Pacific Shipping And Cruising Yachts

For those who hoped that the outstanding major questions maritime law might at last be settled, the 87-nation confer ence at Geneva in April was a bitter disappointment.

7EN where some measure of agreement was reached, the wording of adopted clauses is full of loop-holes as to mean r little, and in some respects conference has actually agri id differences. >me nations which had re ned from extending their terri il waters beyond the traditional e-mile limit in the hope of a ;ral agreement, now seem likely ake action unilaterally, eland has already declared her ntion to extend to 12 miles— l very serious consequences to British fishing industry, if en ed. )wever, Britain has declared her sal to recognise any unilateral iges. Similar disputes may be cted in other places, ilure of the conference has not >ted Australia’s claim to full rol of the resources of her con ital-shelf beyond the three limit. international law now stands, rol of these resources can only y agreement with foreign gov lents. gaily there is nothing to pre- Japan from shell fishing up to three mile limit, but in actual such fishing is being confined jreed areas more than 10 miles land, and the Japanese gov lent sends a fishery control yes vith the Arafura Sea pearling

fleet to enforce the agreement. Aus tralian naval patrols are also present.

Under the Japan-Australia pearl ing agreement this year, only 15 vessels will take part as compared with 25 last year. The agreed shell take has been set at 470 tons as compared with 713 tons actually fished last year. The Japanese fleet

ship-master who accidentally dis covered the abandoned and drift ing Joyita north of Fiji on Novem ber 10, 1955, has supplied some in teresting information on the two vessels soon to be delivered to the Colony from Hongkong shipyards.

Moana Raoi, building at the yard of Cheoy Lee Ltd. (who built Mieco Queen for the Marshall Islands Im port-Export Co. in 1956) is 470 tons gross, with a deadweight cargo capacity of 260 tons, three 2-berth Ist class passenger cabins, and two 4-berth 2nd class cabins.

She is powered by a pair of slow revving 6-cylinder 200 hp Crossley ERLS/50 diesels and equipped with Decca “212” radar and Marconi Transarctic radio equipment.

Captain E. V. Ward and Engineer

cleared for the Arafura Sea late May.

• Shell Grading Troubles:

Due to the introduction of a more stringent grading system by overseas mother-of-pearl shell buyers, Thursday Island pearlers have found it impossible to obtain the correct percentage of large shells in nearby shallower beds In mid-May the fleet returned from fishing the deeper Darnley Reef area and the “take” was being checked for size percentages later in the month.

TI pearlers claim that if the Darnley Reef shell can not meet the buyers demands the local industry will be killed. • ttor mr - * qt7it3ttt/-<t7i i , IC SERVICE: Ca P taln Geiald Douglas, now Marine Supermtendent in the Gilbert and Ellice s ands, who became famous as the

J Florian have already gone to Hongkong to prepare this vessel for Jul .V delivery to Tarawa.

The second vessel Ninikoria is almost identical to the BSIP gov ernment’s Melanesian delivered to Honiara in 1956, and is a patrol and general purpose vessel for the use of the GEIC government. She is t° ns gross, 98 nett, with a car S° capacity of about 145 tons deadweight. She has a Commis sioner’s two-berth suite, three 2- , berth Ist class cabins, and two 2berth 2nd class cabins.

Tbe P r °Pulsion units are a handed pair of those Popular Gardner BL3’s, each 8-cylinder, 144 hp.

Radio equipment is as for the Ocher vessel but with the addition of a Marconi Granhett* erhn sounder The builders arp Hnna- Whampoa Dock Co.—builders of

The former trans-Tasman explosives-trade vessel "Piri"—once "Tangarea" of Pacific Cable Board ownership—which may enter the Cook Islands trade.

Photo: H. Williams.

mesian. Both vessels are of ied steel construction. is probable that Captain W. *el and Engineer J. Robinson handle the delivery of Nini i, which is scheduled for early ;ember. GEIC crews are being for each vessel. he name Moana Raoi is under i to mean “fair or fine sea”, ana” is Ellice and “Raoi” Gil jse. Ninikoria is Gilbertese for rageous”.)

