Pacific Shipping And Cruising Yachts

All round the South Pacific, and probably in waters mucn more distant, seamen were speculating in March on the strange •>ase of the yacht Drifter, which put into Auckland on March 6 after 202 days at sea at the end of a passage which might normally have taken 20 to 30 days. (PIM, Mar., p. 133.)

T HILE yachtsman Moore was not a professional navigator he was a man of more than average “lligence —a Bachelor of Science, jualified marine radio officer who Jl served in Union Company ships, Ji a yachtsman of a good deal of 3stal experience who had proved deep-sea navigational ability by dking a direct passage from Well- Jton to Rapa Island last May jie and from there making oarently uneventful runs to Man >eva, Papeete, and Rarotonga.

Iloore used the Marc St. Hilaire :tem of navigation and employed uerican HG2II (Ageton) altitude Ji azimuth tables.

'lie Search & Rescue organisation Ji been unable to assemble any Sence that Drifter was equipped Jh radio, but in actual fact the [:ht was perhaps better equipped this respect and with general 3ety devices and navigational aids ji any yacht of her size ever to Lise the Pacific. r 7he main transmitter, for voice E 3 morse, was a war-surplus NZ my ZCI model—a type used in my NZ smallcraft and by radio ;ateurs. This was capable of erating on the 2182 kc/s distress ]quency and also on the 3.5 and 7 j s amateur bands. Moore is a ensed radio “ham”.

' r or emergency use he had a war ■plus Gibson Girl distress trans fer of the self-contained type ;h hand-wound generator. :Ie had a direction-finding loop upled to the ZCI receiver, which io had a medium-frequency band picking up ordinary broadcast -7 stations. So it was possible to le a fair sort of radio bearing of oadcasting stations with this out in addition, Drifter is probably of the very few cruising yachts post-war years to carry a port le radar reflector to aid in an search. The yacht also carried Aldis signalling lamp, a col- Dsible canvas dinghy, and an air ift rubber dinghy. There was also range-finder device to aid coastal ivigation.

The yacht itself, built in Los igeles about 1937 and sailed to .ckland about 1939 by the estrom brothers, appeared little is worse after nearly seven Dnths at sea. Paint was peeling, :t the standing and running rig ,ig, and most of the sails, appeared

in good order. The working sails were of stout canvas and a big dacron balloon-jib was carried.

Cutter-rigged, and measuring 30J ft x 10i ft x 53 ft, the yacht was equipped with a 5-hp, single cylinder Ruston diesel motor which was in working order.

While the yacht itself was well equipped, it was very evident that Moore is not an orderly or systematic seaman or navigator.

Below decks there appeared to be a place for everything but nothing in its place.

The cabin was full to table-top level with tins, boxes, sails, maga zines, navigational gear and sundries of every kind in utmost confusion, though admittedly Moore seemed to know where to put his hand on most of these items!

His log, fairly regularly entered, occupied three foolscap-size exer cise books in very dog-eared condi tion, at first in pencil and now all but obliterated, and later entered in ink.

After leaving Rarotonga on August 16, Moore said that he ex perienced a fair-weather passage down to Cape Palliser just north of the entrance to Cook Strait —at least that is where he thinks he was 4i weeks after leaving Avarua Harbour.

But neither then or at any later date did he ever positively identify any headland or light in three months of beating about in Cook Strait. Because of constant poor visibility and inability to identity landmarks he was unable to locate the Wellington entrance up to mid- December.

He would get a glimpse of land, perhaps motor in to take a closer look, fail to identify, then motor out to the safety of deep water in the hope that conditions would improve.

Thus a great deal of his diesel fuel was expended, later limiting his ability to charge his radio batteries.

Is he still convinced that he really was in Cook Strait and not some where much further north on the NZ coast —perhaps in the Bay of Plenty?

“Look, I’ve crossed Cook Strait a dozen times; I know the area well,’’ is Moore’s reply—in rather uncon vinced tones.

There is now no doubt at all the 500 kc/s morse distress call picked up by the ship Cornwall on Oc tober 9 originated from the Gibson Girl aboard Drifter, and a study of the circumstances suggests strong evidence that the yacht was much nearer the Bay of Plenty than Karori Rock in Cook Strait—where Moore thought that he was on that date when he sent several calls.

Performance of a Gibson Girl transmitter depends very consider ably on the use of the kite to hoist the 300-ft aerial wire. When Moore unpacked his kite he found

Drifting yachtsman James Moore, as he looked after 202 days at sea. "PIM" shipping rounds man Jim Shortall took this photograph in Auckland.

