New Wrc Line

10,000-Tons Ships on a Round-the- Pacific Schedule

WITH two 10,000-tons ships recently acquired, and with two others soon to be taken over, Messrs. W. R. Car penter & Co. Ltd. have inaugurated a new trans-Pacific shipping service, run ning between Western Canada, the South Pacific and the Orient.

The ships are the Rabaul (which takes the place of the freighter Rabaul. sunk in the war) and the Lautoka. They each carry 12 passengers.

The vessels are to leave Vancouver and other Canadian ports at regular in tervals (every two months, in the begin ning) and run to Fiji, New Zealand and Australian ports, as required. Thence they will go to Eastern Asiatic ports; and they will return to Canada via the Philippines. Their main cargo will be copra.

Carpenter establishments now include copra crushing mills in Canada; a large processing mill in Walu Bay, Suva; and a dessicated coconut factory at Madang (now under construction on an island near Madang) and it is apparent that the shipping line will run in connection therewith.

The company’s once flourishing dessi cated coconut and coir fibre factory at Pondo (north coast of New Britain) was completely destroyed in the war, and no salvage or rehabilitation has been attempted. The manager, Mr. Evensen, and his assistant, Mr. Korn, lost their lives.

Inaugurating the new service, the Rabaul was expected to sail from Van couver for Suva in mid-October. The Lautoka should follow in December.

The WRC Line was originally estab lished in the middle thirties with three ships, the Rabaul. the Salamaua and the Suva, and they gave useful freight ser vice for some years. The re-established WRC Line will employ bigger ships on a regular schedule.