Mallships Of The Pacific

Hifofua For Survey

The Tongan Government vessel ifofua was bound for Auckland for ydocking and survey, late March. ifofua, a 90-foot auxiliary ketch, is built in Auckland by Bailey in 27. She is a 7-knot (average) ssel, with a general-cargo capacity 50 tons and cabin-passenger commodation for ten. She carries crew of about 14. She generally y-docks in Suva.

Hiro Changes Hands

Lewis Hirshon, of Papeete, sold

s passenger vessel Hiro to Com jnie Bazaar, a Chinese syndicate, ently. The price was reported 21 million francs—about £14,000 formerly American owned and ned Memory, the twin screw isenger craft was given her pre t name on arrival in Papeete in ly 1939, for use on the Tahiti sward Islands service. She will remembered by American scr een who served on Bora Bora, she regularly brought men down leave to Tahiti from the US ry wartime base.

R .Aui Pom Are Commences

New Season

>n survey in Auckland since late luary, NZGS Maui Pomare ired for Rarotonga, Aitutaki, a, Mauke and Mangaia, March with a full cargo and passenger ■ She was to carry the delegates the South Pacific Conference at imea from Rarotonga to connect i TEAL aircraft at Aitutaki. On return run to New Zealand she bring the first citrus shipment the season.

Donald Ships Refit

• B. Donald & Co’s Charlotte laid normally engaged in the k Islands inter-island trade expected to complete refit in •eete (where she has been for ie months) and return direct to otonga in mid-April. Etablisse

ments Donald Tahiti’s Tiare Taporo, auxiliary schooner in the French Oceania trade, has also been under going repairs in Papeete recently.

The bulwarks have been replaced.

Benecia Transformed.

The small photo, on page 93 shows how Herve & Cie’s Benecia appears to-day. Lovers of the graceful Islands schooners of the past are likely to wince at the sight of this once sailing craft. She was wrecked in the Tuamotus in July, 1950, purchased on the reef

by her present Papeete owners, and salvaged and brought to Tahiti, to be entirely transformed into a straight-out motor vessel with greatly built-up deck structures.

The hawse-pipes, and her slightly bent bow, give her a parrot-like appearance in our photo.

GS Maui Pomare commenced a new season on the Auckland-Cook [?]slands run in March, defying last year’s rumours to the contrary.

Fun In The Holmburn

Holm Shipping Co’s Holmburn, off on her current chartered voyage to the Campbell Is. weather station, far south of New Zealand, before doing another run to the Kerma decs, had the NZ Minister of Civil Aviation (Mr. Macdonald) aboard in March.

Striking heavy weather on clear ing Port Chalmers, NZ, Holmburn took shelter at the Heads; but, dur ing the night, while at anchor in the heavy swell, she lost her cable and anchor. Re-equipped, she sailed again a few days later, with cattle, sheep and general stores. In April, she was to make a call at Norfolk Island after servicing the Kerma decs.

Nhs & T Co. Activities

War surplus equipment brought by the New Hebrides Shipping & Trading Co’s Vila Star from Biak to Tauranga, NZ, was in the news in March. The owner of the equip ment, Mr. G. E. Gill trap, of Rotorua (who had personally gone to Biak to salvage the machinery from the jungle) reported that wharf thieves had stolen £2,000 worth of speedo meters, oil gauges and other in struments packed in empty drums, after discharge at Tauranga.

Late in March, Vila Star was loading an experimental shipment of specially-treated pine-wood pre fab. houses for the company’s own use on Santo. Fletcher Construe

tion Co. of New Zealand were the suppliers. If the specially-treated pine timber stands up to the ter mites it is hoped that a big trade will be developed to the Islands by this firm, through NHS & T Co.

The President Coolidge

The latter company is at present engaged in big salvage operations at

“Million dollar point,” Santo. Cap tain Beim, a Director, said that his company was considering tendering for the salvage of the President Coolidge, former US troop transport accidentally mined in Segond Channel, Santo, in 1942. This and thirteen other wrecked vessels are currently advertised for scrap by the US Maritime Administration. I

f successfully tendered for, Cap n A. Duff, present master of Vila ir, will take charge of the salvage rk. The US terms of sale lay vn that the vessels must be apped, not salvaged for recon ioning. (See “Some Angles on 'ap”, elsewhere in this issue).

Wrecks For Sale

lecently offered for sale as ap—and not for salvaging as ngable vessels —are the 15,000i President Coolidge lying on the tom in Segond Channel, Santo, w Hebrides, and the 11,000-ton isident Taylor, high, and almost r , on Canton Island. These are ) of 14 vessels offered by the ited States Maritime Administra i.

Ron Tiki Man Returns

Ir. Bengt Danielsson, a member the Ron Tiki expedition, and hor of a book on Raroia, entitled, le Happy Island,” arrived in :kland at the end of March per r angi from Honolulu. He was ompanied by his wife and child, er spending some weeks in New land, visiting libraries and seums, the family plans to settle Tahiti.

Irs. Danielsson is a Parisienne. * first met her husband in Peru t prior to the famous drift age, and married him later in ope. Mr. Danielsson has recently n attending Universities in erica.