; water had penetrated the unis t e r and had corroded aluminium rods forming the apsible frame. He managed to round that problem but when started to pay it out, the short .1 which attaches to the aerial parted and the kite blew away, would have paid him to put :at and recover it. Instead he li the yacht’s backstay as an sal. This is fitted with insulators is intended for use by the ZCI ismitter. It is much too short to « good radiation on 500 kc/s, so range would be very limited, scially in day time, herein lies the clue which ingly suggests that Moore was here near Cook Strait on O/er 9. The ship Cornwall was the 7 station to intercept the calls :ie at 10.50 a.m. and another at p.m., that is, in broad day t—and Cornwall was then near :t Cape. Wellington Radio never ;rd either call. loore then made what he now nits was a wrong decision, searching aircraft came over yacht, in poor visibility. Had ore then made contact with the :raft by radio or with his Aldis p the search would have been :ed. Instead, because of the poor bility and general weather condi is, he decided that if searching

craft were sent out at that time th;y would never sight him and might get into trouble themselves — so he ignored the aircraft.

The search, in widely separated areas, near Karori Rock, Cape Karikari, and Makoriri —all possible places with names resembling Karori cost £BOO, plus an unknown but much greater sum in diversion of shipping, including HMNZS Kaniere, and other costs. It was abandoned on the second day.

Moore stated that at no time dur ing the period from the latter part of September, when he arrived near New Zealand, up to early March was he able to get a decent celestial sight. He did indeed take many

sights—“but they didn’t make sense”.

Instead of getting a “fix”, Moore seems to have got a fixation —that he was in fact all the time in the Cook Strait area. So when he did take a sun, moon, or star sight, he did so with the firm conviction that they must necessarily place him there.

When these sights instead placed him somewhere far from Cook Strait, as an inspection of his log shows, he brushed them aside. He seems to have lost all faith in his celestial navigation. He became con vinced that the horizon was un suitable for sights, or that there was some other peculiar refraction causing the trouble. (Over)

was able to receive time 2.1 s fairly regularly to check his ji. He knew how to deal with ;ilata in the nautical almanac the end of 1959 so that he still work sights. Meanwhile, jut keeping any close account js movements by dead reckon -9© seems to have sailed a series itterns calculated to bring him intact with land after he lost of it apparently some time );cember. cor to that he was in sight of notified land fairly frequently, 1 frightened to approach too iy. As he rightly says, Cook £ is no coastline to be prowling Ji in a small yacht with a low red engine unless you know isely where you are. There are g tides and many dangers, (•haps at first Moore was in Strait for a while—but it was ;.mtil the end of February that ; r as forced to accept the un vable —that he was then a long, way from Cook Strait. He Eed an isolated island. There ;ew islands on the New Zea- Dcoast from which the mainland Jt visible or within easy sailing.

Lach mainland lay close to this li, which he photographed and n has since been positively iified as Raoul in the Ker nes. ;;er he passed another island a may or may not have been lis. These islands agreed with celestial sights. Heading back :rds New Zealand early in [;h, Moore got a four-star fix h placed him about 80 miles n-east of North Cape. From ; on in to Auckland was plain iig. oore’s log shows that he sent srous distress calls on 500 kc/s the Gibson Girl after the calls ;d on October 9. He also sent y other calls in morse on 2182 —because his batteries were in :Door a condition to use voice— ihe also sent other calls on the :nc/s amateur band. None of e was heard. xe his celestial sights, Moore would not believe his radio ings, which clearly indicated a ion north-east of the North jid. sas he worried about the situ ii? Very little, apparently for (first four or five months when nad ample food. ;om then on he was reduced to [ls and unpolished rice. He pro id plenty of drinking water by llling seawater with an ordinary isure cooker, and later heavy gave him ample supplies. He two stone in weight but ;ared in good condition at 10 ;e on arrival at Auckland, ue is tempted to believe that I food supplies became low, ire was perfectly contented to lain at sea. He was convinced he would eventually make land

again after losing sight of it in December. Meanwhile he was content to read and re-read Jacques Maritain’s Introductions to Philosophy, Introductions to Logic, and Preface to Metaphysics. These books, he says, made all the difference.

