Teiko' Tragedy : Tongan Ship

Missing with 21 Aboard

From Staff Writer J. P. Shortall in Nukualofa, and Special Correspondents.

The Kingdom of Tonga is reeling from the effects of the wgic blow which follows the disappearance of its brand ?w tuna fishing vessel “Teiko”, carrying 21 people.

DSE aboard include the entire trained fishing staff from the Tongan training vessel Alai na, with which Tonga has id to enter the long line tuna ness; and the Japanese fishing >er who has been employed by [Tongan Government especially [-he work. crious pieces of the wreckage [ie Teiko have been picked up vide areas of the Tongan is s, but no substantial portions he wooden hull to indicate a olete breakup. No bodies have found. ne Teiko is 114 tons, and arrived Japan on delivery only last ±h with a Japanese crew, ih were replaced at Pago Pago n ongans for the voyage to Nu :ofa.

Sailed Empty

ie sailed from Nukualofa for i Pago empty on the morning search 17. There, after minor irs to a deck winch, she was lad ice and make her first fish bruise north of Samoa. hen she left Nukualofa she was :r the over-all control of the :-nese fishing master, Isamu and with a Tongan navigat i captain, Manase Latu. There 17 other Tongans aboard, plus Tonga-born Indian cook and vpanese chief engineer. :r last radio contact was on afternoon of March 18 when

she was probably just south west of Vavau.

It has been estimated that the Teiko in the next 24 hours would have passed close to the centre of a hurricane, but no distress calls were received at Nukualofa, Pago Pago or Apia.

She was due at Pago on March 22 at the latest, and an air search was requested on March 28 and began the following day.

Flying-boats of the RNZAF based in Suva, assisted by Tongan ships,

searched until April 2, when the RNZAF called off her aircraft.

Search Called Off In that time they found wreckage along the east coasts of many is lands in the Vavau and Haapai groups. One of the pieces had the name Teiko on it.

Teiko carried life rafts and life belts, but had no boat or life boat transmitter.

It was learned in Nukualofa that the stability tests on the craft car ried out in Japan were quite satis factory. A possible explanation to the disaster is that Teiko failed to receive the hurricane warning, or under-estimated its violence.

An insurance cover of thfe vessel, which is valued at about £50,000, had not been arranged at the time of the loss.

Teiko is named after the Tongan word for the sooty tern (see p. 53), and is latest of the ships ordered by Prince Tungi to help build up Tonga’s maritime fleet.

Teiko would have been the first South Pacific vessel to engage in Japanese long line methods of deep water fishing with an Islands crew, and her operations were being watched with the keenest of in terest. Tonga held great hopes for her (see p. 101).

The missing 114-ton Tongan vessel "Teiko”.