Ruminating Voyage: Still

lering whether to purchase the ;on 41-year-old wooden Piri for Cook Islands trade, Captain a Williams, who has an option ;he Auckland vessel until the of June, passed through that in May on an aerial excursion Singapore, Bangkok, Hongkong, Tokyo. nding the big decision, En ;r Livingstone, the other half lis nautical team, remained on farm at Rarotonga, affirming "This is the life—if only there money in it!”

Delete One Mfv: Remem

hat motor fishing vessel Pagan ti drifted for three weeks in the ladecs area in November, 1956, engine and radio broken down, 1 on the last lap of a voyage England to Auckland?

Iney wartime pathfinder pilot am Gain, hired as navigator hat voyage, had undertaken a ar but uneventful voyage in 2rd & John in the previous urning to England after Pagan ;ry, Gain took on yet another delivery job to Auckland time the 47-ft Solent Spray i by Antarctic explorer Major Ellery Anderson. He cleared auth last December 23. heard nothing more of this :e until two men arrived in and in May and reported that were crew members homeward I as distressed British seamen. mt Spray reached British aa where three weeks were in partly redecking the ves hen owner Anderson received rter to tow a couple of barges place 150 miles up the coast Georgetown. Arriving there MFV went aground while avring and was soon firmly 3 beach, and a long way from ation. a eventually arrived for the n crew after 18 days camped e beach. Back in Georgetown who were financial promptly

arama", shown here at Berry's Bay, ey, on the day before she left for her home, reached Port Moresby safely on 23. The voyage was quite uneventful ugh a bit of sticky weather was ex nced in the last stages, in the Gulf of a. "Parama" was built by Bjarne Hai and Co., of Sydney, for the Papua-New a Administration (see May PIM).

>t through” while those less unate claimed ”DBS” rights.

Wealth On The Bottom:

mographers are beginning to e that there are valuable min i on the oceans’ muddy floors, pps Institution of Oceano hy, reporting on the voyage e' south to Tahiti by the re :h vessels Horizon and Spencer \aird last November, says that 3s of many valuable minerals as cobalt were brought up in >m samplings made across the ;rn Pacific. me day, such minerals may be >ited.

A Letter From Pushkov:

e finally got that unique non letic Russian research schooner I — well, almost. rly in June a battered air mail age, well decorated with Rus stamps, rubber stampings, and 7 initialed clearances, arrived M’s hands from Moscow. With as a 114-page book —and a let jgned Pushkov. The book, he she) said, contained "Ivanov’s le ‘lnvestigation of magnetic of the Earth on the oceans’ all information of interest to ibout Zarya”. >hkov wrote in English but tunately Ivanov did not. How there was at least a passable y of Zarya, a route chart, and ily, Russian figures are the as ours. m this information it would that Zarya is a three-masted •iggevl topsail schooner with >om and four head sails, and she measures 110.8-ft by 27.4- II- draught, has a sail area 50 square feet and a speed of nots in good winds. en Pushkov wrote his (her) on April 25, Zarya was en from Buenos Aires to Cape- From there she was to head le Black Sea via the Red Sea. sr this year she will sail again, ? at India and Ceylon thence the Western Carolines, Guam, ►n in China, Dairen, Tokyo, finally Vladivostock. It would however that a trans-Pacific may be made later, though s not mentioned by Pushkov.

Itou May Sight These:

you may never sight a non 3tic sailing vessel, there is a chance of sighting a mag one, rare as even they are. :e the war the Japan Ministry ■ansport has recommissioned tree auxiliary training ships icrchant marine officers, still believing that sail training ies the best seaman, even in days of nuclear reactors.

K>n Maru and Kaio Maru, four-masted vessels built in ire sister ships of 2,283 ton and with twin diesel motors, jy they appear from photos

to carry sail—square rigged—only on the foremasts. The other three masts are merely “for climbing ’.

Shintoku Maru, 2,777 tons gross but shorter and broader than the others, was built in 1924.

Boys training as merchant marine deck officers at Tokyo Mercantile Marine University all spend six months in practical navigation training in one of these ships.