They contained endless food for there was ample time In mid-March the yacht was for

"some companions—

would again" head for Wellington 5 •

• Better Radio Watch In

SOLOMONS: As a result of the loss of the two-year-old, steel Government vessel Melanesian, in July, 1958, and other shipping incidents in that area, Honiara Radio is now operating a 24-hour radio watch on three separate shipping frequencies.

This was stated at a Solomons Advisory Council meeting in recent months. It was also then stated that tenders were to be called almost immediately for a wooden vessel of about 80 feet overall length to replace Melanesian. This would be a very much smaller vessel than the 241-ton, 118-ft Hongkong built Melanesian.

• Engine-Room Mishap:

Tonga’s new longliner Teiko, en

route from the building yard in Japan, arrived at Nukualofa in February with a broken drive shaft coupling the main engines to the refrigeration plant. Repairs were made in Pago Pago.

A company is being floated in Tonga to take over the operations and the ship will be run on the Jap anese system of 60 per cent, for the owners and 40 per cent, for the crew, with captain, fishing master, chief engineer and radio operator receiv ing a fixed proportion of both these shares. Pay thus depends upon re sults.

A new arrangement has been made under which the Van Camp cannery at Pago Pago will take the tuna not required for home con sumption or other markets.

Last year Prince Tungi said in Suva that a group of Tongan boys would probably be sent to a Jap anese fisheries university. In accord ance with that plan it is probable that a Japanese language teacher will soon be hired to teach the prospective students enough Jap anese to be able to take the course in Japan.

Teiko brought from Japan a small liver oil extraction plant which is to be used experimentally. If it is

Round The

World

The 38 ft., 16 ton ketch "Sarong" dropped anchor in Sydney Har bour on March 24, after a round-the-world voyage begun on May 7, 1958.

Owner - skipper Ted King (with cap), seen here after the 39,000 miles trip with crew men, from left: Peter Neilson (Melbourne), Ken Payne (NSW —one of the originals), and Andy Sunstrom (Denmark).

Route was Darwin, Capetown, London, New York, Panama, Pacific Is., and NZ.

3:cess and a ready market cam jund for this vitamin-rich oil, £ger plant will be established.

This Month’S Bottles:

bottles were reported from i and the Cooks this month.

Helu, a Tongan employed in Ratanui tossed a bottle con ng his photo and a note over l as his ship lay in Levuka our in January, 1958. Late in nnber, 1959, Assistant Medical sr Jone Nasome, in the course medical patrol from Honiara, swimming off a beach on j.ell Island about 1,100 miles to r WNW of Levuka when he sed the bottle still afloat, and in course advised the sender.

February 4, Metua Tou, of [,ro Island, in the Cooks, picked bottle near Vainauru, on the coast, and found it contained :p of paper with the following “J. F. Wright, SS Waitemata, miles north of Rarotonga, J 59” 3e note would suggest that this ss had drifted eastward against ailing wind and current, but on xing it appears that the term ;:h” was used rather loosely, iship was then bound from Lcs >les to Rarotonga and was sfore north-east of Rarotonga [probably very close to Mitiaro. is an example of how lack of s.sion could lead to an incorrect [misleading conclusion.

[Expeditions Every

3RE: Just as the Russian non netic survey schooner Zarja 'ed at Wellington on March 14 :he course of her cruise from ;!sa to Vladivostok, with Apia sabaul next port, there was word sand of two other scientific cx tions. .ie big three-masted auxiliary :oner Verna, owned by the ogy department of Columbia T ersity, New York, lately carry out investigations into an earth : below the Indian Ocean, was fluled to call at Wellington in ■second week of April and seems iy to call at some Islands ports • as she heads homeward across Pacific. Early in March i-a, built 23 years ago as a pri yacht, was en route to Hobart ii Fremantle. om Rarotonga came a report d mid-February indicating that ,her American scientific expedi was expected there about April .nd would remain in the Cooks Ithree weeks in the course of a ear world cruise. Only other ,ils given were that the expedi ’s schooner, name not stated, i ten graduate students and e seamen aboard, had cleared ;ama, February 20. Could this be well known Yankee under her ownership and in a new role? a expedition ship of another I —she dropped in to Suva twice

last year, once as mother-ship to a tuna fleet and once as supply ship to a large mother-ship, called at Wellington in March in yet another role, this time as supply ship to an Antarctic whaling fleet. This was Tenyo Maru No. 3, of the Taiyo Company. She will be back on the tuna grounds in June.

• What Was This One?:

Several items of wreckage, including a table bearing the name A.Y.

