News Of The Small-Ships

T Happened In January: —At

i.m. on January 5, 1848, a sailing ;sel then known as Maria Helena, Chilean registry, ended her in esting history by stranding in the y of Wrecks, Christmas atoll, Line ands.

Umost exactly three years earlier, the American whaler Averick, s ship was thrown ashore at aru harbour, west coast of iatea, when a heavy blow came while she was rendering her ale oil. ►he was then written off by her ster as a total loss, and sold on i spot to a Captain Stephen ;gins, long-time British resident that island. The crew arrived in Deete aboard the schooner Union February 22, 1845. it the time of her stranding, vrick had just commenced rations and was fully provisioned a 3-years whaling cruise. She iady had 200 barrels of Wright oil I a quantity of bone aboard. All » was landed by Captain Higgins I his partners and by March 19, jr a great deal of hard work, the sel was refloated, he Hamburg brig Ferdinand, n in Papeete, was thereupon rtered to deliver to Valparaiso the salvaged cargo, and after ther work Averick, under British istry, was renamed Recovery. [er new owners then sailed her Valparaiso and sold her at a dsome profit, the Chilean owners ng her the name under which finished her days, t daybreak, following the final ck, all hands were surprised to another vessel on the reef five 5s along the coast. On landing ring which one man was drowned the surf) they found an ndoned settlement of tents on atoll. The explanation came a days later with the arrival of shooner and salvage party from lolulu, to strip the other vessel, he was the Bremen whaler mrt, wrecked late December while leward bound from Honolulu i 4,000 barrels of oil and much e aboard. Her crew had been :ed up after a few days by ther whaler and taken to lolulu. t about the same time as the lolulu salvage party arrived on scene there also arrived the nch sloop-of-war Sarcells, which £ off the survivors of Maria ena. taces of these and many other cks are still to be found in this orious Bay of Wrecks.

Owards Greater Safety:

he great advantages from the vpoints of safety and conveni e of the standardisation of radio

frequencies for the Smallshlps R/T Pnrifip l C nnH t^f°Vbp°^ t «tiw e - Soi 3 th Pacific, and of the institution of a continuous watch by all the main islands coast stations on one such beT e ?eyaTe^ r Tre P sse r rown P y stressed m thls rA nccf fvomiQ „ n „ In the past, frequency allocations have been mainly a purely local arrangement, with no thought to ° r of . a ve ssel between the various ad mmistrative areas, such as the many

°i , the tramping

type of small Island freighter.

Frequently, the authorities in one area have had no knowledge of what frequencies neighbouring ad ministrative areas are using for ship-shore R/T communications, and the frequencies in use have not had the sanction of international tele communication agreements.

Happily for ship-o wne r s and masters this chaos is slowly dis appearing, though Australia and her Territories still cling tenaciously to the obsolete and non-standard 6 mc/s frequencies.

Latest advance in the right direc tion comes in an announcement from Suva Radio. On November 1, this station adopted the correct in ternational channels of 4379.3 kc/s

and 8811.5 kc/s, but continued! listen for ships on their old t official channel of 6280 kc/s.

The Gibson Girl distress transmitter, avai[?] in Australia at less than £10, which[?] been described in PIM. Upper view s[?] transmitter and kite container. Middle shows generator crank handle fitted on aerial reel swung open, and earth wire (lower left corner) unscrewed ready for drop[?] into the water. In use the operator woul[?] facing camera with set between his thighs[?] the heavy webbing strap passed round [?] his legs to fasten on the left.

Lower photo shows set and aluminium fr[?] silk box-kite assembled. In upper and m[?] photos a wooden spanner for undoing the[?] and earth-wire plug holes is lying at front of set.

Originally set and aerial container were[?] in a large orange-coloured kapok-padded c[?] pack, but the packs are usually not avai[?] with the sets on the disposals market, an[?] not essential though they give protection.

There was also a cylindrical can contain[?] chemical. On adding sea-water, hydrogen [?] generated and a large balloon was inflate[?] aerial-hoisting in calm conditions when [?] kite was inoperative. A bottle could be for this purpose, and meteorological ball [?] of the right size are available.