The university handles 630 students at a time during the 4 h year course The training ships have so far confined their cruises to Hawaii and the US since the war, but it seems likely that they will also head south later.

In addition to these the Ministry

owns the 2,430-ton steam turbine powered training ship Taisei Maru which cruised to Sydney several years ago, and in a later cruise picked up the ashes of many Jap anese servicemen at New- Guinea for reinterment in Japan, Arwrn nnrwißn

Tnn Bounb) -

a ard s , eleg l new om \ launched in ™°™ nd f~ n secember5 ecember - lo admg T P? ga at Greenhithe, England, on May 20, and was ex pected to commence her delivery v °yage shortly after, History will be made in that this will be the first time the Tonga merchant flag has been flown in the Atlantic. (Over)

he tapu imposed against women rding the vessel is still in force will remain so until Queen )te boards the vessel at Nukua on its arrival, he smaller Hifofua from the e yard, is expected to be de red three months after A’oniu.

The Long, Long Trail:

t BBC term “a slight technical h” would be something more i an understatement when ap i to the NZ Lepers’ Trust rd’s medical patrol vessels ding in Auckland, the first of :h Fauahu Twomey should, rding to latest predictions, sail the Solomons early in June, le second, Ozama Twomey, Id then be delivered a month ■ as soon as the Auckland de y contractor returns from the job. le decision to build the 55-ft ties originally four were ned —was made late in 1953. lers were called early 1955 and ntract let in May, 1955. uahu Twomey was eventually ched in April, 1957. t long as they have been on way nothing is ever likely to £ the record of the BSIP Gov lent vessel Kovala, which un ent six years of fiddling after ihing in Australia before being red ready to enter service in Solomons. It’s probably a world d. t even 14 months in the fit out yard such as the first ney has had, is a notable de or a 55-ft ketch, e builders emphasise that the r s have been entirely out of hands. The contract provided he supply of certain materials le Lepers’ Trust Board. Those rials have not been forthcom though the finance has been able. ere was also an unexpected •olysis trouble which has now overcome. tallation of sundry equipment fittings was being pressed for in May and there was a new general air of optimism in the ;hat the project would now rapid progress. 3 first vessel goes to the Mela n (Anglican) Mission; the d to the Methodist Mission, the final ketch Mala Twomey : well advanced—to the Catho ission.

New Hunting Ground’

? English Sinbads Tom and

i Hepworth, busy overhauling

converted Brixham trawler ickland, expected to sail again me, but this time they are to shift the scene of their ig and freighting activities to olomons. ire, they feel, there may be better openings than in the y organised New Hebrides

shipping lanes where there are now few pickings for the free-lance freighter and trader.

• Ransdorp Is Islands

BOUND; Off on her first chore for the newly formed Southern Cross Shipping Co. Ltd. (registered office, Vila, New Hebrides) the tanker Ransdorp cleared Sydney on May 21 carrying a cargo of molasses for New Zealand. From NZ she will probably go to Fiji, although she is available for work anywhere in the SW Pacific.

The vessel is 166 ft long and is capable of carrying 550 tons; she is designed for the transport of bulk liquids—such as creosote, tallow, coconut oil, petroleum etc and her capacity of 100,000 gallons

is stored in 12 separate tanks, which can be discharged into bulk instal lations or into drums.

Ransdorp was built in Holland in 1935 > was commandeered by the Germans during the war and used for refuelling submarines at sea.

F or the last seven years she had been in the Australian coastal trade, carrying sulphuric acid.

She has accommodation for six passengers in air-conditioned com fort and the crew also is accommo dated in one and two berth air conditioned cabins, The vessel is now registered in Suva and has a Fijian crew, Master is Captain George Jar ratt, at one time skipper of the Vasu. (Vasu under another skipper

ng a leak and sank north of ?a in June, 1956). lief engineer of Ransdorp is well-known in the Pacific — Lewis Graham, formerly of andria and Nukulau. ( Nukulau, an-built like Vasu, but about ; the size, predeceased her by tly two years, springing a leak sinking without much warning me, 1954, when on voyage across rasman). rley’s Shipping Co. is acting Southern Cross Shipping Co. t in Suva; and in Sydney the > of the company is with Mr. ■ Dent, 117 Pitt Street.

