5,000 Ships
pp. 75-77 · Read in the full issue
Captain E. W. Harness
Retires From Fiji
He's Piloted 5,000 Ships
• Captain Edward Harness re tired at the end of October after 14 years as Suva’s harbour master —and a lifetime in the Islands.
CAPTAIN HARNESS, was born in Suva in 1908, and educated at the Suva Boys’ Grammar School. At 16 he got a job in the post office for a year, and then joined the Colonial Service as cadet-midshipman, serving in the HMCS Pioneer.
This vessel was the Governor’s yacht, and also served as a light house tender, and made visits to the Gilberts and Solomons.
In 1929 Ted passed for second mate in Auckland, and returned to the Pioneer as second officer. In 1932 he passed for first mate, also in Auckland, and as there was no vacancy in the service he decided to get some experience in merchant ships.
He sailed first in the schooner Lei Viti, which had been BP’s Motau, and the following year joined BP’s Malake, as second mate under Captain Donovan. In June, 1935, he rejoined the Colonial Service as chief officer of the Nimanoa at Ocean Island, and while there he married Miss Betty Leask, who had been born in Suva.
Pacific Activity
In 1937 there was a lot of activity in the Central Pacific about establishment of air-bases on the deserted atolls. There was rivalry and disputed sovereignty between the USA and Britain.
An early British move was to send the Nimanoa to erect notices
of British ownership on the deserted islands of the Phoenix Group, which was transferred to th 3 Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony.
The next step was to settle some 500 Gilbertese on the islands of Sydney, Hull and Gardner, while two other Phoenix Islands, Canton and Enderbury, became a British- American Condominium for joint use as air bases.
Gardner Island had no coconuts on it, though plenty of other trees, so they had to be planted, as part of the Phoenix Island Settlement Plan.
Ted got his Master’s Certificate in Sydney in 1938, and was given command of the Nimanoa in 1939,
trading around the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, the Phoenix Group and sometimes to Suva. He took a full load of coconuts from Vaitupu in the Ellice Group to Gardner Island, filling the whole ship’s holds, decks and spare cabins.
In 1941 he evacuated the Euro pean women and children from Tarawa to Beru, where they trans ferred to John Williams V.
The Nimanoa arrived at Tarawa three days after Pearl Harbour, and next morning the atoll was raided by Japanese marines.
They blew up the Nimanoa and put all the launches and small boats out of commission and then left.
They paid another visit a fortnight
Captain Harness —as Brett Milder sees him.
later, but this did not hold up the preparations Ted and his com panions were making to escape.
Tne party left on February 25 in a lifeboat towed by a launch.
They travelled by night from island to island until they got to the rendezvous at Nonouti. Here they were met by the Degei under Captain Webster from Fiji. They successfully evaded the daily aerial reconnaissance from the Jap bases in the Marshalls.
Piloted Minelayers
At Suva, Captain Harness was given the work of piloting American minelayers in Fijian waters. It was then that he became assistant harbour master.
In 1942 he was sent to Pearl Harbour with other shipmasters from the Gilberts—Heyen, Forbes, Page and Tschaun —to advise and assist in the attacks being planned by US forces. After six weeks in Hawaii the two task forces set out for the Gilberts, and finally re fuelled off Arorae.
They made simultaneous dawn attacks on Tarawa and Makin on November 2. Ted was in the Makin assault with Gerry Heyen.
Afterwards he returned to Suva, where he took over the duties of harbour master in 1944.
This has not been an armchair job.
He has piloted 5,000 ships of all sizes without accident.
Ted has also served as president of the Marine Board, chief surveyor of wooden hulls, and as a member of the Lighthouse and Beaconing Committee.
His hobbies have been sailing, fishing and bowls, and during his leave in 1953 he took BP’s MV Vasu around the Gilberts and Phoenix Islands to see for himself how the settlers were faring.
During his leave in 1956 he delivered BP’s Ratanui from Auck land to Suva, arriving back in Auckland six days later. He then went off to England with his wife and daughter Linda, leaving his two sons, Kenneth and Tony, behind.
"Melanesian" Inquiry
This year, a Commission of Inquiry into the loss of the Melanesian was set up in the Solomons, headed by the Senior Magistrate in Fiji, Mr. M. J.
Saunders. The other Commissioners were Ernie Palmer, of the Solomons, and Ted Harness.
The inquiry lasted nine days, and although valuable recommendations were made by the Commission, they were unable to determine the actual cause of the ship’s loss.
After this Ted was back in Suva -m time to pilot the Southern Cross into the harbour, for she carried the newly appointed Governor of
Fiji.
This was his final job before re tirement at the end of October.
He plans to settle in Auckland,
and may, if his feet get too itchy, visit Fiji each year to pilot overseas ships during the sugar season.
Although Ted has spent 50 years in the Islands he isn’t ready for a wheel-chair yet. He is sure to pop up in the Islands again before
long.-