News Of The Small-Ships

Replacing Southern

Cross Vii

From London in November the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr.

Fisher, launched an appeal for £lOO,OOO to replace the nineteen year-old ship Southern Cross VII.

The first Southern Cross was launched in 1855, though the Mission has had ships in the field since 1849.

No details of the type dimensions of the planned vessel! available yet.

Houses North, Huts Soi

The New Hebrides Shippinj Trading Co’s. Vila Star arrivec Auckland from Santo in i November with 30 former Amen Quonset huts on board. She taken north a cargo of pre-fab he of Czechoslovak origin for Nou from New Zealand—trans-shij from another vessel.

Vila Star also had a quantity non-ferrous scrap abroad on south-bound passage.

Skipper For Maureen

Elsewhere we have reported arrival of the yacht Forerunner 1 at Auckland after a six-moi Island cruise.

In mid-November it was repc that Mr. Gerry Douglas, part o\ of Forerunner, had been appoi master of the WPHC’s 60-fc Maureen, lately in Suva on refit soon to return to her normal di in the Gilberts.

Mr. Douglas, a Scot, and a foi deck officer of the Blue Funnel I left Auckland for Suva by TEAI November 15, to take over his command.

Mr. Willie Schutz, well-knowi

Ibert Is. and Fiji, who was lorted to be master of Maureen ne time ago, has now transferred Kia Kia.

[Ngan Flag In Auckland

the Tongan Copra Board’s [foot auxiliary ketch A'oniu £ved in Auckland on November 5 [ was probably the first vessel hg the Tongan flag to arrive at a w Zealand port. The flag of the pgan merchant service—three- Irters red, with a red cross super |>osed on the white upper quarter L however, been seen in the past small craft which have been built Auckland for Tonga. i’oniu, built by Whippys of Suva mt 1947, was commanded by plain Carl Johnson, normally rbour Master at Nukualofa and ster of the Tongan Government sel Hifofua. Mr. David Fifita was te, and the 80-ton vessel carried prew of 13 including one stow- W )n the slip it is evident that miu was lucky to get off the apai reef on which she had

stranded some time ago. The 12-inch keel was pounded away right to its full depth in places, the hull had suffered relatively minor damage. A quantity of valuable cargo had to be jettisoned before the vessel came off six hours after stranding.

On the voyage to Auckland, A oniu had to be pumped every watch on the 6i-day run but arrived without incident. She should complete repairs by about Christmas.

When she returns Captain Johnson will be in command but a new master will also be aboard and will take over on arrival in Tongan waters.

Isa Lei In Service

xhe f orm er Marine Products freezer vessel Isa Lei, now converted to her new duties as a RNZN fleet auxiliary, has been commissioned as an ammU nition carrier.

Captain D. K. Matheson of Auck land, former master of Rawhiti and Tagua, who joined the vessel as Chief Officer when she departed from Suva some time agoj has now been appointed Master.

Long Way Home In

Wanderer Ii

Sydney yachtsmen Frank McNulty and Bill Howell were in Tahiti in

[?]hief Engineer D. Cameron and Captain [?] Duff of VILA STAR. [?] ILA STAR at Auckland. [?]aptain R. D. Matheson, of Auckland, [?] take VILA STAR to Biak while [?]tain Duff is on leave.

'ember on the way home in iderer II from London and ex ed to be there until early in the [year. To raise funds they are jging in shark fishing, he cruise so far has taken 14 jlhs; they arrived in Papeete e. cNulty is a journalist and ell a dentist. They decided to e the trip back to Australia three years in the UK because I were fed up with the English her. Wanderer 11, a gaff-rigged ir, is the smallest boat to have ;ed the Atlantic.

Eresting Court Action,

r. M. Georgetti’s small trading il Loma, which left Auckland to : in the Solomons a year ago, the subject of an interesting NZ erne Court action in late ;mber. ickland ship-broker Andrew )van claimed £415 commission the previous owners of the 1, whom he alleged had given the selling agency. Georgetti first contacted him, then had to the former owners, Messrs, ss and Ure, who had sold Loma tn directly. Donovan claimed the :y fee on whatever price had Jly been paid for the boat.

Fatima In Rabaul

August and Felix Chan, of Rabaul, New Guinea, have recently taken de livery of auxiliary ketch Fatima (26 tons, 45 ft long). She cost £9,000 to build in the Brisbane shipyard of

C. A. Cowley and she was brought to Rabaul by Captain Max Stanton.

Fatima will be used mostly to carry stores and equipment from Rabaul to the Chan plantations on New Ire land.

Medical Patrol Vessels

The Lepers’ Trust Board of NZ has approved the expenditure of about £50,000 on four small vessels for use in ths New Hebrides and Solomons and the plans are still

being drawn up. When ready they will be submitted to medical authorities in the Islands for com ment. Contracts will be let in New Zealand for the building of the small craft, each of which will cost between £12,000 and £15,000.

They will be operated by Island missions of various denominations already engaged in leper treatment.

Auxiliary ketch Fatima in Rabaul Harbour.

White Heron In Tahiti

The luxury motor-sailer White Heron arrived in Papeete on October 1 with Captain Peter Barber in command, having come from New York via Panama and the Galapagos, The owners of the White Heron are Mr. and Mrs. Richard J.

Reynolds who, through pressure of affairs, sent their yacht ahead of them and arrived here by TEAL on October 29.

In November they were visiting the Leeward Islands. They will leave Tahiti at the end of November bv air for the US and England where

another yacht is being built them.