Suva Radio, under date of Me mber 30, has advised ship-owners lose vessels regularly communicate th that station, that they must opt the correct ship frequencies 4073.9 kc/s and 8262.3 kc/s by ne 1, 1956, after which date no >ly will be made to calls on 6280 fs. [n some cases this will involve ly the purchase of new crystals. others it may involve some uctural alterations to the trans tter as well. rhe Suva Post Office station, ich for reasons not apparent, ontains communications with sels in the Fiji inter-island trade i service applicable to the official ast Station, in this case Suva dio operated by Cable & Wire -5 Ltd. —has already adopted the rect mobile R/T channels and al craft are correctly equipped h the above frequencies in most, not all, cases. iuva Radio, in its announcement, nts out that the correct authorised ling channels for R/T equipped sels lie within the following ids: 4063-4133 kc/s; 8195-8265 s; 12330-12400 kc/s; 16460-16530 s; 22000-22070 kc/s. tations known to be listening and dying on one or other of the rect channels are Hollandia, nmea, Papeete, and Suva Post ice, with Suva radio on the rect channel.

In addition, Pago Pago maintains continuous watch on the international 2182 kc/s distress frequency, while Papeete, Rarotonga, Niue, and Nukualofa maintain a limited watch on that frequency. Elsewhere still reigns supreme.

The Gibson Girl:—A Corre-

spondent referring to PlM’s advocacy of the Gibson Girl as

standard safety equipment in the islands, says in effect, what is the use of a Gibson Girl when we can not raise the coast station with our ship’s R/T set when right alongside it—and he cites a particular case, which in fact is typical and actually stresses the advantage of the Gib son Girl over the R/T set in case of distress. (Over)

ifhat our correspondent apparently is not know is that the coast tion mentioned maintains watch his particular ship frequency y at certain very limited watch iods, outside which it is useless call.

Jut at the same time that coast tion, and many other coast and p stations, are maintaining con nous watch on the Gibson Girl’s kc/s frequency, which is the mal big-ship calling and distress luency. Even if that particular st station should not hear his :ress signals, there will be an ex ent chance that another ship or

coast station will do so, as no frequency is more closely watched throughout the world than 500 kc/s.

Chances of interception there are much greater than on 2182 kc/s R/T, where, especially in the tropics, there is considerable static, and pos sible “skip” of signals at night.

Joyit A Investigation:

During the month there was an an nouncement from New Zealand’s Minister of Island Territories that preliminary examination of Joyita excludes piracy, mutiny, explosion, collision, or grounding as possible explanations of the loss of all aboard, or of damage caused to the

vessel. Evidence collected by the Chief Surveyor of Ships would be included in a full report to the Gov ernment and would soon be con sidered by a competent commission of inquiry at Apia.

At about the same time the New Zealand Company of Master Mariners, in a letter to the A Jew

LEFT: The former WPHC vessel "Kurimarau", refitted by present owners E. Berg & Co., of Sedney, and preparing in December to depart for New Guinea. RIGHT: June and Buz Champion the American yacht "Little Bear", now in Auckland.

Zealand Herald, deplored the fact that the Minister had sent an en gineer surveyor to Suva instead of “one who has been in command of a ship, a master mariner, who has stood the test of difficult examina tion in navigation, seamanship, meteorology, ship construction, stowage of cargo, handling of crew and passengers.” The Master Mariners said, “what happened to the Joyita is a serious question and one requiring sound survey to obtain some plausible explanation of the calamity.”

Beyond a continuing spate of conjecture and rumour no new firm facts had been made available to the public to mid-December.

More Operations Screw

BALL:—For the second time in a year a runaway boat-load of Easter Islanders turned up in Polynesia— this time at Atiu, Cooks, early De cember, after a 54-day passage apparently right through the Tua motu and French Oceania. The five men aboard, like their predecessors who arrived at Kauehi, Tuamotu, in December, 1954, had stolen an open Government rowing boat and were actually bound for Tahiti. The first had been a 22-ft boat, and the voyage under sail had taken 29 days.

On this occasion the boat was a 28-footer. Evidently winds had been light or contrary, and the five men had been without food, other than

fish caught, for the last 24 days.

They were taken to Rarotonga by Viti some days later and no doubt will be shipped home via the only possible route—New Zealand, Panama, Chile. The boat has been left at Atiu.