ISLANDER were found on a beach at the far south of New Zealand, 33 miles west of Invercargill, early in March. It was suggested that A.Y. might stand for “auxiliary yacht” but no explanation of the origin of the wreckage, which was not very greatly weathered, could be found from inquiries in New Zealand.

• Starting Again: Taking

on stores and equipment at Rabaul in March was Okadagumi Salvage Company’s Chitose Maru, preparing for the company’s third big bite at salvage operations in the South Pacific The first major job was at Rabaul three years ago, followed last year by work at Bougainville, and now the salvage teams are turning their attention to the British Solomon Islands Protectorate.

Chitose Maru was at Rabaul mainly to collect a tug, a floating crane and a divers’ tender which had been mothballed there since the end of the Bougainville opera tions.

The floating crane will be missed from Rabaul where it has proved a useful standby for odd jobs in the harbour, ranging from repairs to one of the main wharfs to lift ing out a car which once plunged into 15 feet of water.

Operations in the Solomons Islands are expected to take at least nine months.

• She Wouldn’T Sink: Visit

ing New Guinea ports in March was Vacuum Oil’s 11,000 tonner Stanvac Nairobi, a tanker with the record of once having been the most badly damaged ship in marine history to stay afloat.

In 1940, operating then as James J. Maguire, she received unbelievable punishment from German bombing in the Atlantic. One of her sides was ripped away and the amidships superstructure was shattered. List ing violently and spreading thous ands of tons of dangerous oil cargo over the sea, she was considered lost.

But miracle seamanship from those of her complement who escaped death brought her back, although she subsequently settled on the bottom at her berth.

She was reconstructed, re-engined and re-named in 1951, and has logged extensive service since then.

The ship was Italian built in 1939. ® INTO SERVICE: After three months of extensive work (and an unofficial estimate of £14,000 ex

iiture) the steel motor vessel n went into service out of jlul on March 16 in her new > as a tanker. »e conversion was carried out ser owners, G. and M. Shipping pany of Rabaul, and she be ;s the first fully-ticketed tanker d at Rabaul. i ,ali carried her 70-tons of oil d in six tanks fitted into a [le-sided hull and bottom, leav isome hold space for general :d. If necessary portable tanks Ibe stowed in the general cargo space.

IDUE IN APRIL: Scheduled to e at New Guinea ports late in !l is the 11,000-ton cargo liner -.reems, first in a new Europe Tie Pacific service operated by Dutch shipping companies. ie companies are Royal Rotter- Lloyd and the Nederland Line, ir ships will become the biggest egular service into New Guinea, ie ships will be bound at nine ; intervals from London to verp, Bremen, Hamburg, terdam, Port Said, Aden, Singa , Bangkok, Borneo, Philippines, :: New Guinea, Lae, Rabaul, Port ssby, and optionally Madang. 7 will return by way of the ippines and Indonesia, taking t five months for the round ssenger accommodation will be tided for 12, and the service is cted to provide big freight sav in Europe to New Guinea tnents which normally are shipped at Hongkong and some s at Rabaul in addition, ie agencies in Rabaul and ang will be held by New Guinea pany Limited, and in Port 3sby and Lae by Burns Philp v Guinea) Limited.

Deteriorating; With Her

my uncertain, but on appear s unlikely to go into service n, the motor vessel Airco is

deteriorating rapidly after her un happy return to Rabaul in tow more than a year ago. She was towed from near New Ireland to Rabaul when engine trouble developed, and she has not moved since then.

Airco represents the last example at Rabaul of an interesting class of vessel. She was built during the war for special fast duties, and is Fairmile-hulled with double diagonal planking and laminated rib con struction.

A somewhat similar type of vessel operating out of Rabaul was MV Nuguria, a former wartime hospital ship tender which was fitted with a sick bay and an operating theatre.

Nuguria went down off the New Britain coast two years ago after sustaining hull damage while at sea.

• For Panama Flag: The

Union Company’s well known 7,211ton trans-Pacific freighter Wairuna, sold to a Hongkong company, took aboard a crew of 41 Chinese from Formosa in mid-March and changed her name to Bonna. From Auck land she was to head for Melbourne to uplift a cargo of flour for Colombo and is not likely to be seen again in Islands ports, so far as is known. She is now registered in Panama.

The Union Company also reported that several inquiries had been re ceived by prospective purchasers of the passenger liner Monowai which will be put up for sale on con clusion of an Islands cruise in June.

