Hagen Family As

Shipbuilders

A CERTAIN amount of desultory ship building has always been carried on in Noumea, New Caledonia, and the death of Mr. “Tibby” Hagen, recalls the long period that the Hagen family has been engaged in the shipping trade.

It was the Hagen family which owned and built the first Noumea-built steam ship, at the Evans shipyard.

The ship was named the “Cagou,” after the island’s most notable bird, which also figures on one or two of the Colony’s postage stamp issues.

She was launched on October 6, 1884, by the wife of Governor Le Boucher.

The year before, another Hagen vessel, the ketch “Ouvea,” with Captain Holbein and a native crew, was wrecked on the cresent-shaped reef at Ounia, on the way from Noumea to the Loyalty Islands. She also had been built in Noumea by Mr.

Evans. The South British Insurance Co. bought the wreck, and the goods on board,

for 25,000 francs.-

H.E.L.P.