A few days after this voyage ended, another Kon-Tiki/Seven

Little Sister type of voyage from Callao, Peru, now the recD nised kicking-off place for Pao raftsmen.

Named La Cantuta, aften Peruvian flower, this 30 ft x 13i balsa raft is breaking new groir only in that there is a wonr aboard. The party consists of lea£

iuardo Ingris, 45, Czechoslovakian >rn naturalised Peruvian; Mirko uerecky, 29, a Czech radio operator; ndy Rost, 27, Dutch seaman; daq u i n Guerrero, Argentinian icrtsman; and the lady, Natalia azuelos, 29. PIM is seeking in rmation from Callao as to radio equencies in use, etc. Senor Ingris edicts a landfall in about 80 days

om departure—presumably De

mber 4—which would indicate id-February in the Tuamotu —or rhaps a lot later and a lot further jst, depending on circumstances [Countered. (With the use of its emergency itboard motor, Cantuta put into ilapagos about Christmas because iss Mazuelos was ill. Departed ain on drift, Dec. 28, Miss Mazuelos stored to health. Report from America to the effect that a urth balsa raft being prepared by iruvian named Nicanor Sanchez, 10 proposes to drift to Australia).

Ihose Leper Ketches:—Two

ars ago it was announced that the ;w Zealand Lepers’ Trust Board >uld finance the building of four tches for medical work by Mission cieties in the New Hebrides lomons area. There were many lays in agreement over a standard m, but tenders were finally called d a contract let early in 1955 to b Auckland yard of Chas. Bailey d. for three vessels. [t was then stated that the con ict called for delivery of first ketch thin 13 months, and the following o at four-monthly intervals there ter. A visit to the yard in mid icember showed that though some mes and timbers were cut, no keel d yet been laid for the first vessel, le builders reported that they ire held up pending arrival of rdwood timber from Australia, d the construction was well he ld schedule. One Mission—the esbyterian—decided that the funds uld be better applied to a hospital, only three of the original four ssels will be built.

Where Trade Offers:

issrs. Athol Rusden and Ronald ker, formerly associated with the looner New Golden Hind which, Artimese, was later wrecked in b Tuamotu; and with Philante 11, ice wrecked in the Loyalty Is., may ing another from England to the cific next Winter. They are gotiating purchase of the 72 ft x ft x 9 ft ketch Keriyea, which •uld be fitted to carry a certain lount of cargo to engage in Island iding where the opportunity offers.

Keriyea, built 1949, is mahogany mked, with teak decking, and wered by a 70-hp Glennifer diesel.

Since disposing of Philante II to i'. Martinet, of Noumea, the rtners have been in business in ickland. If the purchase is final id, as expected, they plan to leave

for England to take delivery about May.

Degei Was There :—In Its

desperate search for sensational

angles to the Joyita tragedy the Aus tralian press overlooked one in teresting feature of the case which concerned what they called the

The 495-ton Costa Rican vessel "Rican Star", mentioned last month, which called at Suva in November-December. She had a full cargo of dynamite for Sydney. Right: Captain Julius Jensensen, who was in command.

tftnch” Degei —which happens to i over 200 tons gross. This was it vessel’s curious link with other ill-fated vessel, lust six years ago, in the same *a where Joyita was found drift- Degei had rushed to the aid the 437-ton Suva-registered xihou, which had sprung a seri i leak. As Degei towed her the I miles south to Suva all that it her afloat was a cargo of empty ims —just as empty drums had >t Joyita afloat. n September, 1952, Avoahou and >ry soul aboard disappeared in jumstances as remarkable as >se surrounding the Joyita case, lie bound from Sydney to Lord we. A weak and garbled distress I failed to explain just what had opened to cause that vessel’s iplete disappearance without ce.

Lannah Dismantled; The

)den 300-tonner Rannah, on the f off Avarua, Rarotonga, since member 16, 1954, and sold several aths ago by the insurance under ters, has now been stripped and equipment was put up for tion on December 10. The vessel I been purchased by Messrs. 11s Brothers, of Pelorus Sound, at a very low figure, iflthin hours of their arrival in

Rarotonga this firm’s represent atives proved that they had made a good investment by having one of the two main motors running in the vessel as she lay on the reef.