PERSONAL; Mr. Bjarne arsen, well-known principal of Berry’s Bay, Sydney, ship

ng firm, will be making a ;ss visit to Papua in July, tain R. W. C. Gorman, for of Fengning was master of loi when she left Sydney on !0 on her first voyage for the ilia-New Guinea Line.

Hoi replaces Sinkiang while tter makes a recruiting voy o Hongkong, the Gilberts he phosphate islands on be of the British Phosphate ission. Captain W. J. Bunny ’erritorian true, his parents well-known residents of I—is master of Sinkiang.

• Bergensfjorders

Favoured Rarotonga:—Of All

the Islands ports visited by the Norwegian American Line’s Ber gensfjord during her recent luxury cruise from New York, Rarotonga received the highest rating with the great majority of passengers.

This was reported to the Rarotonga Chamber of Commerce by Mr.

Malcolm La Prade, Cruise Advisor and Special Representative of the company who travelled in the ship.

Mr. La Prade wrote: “As you know, all our passengers were de lighted with your wonderful island and with the reception you gave us. The local dancers were by far the finest we saw throughout the Pacific.”

From other letters it appeared

that the absence of commercialisa tion of the tourist industry, the tidiness of the little island, and its unadorned natural beauty were the features most appreciated.

This was something entirely dif ferent from the usual run of things and although what Rarotonga has to offer may quickly pall with mil lionaires, it appears to be what they want for the few hours al lowed in the cruise agenda.

Mr. La Prads gave a strong hint that Bergensfjord or Oslofjord will certainly include the island in the next cruise plan.

Meanwhile the Rarotonga Cham ber of Commerce is actively en couraging calls by other cruise Lines.

• Boxing Sailors:—The New

vessel Ra Marama which was , in Singapore, left Port jsby on May 24 in continuance er delivery voyage, mmander S. B. Brown, who is large of the operation, expected ave the 85-ft vessel enter her home port by June 2. was obvious from the impres collection of boxing trophies rd, that the Fijian NVR crew not wasted its time while in ipore. e leading cook won three titles —two of them in iconds. This obviously is one ook that it wouldn’t do to > with.

Delay To Southern

3S VIII: —Wet weather on the North Coast and non-arrival uxiliary motors (for lighting have delayed completion of tern Cross VIII, being built by

la Slipway and Engineering

-ltd., for the Melanesian Mis ; vessel was launched in b and was expected to be for dedication in Sydney and iry to the Solomons, this i. s thought now that the dedi i will not take place until August. Archbishop Mowll, ite of Australia, will perform eremony.

iws of Cruising Yachts

Second Sydney-Noumea Yacht Rac2-

ond Sydney-Noumea Yacht Race (first was Caledonia's centenary year, 1953) will rom Sydney at 2 p.m. on June 28. The General for France will see the yachts ir way. he beginning of June there were five starters and a few possibles. [* e , '“'I 3 *" 9 rou P" are: KURREWA (64 c S rt (58 ft> cutter ); KOCHAB (54 11,,™I 1 ,,™ » I " ,S «• s'oop), L • (38 ft. Lion-class sloop).

English yawl KOCHAB, owned by Dr. ranklen-Evans, is well-known in the Pacific; MALOHI was also cruising Fill a year or so ago.

WINDS has been entered by men Je Royal Australian Naval College and he extreme limit of the minimum size he yachts are equipped with radio and mt is expected to take from 10 to 14 ependmg on weather; all ships are ex to be in Noumea for the start of the Day celebrations (July 14). A mother r the yachts is under consideration, sy be an Australian warship. The New ian government has asked for the visit lAN ship for the celebrations and the may combine the two functions.

Sydney-Noumea Race was staged in ier, 1953, and was won by IRENE i elapsed time of 7 days, 10 hours’ utes. WHITE CLOUD made fastest time minutes on the 1,070-mile course— NE won easily on handicap.

