More Ships For

Carpenter's

For Trans-Pacific Work

ON his arrival in Vancouver by the “Rabaul” on September 8, Sir Walter Carpenter, founder of the W. R. Carpenter group of companies, re ported that he had purchased two British ships of 10,000-tons for the Car penter Trans-Pacific service. They are the “Spurn Point” and “Dungeness”; they were built during the war, and have just been released by the Admiralty.

They will be re-fitted in Canada at a cost of about £300,000 (Australian).

Two groups of Carpenter ships are now running, mostly in the Pacific, to fairly regular schedules.

The “Suva” (9,100 tons), “Salamaua” (9 300 tons), “Nadi” (7,000 tons) and “Chase” (5,000 tons) are owned by W. R.

Carpenter (Oversea Shipping) Ltd., which is closely allied with the main Carpenter Company (W. R. Carpenter & Co., Ltd.).

The “Lautoka” and “Rabaul” (both modern motor ships of 10,000 tons) are owned by W. R. Carpenter & Co. (Canada) Ltd., which is quite separate from the main Carpenter group of com panies—the only connection being that Sir Walter Carpenter is a member of it.

Sir Walter’s Canadian Company now con trols an important copra-crushing indus try, which draws a large proportion of its supplies from the Pacific Islands.

It is not known, at present to which company the two newly bought ships are to be attached: but it is expected that they will become units of W. R. Carpen ter (Overseas Shipping) Ltd. In any event, they will be known popularly as Carpenter ships, and they bring the total number of Carpenter ships to eight.

W. R. Carpenter & Co., Ltd. first en tered into the shioowning business in 1943, when they purchased the two motor ships, “Salamaua” (6,754 tons) and the “Rabaul” (5,600 tons). By 1939, the fleet had changed to the “Suva” (a steamer of 9,000 tons), and the motor vessels “Rabaul” and “Salamaua”, each of 9,000 tons. Some of these ships were lost in the war, but were quickly replaced.