Equel To Wan Yu I Tow

ate last year the Far East ers of the old USS Co. coaster ikuta, unwilling to accept the [very terms of the Australian ritime unions, sought to circum t them by employing the Chinese ;ionalist LST Wan Yui to tow ikuta as far as Noumea; and re, apparently, they were to ister the vessel under the French :, for the remainder of the age. art of the crew, flown to Noumea n Sydney, then found, accord to an Australian shipping paper, at the registration of the vessel i not in order and a scratch v aboard.” They approached British Consul, who investigated, ted the sailing. r gakuta eventually sailed; but, arrival in Japan, the ship’s ides were impounded and the >tain and officers charged with ng and abetting the illegal sail of the vessel from Noumea. ! sequel is not yet known.

Super For P-Ng

marine superintendent and an ineering superintendent were mcies advertised recently by Papua and New Guinea Coastal Inter-Island Shipping Service, iry in both cases was £1,238. dications close in March.

Letters From Home

Seamen in the South-West Pacific, spotting postcards drifting by, should report to the bridge. The Fisheries Division of the CSIRO has been scattering postcards, sealed in clear plastic envelopes, to study ocean currents in coastal waters.

Each one, filled in and returned, is worth the price of a drink or two (2/-) and they could be carried north to New Guinea waters.

Us Fisheries Vessel At

Papeete

The US Fish and Wild Life Ser vice vessel John R. Manning called at Papeete in March, from Hono lulu.

Under the command of Captain Gordon Wilkinson —who called at Papeete some years ago in the yacht Nomad —the tuna-clipper was on a tuna research voyage. The research

(Continued on Page 93)

im was headed by Mr. Will Van mpen, US Dept, of Interior.

Data on the distribution of the •ious species of tuna, and their ding habits, was the main pur ie of the cruise. About 4 tons of la had been caught, opened and imined for stomach contents be e the vessel arrived at Papeete, out 20 tons of tuna will be taken ;k to Honolulu for canning, the terent species then being ex ined after a time for a check on iir canning properties.

Japtain Wilkinson and his com ly were very hospitably enter ed in Tahiti.

The Mv Wallach

The Lighthouse service motor boat Wallach, 102 tons, manned by Captain C. W. Hart, two European technicians and 15 Papuan natives, returned to Samarai in March from a periodic overhaul in Townsville.

It services 30 lighthouses between Port Moresby and Kavieng, and all the beacons between Samarai and Moresby.

Gunboat La Moqueuse

The French gunboat La Moqueuse arrived at Papeete on March 10 from Noumea, via Wallis Island.

According to travellers from Tahiti,

the gunboat’s arrival there was rumoured to be associated with some political tension, following the recent election of the new Assemblee. La Moqueuse was under quarantine and fumigated, due to having called at Wallis Island, which is said to be now in fected with coconut beetles.

[?]rom left to right:— [?]he former graceful schooner Benecia, [?] transformed. (See page 89).

Mr. R. A. Woods, who recently retired [?]m the position of Chief Officer,

Melanesian Mission yacht Southern Cross, after four years in the vessel.

Charlotte Donald, A. B. Donald & Co.’s Cook Is. trader. Formerly Kinabatakgan, her port of registry remains Singapore.

Kaumoana For Papeete

Last month it was reported that anew vessel is en route from France to be operated in the inter-island trade of French Oceania, by John and Sam Mervin, of Papeete.

The vessel, named Kaumoana, is a former American sub-chaser with an interesting history. She was seized in Marseilles while engaged in the profitable but dangerous and illegal trade of smuggling American cigarettes across from Tangier, and was bought there by her new owners when put up for sale by the authorities.

Kaumoana is similar to the Papeete vessel Taurua, and to the vessel, now owned by W. R. Car penter interests in Suva, in which Ronald Johnson drifted from near Hawaii to Fiji some years ago. Like those vessels, Kaumoana has been considerably altered, with deck accommodation built for passengers.

She is about 112 feet long, the US Navy equivalent of the British Fair mile.

Training Ship On Cruise

With 186 midshipmen of the Cali fornia Maritime Academy aboard, the US merchant marine training vessel Golden Bear cleared San Francisco on February 8 on a 9,000miles training cruise to Hawaii, Samoa and, possibly, Tahiti. These lads are future officers of the US

merchant service. Golden Bear is commanded by Captain Ralph M. G, Swany.

For Melanesia

The Wynvale, a 50-tons former Government personnel boat, will

shortly make its first appearance in Islands waters, as a trading vessel.

Bought by Mr. J. Allpas, through Captain Kennedy, Sydney ship broker, she is expected to trade in the New Guinea area—although at this stage plans are not definite,

Ws Of Small Ships—From

Page 94

I she may finally make her debut the Solomons or New Hebrides, ihe was used by her previous lers, the North West Shipping , Launceston, Tasmania, in con-

ction with their various trading jrprises on the Tasmanian coast.

[Oenix Island Fisheries

i our January Radio Amateur es there was mention of a •per named “Dusty” and a vessel ied Joita, apparently in Phoenix ning-Palmyra-Honolulu area. r e now learn from Captain ry Douglas, of Maureen, in the >erts, that the skipper is actu- Captain “Dusty” Miller, lerly employed with WPHC, and vessel —according to Phil ner, of Fanning—is the 62-ft ta. Captain Miller is operating jhing business in the area under name of Phoenix Island Fish- 3 —and is apparently one of the sea-links between those Islands, ning, Washington, Palmyra, Lstmas and Honolulu.

The Wynvale.