Results of the auction sale were not to hand but it was thought probable that the Cook Islands Administration would purchase the motors for use in the new cool store which is now being built at Raro tonga.

Unless the stripped hull is broken up there is the possibility of it being thrown right across the reef into the harbour in heavy weather and becoming an obstruction in the already very restricted navigable area.

Another Bp Addition:

Burns Philp (SS) Ltd. of Suva have purchased the attractive and modern Dutch-built New Zealand coaster Zephyr II for use in Fiji waters.

A single-screw steel motor vessel of 257 GT, 115 nett, she measures 125.1 ft bp x 23.1 ft x 8.8 ft moulded depth, and will be an important addition to the Fiji smallships fleet. New Zealand owners were North Westland Shipping Co. The vessel was expected to clear Well ington for Suva late December or early January. Negotiations for the purchase of the vessel were reported some months ago.

Bird’S Last Flight;—Com -

pagnie Francalse des Phosphates de I’Oceanie’s graceful 3-masted steel 398 GT schooner Oiseau des lies (Bird of the Isles ) has probably made her last voyage from Makatea phosphate island to the Cook Islands where she has become well known in post-war years.

The schooner, between her routine voyages with stores and personnel between Papeete and Makatea, has regularly made recruiting and re patratiion voyages to the Cooks, where most of the labour has been obtained. With the free-market copra price unfavourable there is some unemployment in French Oceania and the local people are seeking work with the phosphate company.

The Makatea job was popular with the Cook Islanders and there were invariably more men offering than could be signed on. Late No vember, the last group was re

patriated to Atiu and Mauke Islands, the schooner clearing then for Bora Bora.

NEW BPC VESSEL:—To serve the British Phosphate Commis sioners’ Nauru-Ocean phosphate trade with Australia and New Zea land the new 9,993 GT vessel Triaster arrived in the Pacific in December. She takes the name of the Triaster, lost to German raiders off Nauru on December 8, 1940, to gether with the BPC vessels Triadic and Triona and the chartered vessels Komata and Vinni. The three BPC vessels have all now been replaced.

Trienza, fourth vessel of the BPC fleet, survived the war.

The latest addition has very fine accommodation for 48 passengers, and a phosphate capacity of 11,200 tons. She has the overhanging cable-ship type of bow and special powerful windlass required for lift ing and relaying the heavy moor ings at the islands.

By arrangement the BPC vessels also service the Makatea Island moorings for the French company when this is necessary. Triaster No. 2 is commanded by Captain J. E.

Semmens, who was serving in her predecessor and taken prisoner by the Germans when his ship was sunk, spending over 4 years in a German prisoner-of-war camp.

Ships’ Officers In Demand:

—An intensive recuiting campaign for young men capable of being trained as officers and engineers on local ships is to be undertaken in New Caledonia. There are at present only enough qualified men available to fill about half the jobs offering in local waters —and 50 per cent, of

those available are between -j and 50.

The young men are to be tral locally and then go to max schools in France to be “finishes

Kwato Crew For Ktx

MARAU:—Eleven Kwato natt arrived in Sydney from Sams

La, on board the Malaita in De aber They will crew the Kun rau on her forthcoming voyage Port Moresby. (See Smallships tion, December PIM. Also photo ph this issue).

!X-Honolulu Cutter In

OUBLE:—The eight tons brig / was reported in trouble at Big j, Santo, New Hebrides, in early jember and cables indicated that : was a total loss. She was valued approximately £A2,000. Ehy was It in Honolulu in 1938 and was led by local Vietnamese, Vu Tien u. After they got ashore, the w had to walk through the bush it across the Island from Big Bay Luganville.

Patch On The Japs:—The

. Government announced in De iber that it would keep a 24irs radio watch on Japanese fish boats working near the Fiji >up. he watch will be kept with a j radio receiver recently landed n the UK. The Government aits that the receiver will not ite trespassing fishing boats but ;ans of minimising the possibility infringing of territorial rights” i being explored. he Jap. fleet that was in Fiji ers in October-November (about time of the Joyita incident) has i returned to Japan.

