"Makambo"

Salving Of The

"Only Japanese Could Have Done It"

WELL, the Japanese stole a march on you, when they picked up the old ‘Makambo’ for a few shillings in Port Vila and took her to Japan,” said a Sydney friend to Mr. Nicholas Hagen, merchant and shipowner of Noumea, who arrived in Sydney the other day.

“They claim that she now is worth £50,000.”

Mr. Hagen laughed. “Only the Japanese could have done it”, he said.

“That surely is a compliment to the Japanese,” said the Sydney man.

“Not at all,” said Mr. Hagen. “You are only repeating some of the silly things that have been said in Sydney.

Do you not realise that neither French nor British people would have been al lowed to sail that boat out of Vila. Any French or British maritime authority would have declared her unseaworthy, and would not have allowed a crew to have taken her into deep water. But the Japanese were not under any such authority—if they chose to sail her out into the open sea, and risk the eminent danger of her sinking, that was their own concern.

“They took the risk, and they got her home to Japan—so good luck to them!

But it was a very real risk that they took. You could have stuck a cigarette through the bottom of the old steamer at almost any point below water level.” (See article, Page 43.)