Mr. Reynolds is a principal oft tobacco firm, R. J. Reym Company, manufacturer of “Camr

Visitors To Suwarrow

When Mr. Tdm Neale went the side of the Cook Islands tn Mahurangi, in October, to commr his lone existence as sole resident Suwarrow Island, he probably diet expect to see another human face a month or two.

The day following his am however, the Dutch yacht Om westbound for Holland, last Papeete, called in at the rarely viii atoll before heading for Apia. On cleared Tom’s accumulation of —one letter —which duly arrives Rarotonga some time later.

News Of Some Cruising

Yachts

Two yachts that will be well I membered in the Eastern Pacific are; lying in New Zealand ports and for sale. Mr. P. Fisk’s 36-foot DEBONAIR is in Tanranga. The family arrived there two years ago ha tarried for some time in Papeete en i from England. Mr. Fisk is now an / ployee of the Tanranga Harbour B»3 At Whangarei Ronald and Donald I

still living aboard AXELLE pending osal, though working ashore and in ling tc remain in New Zealand. They e from England, arriving in Whan f last summer. tptain J. Arnott’s KIMBALLA, on the t in an Auckland boat yard, has also I yet changed hands, though Capt. >tt is now a ship-master in Fiji irs. * * * ORNOWAY, Alfred Petersen’s stout 33-foot double-ender which passed

through the Islands west-bound round the world in 1948-4.9, arrived home at Brooklyn, NY, recently.

Stornoway narrowly escaped the fate of ALK when, in the Red Sea she went on a reef. She was salvaged, but while Petersen was away seeking assistance Arabs looted the cutter of all valuables, including navigational instruments.

Terry Hammond, Auckland yachtsman, radio operator and amateur navigator, late in November was off to sea again, this time as skipper of the Brisbane motor sailer COONGOOLA bound for Europe via Suez.

Hammond has been seen in the Islands on a number of occasions—first as skipper of the Auckland yacht MANDALAY which

[?] Tongan Copra Board’s auxiliary [?] A’oniu. [?]t. Carl Johnson and Mate David [?]. [?]e Seabird-type yawl Forerunner [?]oned last month. [?]erunner’s owners Denny Wing and [?] Gerry Douglas. Capt. Douglas has [?] joined the WPHC’s Maureen at

t delivered to a mission in the Solomons [ 1948, then, in 1949-50 as navigator of URREWA 111 on her trans-Pacific >yage from Sydney to take part in the ans-Pacific yacht classic from Sain rancisco to Honolulu. He has also ken part in many trans-Tasman races.

Coongoola will probably circum ivigate the world and should be seen ong the usual Pacific yacht route entually.

Hammond abandoned medical studies at rdney University to answer the present 11. ■* * * The Mangonui, NZ, 38-foot sloop ANU MOANA met rough weather on the ime run from Suva early November, raer W. S. Holder suffering a broken 1) and one of his volunteer crew, mneth Rowe, was exhausted with acute il-de-mer when the 3-months’ cruise ded November 10, 13 days out of Suva.

Mr. Holder has been besieged with lunteers for the voyage and chose Bob irruhn, formerly of the Gilberts, John snnedy of Mackay, Qld., and Rowe— e latter a marine engineer but unused small-craft.

N'Z newspapers took considerable joy Mr. Rowe’s condition on arrival—but ! know of many cases of men with mble free years of experience in large ssels similarly succumbing to mal-de ;r in small vessels. * * * \ recent inquiry as to the fate of Allan rell’s 36-foot staysail schooner W T IND )NG draws attention to the fact that r end was not reported in PIM at the

time.

Farell, a Canadian, had disposed of the vessel at Suva, to Mr. Martin, a local yachtsman, and the vessel was moored in the creek at Walu Bay and was reportedly again for sale, when the hurricane struck early this year. The vessel was a write-off when the wind ceased blowing. It had been built by Alan Farell and his wife at Vancouver between 1944 and 1948. The vessel was in the Eastern Pacific last year. ♦ * * Warrant Officer Gordon Kells’ 32-foot sloop TEMPTRESS arrived at Suva on November 13 from Auckland after a 13day passage during which indifferent weather conditions were experienced.

It was not possible for the RNZAF to carry out the radar experiments which

were to be made in conjunction with a special reflector which the sloop was carrying. (See PIM November). ♦ * * American yachtsman Pieben Kauffman, owner of L’HIRONDELLE, caused a sen sation last year as he cruised down through French Oceania, Rarotonga, Tonga and Fiji with his long hair and beard. We now learn from Tonga that Mr. Kauffman’s yacht is for sale and that he has taken a temporary appoint ment with the Tongan Public W’orks Department as a civil engineer. It is also understood that, at the end of this six-months’ appointment Mr. Kauffman plans, with the permission of the Tongan Government, to settle alone on un inhabited Hunga Tonga, north-west of Tongatabu. (Next Page.)

CHIQUITA, whose progress from Aim land towards the US we have report from month to month, arrived at S 3 Pedro early November. The 2,800-mi run from Honolulu was made in 23 dac Some bad weather was experienced. * * i The Auckland ketch WAKAYA w having a bad-weather passage frn Tonga in November. It left Nukual*!

November 6 and with fair weather mig have been in Auckland 10 days latd however, on November 22 the master the USS Co’s. TOFUA, en route frr Auckland to Suva, radioed that he hi sighted WAKAYA and supplied the cm with some stores—position then 500 m 2 north of Auckland. Mr. Teddy Hay reported all well on board.

Bad weather and persistent head win had still prevented WAKAYA from ma ing port by end of the month.