• Too Big For Suva: The

Orient & Pacific Line’s new Can berra, launched March 16, and due to enter service in June, 1961, will not be calling at Suva, according to a March statement. The 45,000ton vessel is considered too large to handle with the available facilities in that port. However, the new Oriana, 40,000 tons, is scheduled to call there when she enters service in December this year. Suva has no tugs to assist big liners which have sometimes been pinned to the wharf by an off-shore wind at time of departure. Canberra will carry 2 250 passengers at a service speed of 271 knots.

O Name Announced; Shaw

Savill announced in March that their 22,000-ton passenger liner in tended to operate a round-the world service with Southern Cross, will be named Northern Star. The keel was to be laid in April and the vessel should enter service in April, 1962. She will have engines aft, like the present vessel, and will carry 1,400 one-class passengers at a service speed of 21 i knots. Unlike Southern Cross, she will have a second dummy funnel structure forward near her bridge. From the published sketches many would con sider that the funnel design spoils the appearance of the ship—just as the funnels of existing Orient Line vessels mar their attractiveness.

• Those Mystery Funnels;

When the Tonga Copra Board’s new Aoniu arrived from Holland there was speculation regarding the big M on her funnel until it was learned that it stood for Mataka, which means copra. Then came the new Hifofua with a big P. That stood for Puleanga, meaning government.

And now comes Teiko, the tuna longliner, with a big T. That does not stand for Tonga or Tuna but for Toutai, which means fisher man!

• New Publications: Recent

Notices to Mariners advise that new charts have recently been issued for Rapa Island and for Ward Hunt Strait to St. George’s Channel in New Guinea waters. A chart of passages and anchorages in the Fiji Group and one of anchorages in the Solomons will follow soon. Two new charts of magnetic variations for the East and West Pacific are also on the way, as is a new chart of the Huahine-Maupiti area of French Polynesia and a revised chart of anchorages in the Loyalties. • THE OIL TRADE: Whether it was the steel strike in America or some other technical hitch was not quite clear, but the bulk oil tanks to be erected at Nukualofa were still not taking shape in March. Con sequently the Tonga Government’s ocean tug, Hifofua, and the Auck land-built steel oil barge had not commenced hauling bulk oil to Tonga from Samoa or Fiji.

There were rumours afloat that a small tanker in New Guinea watersI—perhaps 1 —perhaps Duali, reported this month as having been converted to a tanker at Rabaul —would be used

facuum Oil for the transport of □oil to Rarotonga as soon as the tanks are ready there. Pre- Ibly this tanker would not be £.ying only Rarotonga.

STILL SITTING: Smart in new light grey paintwork the 5Z coasters Inaha and Foxton, iioned last month, still lay side ede in Auckland in mid-March, Hirst-named with Vila on her and the other with Suva as □port of registry. Their move rs were uncertain pending cor mdence overseas. Captain >oon, formerly master of Maui are for many years, brought on round to Auckland for her owners from a West Coast iin March, and is currently re jig master in coastal vessels.

[Told Off, Proper: News

ftimes filters slowly from the mons but a statement made in EBSIP Advisory Council by the Commissioner some time ago, mot previously report :d in this mn, is still of interest.

Iferring to the reports of the me inquiries into the losses of Tnment vessels Melanesian, :a and Margery, the High Com iLoner said that they contained :,in criticisms which reflected irsely on the handling of the >, the standard of training of crews, and the organisation of Marine Department. The defects :ased, the High Commissioner must be corrected without de- Ibut the difficulties of effecting compliance with the new ship regulations which came into : on Januaiy 1, 1959, were :.idable, both for Government privately-owned Vessels. Still e could clearly be no question treating from the intentions to the standards of safety at sea ne Solomons.

[New Lease Of Life: The

Moresby-r egistered Cook ii nd s - based, 135-ton trader :ri, fitted with a new and larger leller, new rudder, and ex ions to the fins in the vicinity ier propeller, showed a gain in d of at least a knot when she ;rwent trials in Auckland in ::h prior to heading back for Dtonga. The effectiveness of the 10-inch bilge keels, also fitted, iase rolling, will be tested en :p

For Services Rendered:

appreciation for work done in ing to clear wire from one of propellers of the liner Himalaya >uva wharf in January, the P Line has presented the RNZAF divers club with a new com sor for filling their air bottles, •resent they pay about 15/- per . to commercial firms. appreciation for the services facilities of the new Suva Fly

ing Angel Club, the men of the Royal Navy tanker Olna, in port at the time of the riots, collected £2B as a contribution towards the repair of window damage caused by “persons unknown” at that time.

