[?]re Attempts to tie Missing Ships

ping Mysteries—in a of Yellow Journalism

[?]re Attempts to tie Missing Ships to Submarines and Pirates

In the first week of February, the Central Pacific region of lich Suva is the centre again got a blast of publicity that made * area appear almost as ridiculous as did the Joyita-crew irdered-by-Japs story of last November.

officials were assembling in pia, Western Samoa, for the irmal inquiry into the disrance of Joyita (see report 21), the following occurrences excitedly reported from Suva within a few days: l pair of ancient trousers, with e in them that might have nade by a knife, was found on md beach. l raft, which might have come he Joyita, had also been found beach. ’he 40-tons ketch Arakarimoa, 5 Gilbertese passengers and a Df 12 Gilbertese, disappeared December 28, on a voyage be- Tarawa and Maiana, in the t Islands. ; was reported from the Solo mse, some 35 miles south of that a submarine had been i there; and Captain A. ns, of the mv Komaiwai, relater that that same night a rine had appeared beside his and remained beside him at mce of some 15 yards, for 10 ;s. (These reports were con- Some said that Captain ns first saw and reported the f the Solo light, and then saw n that evening). converted barge, or tank ? ship, Pacific Star, had sent mtic radio messages, reportwas “lost” somewhere in the ebrides. foregoing were the ingredients a series of yellow-press ixtures presented in a variety 3es, which made headlines of degrees of sensationalism, in e DurDor e t rS was that vas someth P ine P verv

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Arakarimoa.” It even quoted “a prominent Suva citizen’’ (one wonders whom he could be!) assay ing: “The unexplained disappear ance of Arakarimoa and Joyita was significant.”

Having assembled all his material, in accordance with the best tradi tions of irresponsible journalism, under the liveliest kind of scare headings, the Sunday Telegraph added a leading article, entitled “What Goes On There?” It re recited the Suva rubbish as facts, and demanded that Australia re ceive more information—it said there should be an Australian- American inquiry, and an Australian warship should proceed forthwith to the Fiji area to “cruise through the islands.”

And this is what happened to the series of events which the irrespon sible newshounds worked up into sensations: , .. . , .. •, In view of the responsible P£°P le conducting the Joyita inquiry, ancien t an d punctured trousers were not regarded as having any significance, • The raft does not seem to have been positively identified. It could have little significance, either way. • The disappearance of the Arakarimoa has no extraordinary feature. These little ships—especi ally if they are without engines or their engines break down—disappear from time to time. Usually, they are found drifting, or come ashore somewhere; but sometimes they never are heard of again. This has been going on in the Pacific ever since ships put to sea there.

There is nothin S extraordinary about the a PP earanc e of a strange submarine in these waters. These craft are re P or ted from time to time.

Tt is well known that British, American and Russian submarines have been makin g long, unpublicised Vo P£ es in the Pacific submarines used to do the same thing before World War IL What is ordinary is the persistent at tempts of irresponsible newspapers to revive the story that these little ships are destroyed by agencies-murderous Jap

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hermen or unidentified sub irines, or something.

Captain E. W. Harness, Suva’s rbourmaster and a navigator who dws this area of the Pacific very 11 indeed, annoyed the sensation ngers by saying that the “sub ,rine” probably was a floating log; i that, even if it was a sub., it ild have no connection with the appearance of the little ships. ► A New Zealand Air Force plane, ng up from Fiji, found the cific Star somewhere north of v Caledonia and directed other ps to her assistance, so she could back on her course. ’he following notes are from A’s shipping-roundsman: 'ACIFIC STAR:— This vessel is istered in Rabaul and is owned Peter Turnbull & Co., who have a d-office in Sydney. I believe that skipper is Captain Fred Davis, pm I saw off in Sydney some iths ago. (Sydney office of the ipany said that they “thought itain Davis was on the vessel; that a Captain ‘Blue’ Stein was i on board’’). He was to join the >el and to take over command her new job in the Hebrides. ific Star was probably on her ’ south from Rabaul when she her position. Captain Davis was -known in other Islands vessels was Second Officer on the Vila r , recently sold to Mr. Roy )bay, of Santo. He should be a petent navigator, so can only nme that his equipment was at t; how he came to run out of on the voyage is a mystery.

RAKARIMOA: Is one of two els owned by the Tangitang ety, a Tarawa Co-operative, of 3h Captain W. Schutz, Senior, is 1. (Their other vessel is Aratoha.) le is a 60-ft auxiliary ketch and acquired by Tangitang in 1952. was carrying a crew of 12, and passengers, and sailed in com -7 with Aratoha on evening of jmber 28, from Tarawa for ana, 19 miles distant. Vessels ; in sight of one another till light, when Arakarimoa in sed speed and went ahead. In ling it was necessary to await tide to enter the pass and oba anchored at Tebikerai lorage, entering in the afternoon ind that Arakarimoa had not red. us was reported to Tarawa and Government vessel Nareau nenced a search to the westward he afternoon of December 30, rning on the evening of De )er 31, reporting that she had :ed nothing. Arakarimoa had ) but no calls had been received, va RNZAF confirms that no est had been received from the

GEIC Government or the WPHO make a search, and in fact the : known about the missing vessef Suva was news brought by Cape A. B. Macadie, of the GEIC G ernment vessel Tungaru, wl arrived in Suva for annual refitd cently. No one seems to know ' no such request was made for services of the RNZAF.

In explanation it may be nr tioned that though these Gf vessels have radio, they can m contact only at the scheduled ti —twice or three times a Tarawa, and the others, liJ normally for calls only at ti times. If anything happens betv? schedules all the calling in world is unlikely to be heard, as?

GEIC vessels use an “orphan” re frequency on which no internathi watch is maintained continuous!; This is why PIM all along been plugging in the shipping nr for changes in the existing r r. set-up in the Islands. It is com but slowly. These incidents will I to clinch the matter perhaps.

The natural drift from where; vessel was last seen is towards Carolines or Northern New Guii Shipping in that part of the Pao has been alerted to look out the missing Arakarimoa.