ER I D lAN of Annopolis with the Staffords has been the source of many inquiries ns to have slipped our net. Clearing apeete last mid-September she called irrow— where she was visited by some lary helicopters from out of the blue i received a letter per helicopter mail ips from the next port—Pago Pago was d There has been a coconut radio that the 44-ft. ketch is in Sydnev, ie Brisbane. The Cruising Yacht Club,

Sydney, has no record of her. Where are you

Meridian?

• HAVFRUEN 111, with Group-Captain and Mrs. T. H. Carr, arrived in Coffs Harbour from New Zealand on June 1. This small Northern NSW port, little used by world-girdling yachts men as a rule, has had visits from three well known Pacific readers in a couple of weeks— Havkins, in LAMERHAK 11, Guzzwell in TREKKA being the other two.

• RAIREVA, with Frenchman Michael Fro mager and Canadian Douglas Robinson aboard got into Honolulu late May from the Marquesas.

They plan to stay a month, then go on to Vancouver where they hope to sell the yacht. • ANNETTE, with the Tanners on board, left Hilo, Hawaii, late May. They expect to get to Papeete before July 1. FOUR WINDS, JINNI and TE MATANGI were also preparing in May to leave Hawaii for Papeete. Mrs.

Crew of "Nirvana" at Rarotonga. Owner-skipper Lawes, in shirt (see story page 111).

Another visitor to Rarotonga—"Tahoe", in Avatiu Harbour (see page 111).

Photos: G. Russell.

erguson, of TE MATANGI writes to they are all packed, ready and rear i—except for a suit of sails that were rom England and are expected hourly, there is need for another sailmaker lu —the time of the only good one is -if we know what she means. We jt she means; but England still seems ay to send for sails.

EST ON THE STAPLES; Len Staples is Art at the YWCA in Honolulu until Government decides about citizenship Family. Wife Joyce, the children and baby are reported to be "just fine”.

IMERE of Sete, France, with Jean wife Suzanne, and 11-year-old son cleared Balboa for the Galapagos liti on a round-the-world voyage 20. The 44-ft. x 11-ft. craft left uly 2, 1957. The family plans to it least six months in French Poly- HITE SEAL of Johannesburg, South nanned by Gerry Trobridge and wife ft Balboa March 30 for Polynesia via I route. commenced this voyage in February, King with various companions by way nd, West Indies, Florida, New York, ludson and through the Erie Canal to t Lakes and Canada, then back down issippi to New Orleans, rried Marie in the US —so the cruise Finue indefinitely. WHITE SEAL is a tch with a beam of 12-ft., of welded E of Mauritius moved out from Balboa ’acific crossing May 1. This 32-ft. x aft is manned by Marice Sauzier, Jean lio, and Bob Hughes—and they appear whether to fly the French or British ording to Balboa reports, are for upwards of a year at Tahiti, fit was built at Mauritius two years the voyage commenced October, 1956. oined at Balboa.

IGO 11, dimensions approximately 62- ■ft. x 7-ft., was next in line to move Balboa, May 5, on a round-the-world /ith owners James Crawford of Tampa, are three crew members. Mr. Craw a well-known yachtsman who owns a rd at Florida and has competed in the cifiC (Los Angeles-Honolulu) Race.

II is a gaff-headed topsail schooner, as a change of two crew members at me. The voyage commenced in April.

\Hina Ii Ex Manu-O-Aitutaki, Etc.,

ery from Aitutaki via Auckland to a aer in Fiji has been sold in Auckland ikely to remain in coastal waters.

NTURER of the US, lately in Sydney, ff again in May in continuation of her nd voyage; first stop Gladstone, nd.