[Aking Cl Shipping Safe;

•ing the October sessions of the ik Islands’ Legislative Council Inter Island Boat Travelling 1955 was passed. The object he new Ordinance is to see that js will travel with reasonable jty for passengers and crew, hipmasters are now required to ly for permission to make inter nd voyages and must state the riber of passengers to be carried, amount of food and water ard, and other relevent details, he Collector of Customs at Raro ?a, and the Resident Agents of er islands, are authorised to ster such sailings, and a blanket horisation to cover a twelve iths period can be made by the ident Commissioner in order to id loss of trading time, he authorised officials may refuse mission for a trip if they con ;r the boat to be overcrowded, un worthy, undermanned or under visioned—or if weather reports tl Rarotonga Radio Station in ite that the trip would be igerous. Persons who fail to com with the regulations laid down the new regulations will be >le to fines of up to £5O, or im jonment up to three months.

'he first practical result of the it Travelling Bill was seen on member 29, when the Inspire left •otonga for Aitutaki and Penrhyn. i number of passengers was

limited to 35 for Aitutaki and 15 for Penrhyn. The Inspire now carries a radio which was used for the first time on this trip to give test calls.

Another Jap On A Reef.

—lt was confirmed in Port Moresby on December 4 that another Jap anese fishing vessel had been wrecked on the reefs off the Fead Islands, New Guinea.

The trawler, of about 300 tons, was abandoned and its crew of 25 was picked up later by another Jap anese vessel.

The reefs off the Fead Islands claimed their first Japanese fishing boat about 12 months ago.

Long Stay On Reef:—The 8-

tons auxiliary ketch Hollydene

(previously reported as Holy dream') which went up on a reef at Ava Island in the Ninigo Group, NW New Guinea, in late October, was reported end of November to be still on the reef. Bad weather in the area had prevented any attempt to salvage it.

Unusual Shipping Mishap;

—Nowhere else in the Pacific Islands but in the big rivers of Papua’s Gulf country could this sort of mishap occur—the 450-ton MV Melinga was struck by a 10-ft tidal bore while lying at anchor on the Omati River, on the night of De cember 28.

The managing agents, N, F.

(Continued on Page 97)

ttu Penaia, who has been Lieut.nel in charge of the Fiji ;alion in Malaya since Colonel e returned to New Zealand some ths ago, and who now is in pro of bringing the Battalion back after three years’ foreign

service, will, in 1956, join the Fiji Government staff as Development Officer in charge of the Vanua Levu District. Ratu George Cakobau and his cousin, Ratu Edward Cakobau, are the two Development Officers in charge of the Viti Levu Districts.

Award to

Scientist

Jacques Barrau been awarded the [?]de Medaille de [?]ze for 1955 by the [?]te Nationale [?]climation de France, [?]private scientific [?]ty with HQ in the Museum, which is [?]nised by the French [?]nment.

Barrau, who is 30, [?]een with the South [?]ic Commission in [?]ea as Technical [?]r. Subsistence Agri [?]re, since 1952. [?]ously he was Head [?]he Department of [?]ulture, in New [?]onia. [?] has made a special of subsistence [?]ulture in Mela [?] for the SPC and [?]ook on the subject appear in 1956. now investigating

same subject in Polynesia. Our photo shows him studying a Western Samoan

variety of swamp taro, locally called Pula'a.

Photo: Donald E. Ross.

oloney and Co., disclosed later at the Melinga’s steering was imaged when the force of the bore used her to drag her anchor. Her jrn struck the bank as she was rned around in the river. A sur yor left Port Moresby the next y to inspect the damage. Melinga under charter to APC.

SLOW T U R N-R O U N D IN \BAUL: —A protest was sent to irt Moresby and to Canberra in rly December by the Master of e MV Pollurian and the Bougain le Association, which owns the ssel, regarding unsatisfactory con dons connected with the discharge copra from Inter-Island vessels Rabaul. rhe Master of Pollurian, Captain illam, says the protest covers the ability of the Copra Marketing iard to meet local requirements, e shortage of Copra Inspectors, insport, storage space, wharfage, dly organised native labour, and efficient working hours.

Captain Hallam said all these ngs caused serious delays and necessary expense to the owners local small ships, le said the discharging time for J Pollurian on her last trip to baul was 12 days. Normal dis arging time should be no more than days.