"Joyita" Job

The Navy and the Force on the "Joyita" Job

An eyewitness account from Jack Thornton

HAVE just returned to Suva from Malau —which, incidentally, is the first port on which the sun es in the British Commonwealth; i locals are very annoyed that this it has not previously been pub led or broadcast in reports about i Joyita salvage. /[alau is the port for Labasa, ich is about 6 miles up-river and ; main township on Vanua Levu. :he port is about 150 miles from /a, and the Royal New Zealand Air *ce flew me there in a flying-boat :ing the salvage party from the vy frigate Hawea to the Joyita. official mission was to identify lies, if any were found, as I had viously served aboard the Joyita. tayed two days at Malau and I 5 the only scribe to remain on scene throughout the salvage rations; then I returned by fly boat with the naval divers, after y had finished making the Joyita sonably shipshape for the tow to ra.

Ve were delayed at Malau by i but I did not mind, for it gave a chance to board the Joyita m Australian reporters had re aed to Suva by land plane after ling so far to discover that the ss was not allowed aboard, cialdom eventually relaxed this ;, but not until the overseas rspaper men had departed. I rded quite legally, with a photo pher and some local government hals. he ship smelled more than a bit, my ship would after being semi merged for days, possibly weeks. ■ main decking seemed sound erfoot, and I noticed that the age party had considered it sssary to patch up only a few .11 sections. A hose led down the "h just abaft the remains of the :elhouse, and I was told that the ip down below was pumping out iwater —the hull was still water .t. r e did not stay aboard long, for flying-boat from Suva was ling above. As soon as it had hted nearby, our launch took us >ss the river to the glistening ir hull. Within ten minutes we : off, and immediately we were orne and the pilot’s buzzer had sed (signifying that we could re e our Mae Wests) two of the / rushed through our compart it aft, opened large bays on each of the tail fuselage and started ‘ing through binoculars, learnt that we were to search for

Joyita survivors and wreckage for about 4 hours before returning to the flying-boat base at Laucala Bay, near Suva.

On upturned banana boxes the crew, wearing helmets enclosing earphones and mouthpieces plugged in to the intercom, sat peering through the ports. For the first time

I realised what a tiring job an air search operation must be for the crews, and the great responsibility each member has. There can be no relaxing when lives are at stake, or when the sighting of a piece of floating wreckage might give a clue to the ship’s fate.

We were to search the Great Sea Reef which extends from Vanua Levu to the Yasawa Islands, where “Blue Lagoon” was filmed. Flying at about 1,000 ft. we followed the threading line of breakers and the wide multi-coloured causeway of reef.

Through the wide ports we had the rare experience of viewing some of the most magnificent reef in the Pacific. The colours were incred ibly beautiful and occasionally we saw sharks and schools of big fish,

I seemingly langurously weaving mong the coral, some of it cobalt, xme brown, some red, and all ashed by every shade of blue or reen ocean.

I would have been content to mtinue watching the glorious inorama till darkness fell, but 'ter about an hour one of our >rt engines went out of action id the flight engineer advised the lot to discontinue the search.