ANDALAY's former owner, James S. ler, published a book some time ago hat yacht's Pacific cruise of several jgo. Well illustrated, and heavily 3 Tom Neale's lone sojourn on w, the book is entitled "Man on His INDALAY crew-member Tony Richardson, wavy moustache, now in Norway, has iself a 26-ft. double-ender ketch, and erchant marine radio operator as wife, no talk of cruising yet. Another MANDALAY man, Bob Grant, who lost ding vessel VE TEGA in the New i last year, has lately re-entered lore Hospital, Auckland, NZ, for some surgery and skin-grafting. Letters mdoubtedly be welcome. He'll be there arly July, then will take delivery of

an Auckland yacht, TAIPI, for some further deep-water cruising. • TAHITI of Honolulu and Lorrin Smith are Southbound for Papeete again, having cleared the Hawaiian capital April 17. • NAHRA, another Tahiti-type ketch of Hono lulu, owned by Peter Byam, was preparing to sail for Papeete in mid-June. With the skipper will be a lady school-teacher from Pennsylvania. • NOVIA, left in Auckland when the Greggs had to hurry home on business last year, will now be shipped back to the US on the deck of a freighter—probably one carrying cattle to the States from New Zealand. • NIRVANA, 62 ft. Bermuda rig cutter of Sydney, reached Rarotonga via Auckland April 21, the first small ship to open Rarotonga's ocean-visitors' log for 1958.

Brisbane built in '52, NIRVANA is a lean, efficient, well-appointed ocean racer that has performed creditably in two Sydney-Hobart races and is now England-bound in care of her Aus

traMan owner-skipper, Dr. Keith Lawes, and a merry band of five Aussies and one Pommie.

Dr. Lawes has another yacht in England and likes to cruise in one or the other with such a team while between times in London, people bravely make appointments for extractions and such like in his extensive dental practice.

NIRVANA departed for Papeete April 27 quite happy about Rarotonga. Sharing this venture with Dr. Lawes are John Hunter, Colin South well, William Tomb, Kevin Ardill, Paul Cook, and Michael Resmarchelier. • TAHOE, 33 ft. schooner, arrived Rarotonga from Papeete April 21 New Zealand-bound from Vancouver with a crew of three —Australian Reg. Blake, Canadian Fred Sheppard (joint owners) and American Bob Brude, the latter to pull out in Rarotonga, it is under stood, TAHOE is expected to depart late May for Auckland with three Cook Islanders to help out. • KURU, luxurious 78-ft. motor cruiser owned by Robert D. Fraser of San Francisco,

and Diana Hepworth's "Arthur Rogers” irl Cruise fame, now more workboat ht, presented a New Look when she Auckland from the New Hebrides re- Cone are the former top-masts and bowsprit, and a house has appeared What was the cabin is now a cargo Photo: J. P. Shortall.

i guest Mr. Ralph Luce, and commanded a paid master, Captain Robert Walsh, with crew, arrived at Suva from Papeete May Mr. Fraser said there was a possibility he might sell the vessel to the French nesia government which had shown an rest in her. KURU is well supplied with Ironic aids, a sailing skiff, and launch, rooms, showers and all conveniences. She built in 1930 for American author Stewart ard White, and taken over by the US Navy 'P-102 during the war.

WHITE HART, salmon fisher-yacht which been at Auckland for many months past, seriously damaged by fire at sea between [land and Whangarei in the early hours flay 23. Owner Tony Reeves had to jump board and was picked up by a fishing i\ which was quickly on the scene—as was ain Fred Ladd with Tourist Air Travel's fiibian aircraft, sent out by Search and ue Organisation. The gutted hulk was d inshore near Mangawhai Heads, Leigh, Ishing boats anxious to clear it from one heir favourite trawling grounds. WHITE f was built in the West Indies by Tony es and was a sturdy, well fitted ketch, has been for sale since reaching Auckland his second visit. The Canadian-registered cruised Polynesia last year.

TREKKA with John Guzzwell of Canada led Coff's Harbour, New South Wales, 37 out from Auckland late in May. He was ing for Sydney but when 40 miles off he first becalmed and set far to the south, battered by a gale and blown north yacht was laid up in a northern N 7 po>-t a long neriod after arrival from Cana i Guzzwell cruised to Australia and South

ussia's non-magnetic survey schooner rya" which will visit Micronesia later in year (see page 103).

Photo courtesy NIZMIR, Moscow.

America in the TZU HANG. (He went missing in cyclone off NSW coast mid-June).