New Inter-Island Ship For French Oceania

From Our Own Correspondent

Papeete, Apr. 20.

rIS photograph shows the handsome twin-screw passenger and cargo ves sel, “Hiro” (formerly called the “Memory”), acquired in the U.S.A. by Mr. Lewis Hershon for inter-island ser vice between Tahiti and the Leeward Islands (Huahine, Ra’iatea and Pora Pora). She is seen lying beside the Pa peete wharf. The island of Moorea is seen in the distance.

Hitherto, voyages to and from the Lee ward Islands have been expeditions of adventure and tribulation. The ancient power-schooners are essentially carriers of merchandise.

Passengers daring enough to essay the voyage, dispose themselves as best they may, in the interstices of piled-up deck cargo, and pray fervently for propitious weather. If their prayers are not heard, they undergo the perils and thrills en joyed by early Polynesian navigators, and arrive at their destination wet, dis hevelled and exhausted.

Mr. Hershon’s boat proved its sea worthiness, while sailing down the Cali fornian Coast, when it weathered one of the worst storms of this year of formid able tempests in those waters.

The passenger accommodations offer everything that could be expected, and the traveller can now be assured of a safe, comfortable and speedy voyage. The vessel has been registered under the flag of France and has been re-christened with a Polynesian name, “Hiro”, after a famous Ra’iatea navigator who sailed these seas in the dawn of time.