The money was handed over to the Rev. Figgess, club chaplain.

• Rolling Their Own: Some

1,700 Rotarians of Australia and New Zealand have “dubbed in” to charter the 29,614-ton liner Iberia in June next year, so that they can attend the international Rotary Convention at Tokyo. The ship will lie at Yokohama and the Rotarians will live aboard, shuttling between there and Tokyo by electric train each day.

• Papuan Replacement: For

30 years, the Seventh Day Ad ventist Mission has operated Diari in the Papuan Gulf waters, but she will be replaced soon by a new mission vessel now being built by Millcraft Pty. Ltd., at Bulimba, Queensland. As yet unnamed, she will be 48 ft long, with t.ansom stern, and be powered by a 76-hp Gardner diesel engine. Pastor Elwyn Martin, SDA president of the Delta area, will run her.

• Familar Name: The Nor

wegian shipping line, A/S Thor Dahl, which operates in the Pacific through General Steamship Cor poration Ltd., of San Francisco, will replace MV Thorshall with MV Thor I, in April. Thorshall is now on her final trip through Islands territories and will be withdrawn when she returns to USA early in May. Thor I is due to leave San Francisco late in April on her maiden voyage through the South Seas.

Built at Bergen, in 1955, Thor I is 7,850 tons dw., 448 ft oa., carries 12 first-class passengers, and is fitted with three refrigerated chambers (total capacity, 10,400 c. ft). Islands residents have fond memories of the original MV Thor, which operated in the trade from the inception of the Pacific Islands Transport Line service in 1938 until she was taken off in 1952. During World War 11, this small vessel was the only commercial link between USA and Tahiti, Samoa, Fiji and New Caledonia and kept those terri tories supplied during the critical period.

Nowadays, the six weeks’ service extends to New Guinea (mainly for plywood), Tonga and BSI. • JOY IT A FOR SALE; Apparently, the group of Vanua Levu planters, Fiji, who bought Joyita after she had been in the world Press head lines as a “mystery” ship in 1955, following her disappearance be tween Apia and the Tokelaus, have had enough of her — she was offered for sale in Fiji in late March.

She went missing after leaving Samoa on October 3, 1955, and when

3id five weeks later was a Jlict, with no trace of her 25 eengers and crew. She was sold Hr. D. Simpson, of Vanua Levu ner Hawaiian owners at public iion, and the planters later hired her when he died, ust year, in November, she inded on a reef at Vatuvula, but Led off and sailed for Levuka, ■re it was seen she was making :er. She was beached at Nasova, ;iau, where she is still lying.

1 Shipwreck Details; The

drama of the unsuccessful at cot to save the Japanese freighter c asaki Maru, aground in the Jt Carolines, was told in March fthe first time with the return Filabaul of one of the salvage 3S. ngasaki Maru, 8,397 tons, went ound on Helen Reef, north of cch New Guinea, on December 5 Ke bound from Japan to Aus ;ia (Pacific Shipping, PIM, Feb.). aptain and crew were taken off Ily in the teeth of a heavy gale •:ly two months later, and the mded ship is now abandoned. It not known in March whether further salvage attempts would made, but Japanese salvage iters in Rabaul considered this Ikely. ne full story came from officers [;he salvage ship Chitose Maru, ;:h stood by Nagasaki Maru for weeks, and which returned to :aul for the first time in March. hitose Maru had been at Rabaul [December preparing for a quick home to Japan when she was ently diverted to Helen Reef to Nagasaki Maru. :ie arrived at Helen Reef the after Christmas and found cap and crew still safely in \asaki Maru, but heavy weather building up. our days were spent jettisoning ;jo (consigned for Sydney and ▼ Zealand), and temporary re rs were started to the damaged •es under No.’s 1 and 2 holds, hen on December 30 a typhoon the area. Huge waves crashed oss the stricken ship. Some :er went so high that it crashed n the funnel into the already :ded engine room. Two men rowly escaped drowning when a e swept them across the deck. ! hitose Maru could do nothing stand off and ride out the ther. The water was too deep ;an efficient anchorage and there a continuous standby on the ines. in the third day of the typhoon msaki Maru shifted by the beam the reef, tearing holes in her .es and developing a list, or four weeks salvage attempts e continued but they proved teless. Finally a second rescue ), Togo Maru No. 2, took off msaki Maru’s complement, and grounded ship was left alone.