BRITISH SANCTIONS BLOCKADE.
  • Date: 18th April 1972
  • Summary: 1. GV Hydrofoil on trailer 0.05 2. SV PAN Name on side "Seaflight" 0.13 3. GV Trailer passing camera (2 shots) 0.32 4. SV Police car PAN TO trailer 0.44 5. SV TILT DOWN TO Hydrofoil. 0.48 6. SV TILT DOWN FROM Vessel to police 0.53 7. SV Hydrofoil slowly approaches telephone wires 1.01 8. SV Poles being used to lift wires (2 shots) 1.11 9. SV Other wires being lift over antenna 1.15 10. SV & LV Lorry guided forward slowly (2 shots) 1.22 11. SV PAN Hydrofoil passing and away 1.44 Initials BB/1200 GR/PW/BB/1320 Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 3rd May 1972 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: SALISBURY, RHODESIA
  • Country: Zimbabwe
  • Reuters ID: LVA7ZHQHKTHMNPUDQUAOHUDZVHRG
  • Story Text: A British-built hydrofoil craft, nicknamed the 'blockade-buster' in Rhodesian newspapers, on its massive transporter wound through the streets of Salisbury on Tuesday (18 April) on its way from the Mozambique port of Seira.

    It had earlier been carried through the blockade of British shops and aircraft responsible for enforcing the United Nations trade sanctions against Rhodesia.

    The size and weight of the hydrofoil's transporter resulted in many ???itches on the route from Beira to Lake Kariba, where it will be used as a pleasure-craft. It had left Beira on Tuesday (18 April), and was due to be unloaded at the Victoria Falls end of Lake Kariba on Wednesday night. British consular officials present at the unloading of the craft in Beira made no effort to prevent the craft coming ashore.

    It was stated in the British House of Commons on Thursday (20 April) chat only one interception so far had been made this year by the British patrol. On March 17th the Portuguese tanker Sao Mamede was turned back from Beira. However it was also claimed that the patrol had achieved its primary objective of stopping the flow of oil through Mozambique to Rhodesia.

    SYNOPSIS: On Tuesday a transporter laden with a hydrofoil craft moved slowly through the streets of Salisbury. To the people of Rhodesia the craft was more than just an unusual sight. For this hydrofoil was built in Britain, and only the day before it had arrived at the Mozambique port of Beira after the ship carrying it had slipped through the British Beira Patrol. The patrol of British warships and aircraft is responsible for enforcing the United Nations sanctions against trading with Rhodesia--trading such as this hydrofoil. So far this year the British patrol has stopped only one ship--a Portuguese tanker carrying oil to Beira. But it has stopped the flow of oil through Mozambique to Rhodesia.

    The blockade was only the first of the hydrofoil's many obstructions in its long journey. The size of the craft and its transport ???ually set problems of the crew.

    Telephone wires were a constant hazard. On one occasion only ten miles from the Rhodesian border the whole hydrofoil had to be lifted off the transporter and transferred to rollers to get it under a low bridge. On another a new road had to be bulldozed through the bush to get round a low railway bridge. After leaving Salisbury, the hydrofoil will go to Lake Kariba, where it will be used as a pleasure-craft.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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