Pacific Shipping And Cruising Yachts

The GEIC’s new twin-screw cargo and passenger vessel, nga, was launched in Hongkong on September 11 by Mrs. J. ewitt, wife of the Hongkong Government’s Director of Marine.

I Nivanga, 137 ft. overall, 28 ft. noulded breadth, and 10 ft. led depth, is similar in design :onstruction to the GEIC vessel oria, which was launched at oon docks almost three years Nivanga was launched at the kong and Whampoa Dock Co. yards, and she will be used in island service in the Gilbert and Group and for voyages to Fiji. 3 Nivanga (see photograph in news pages of this issue) has imodation for 56 passengers, 23 rs and crew. in machinery comprises two [ier BL3B marine diesel engines, developing 200 bhp at 1,000 with a reduction gear giving a Her speed of 333 rpm under

normal conditions. Auxiliary mach inery is also Gardners.

The Nivanga will replace two smaller Colony vessels, the RCS Tematapula and the RCS Nareau, both of which have been sold to concerns in the Marshalls.

• Explosion. Mr. H. J. Hem

pel was taken to Honiara hospital in a serious condition with burns and shock following an explosion aboard his 50 ft. trading vessel, New Life, at the small jetty at Point Cruz, Honiara, on September 21. Mr.

Hempel is a private contractor, and in the engine room he was welding the fuel tank when it exploded. Mr.

Hempel and the bosun, John Toliole, who was assisting him, were both thrown by the blast to the other side of the engine room, and two natives on deck fell down the hatch to the engine room. Some others dived overboard. One of the natives who fell down the hatch, Joe Dickinson, and Mr. Hempel, were both un conscious. Toliole acted quickly, got both unconscious men out, and then extinguished the fire with bags soaked in water.

• Weather Troubles. The

New Hebrides British Residency vessel Euphrosyne 11, which doesn’t like bad weather anyway, really turned its nose up when it was due to leave Vila for Tanna and the southern islands on September 14. She was delayed 48 hours, and when she finally did get away she returned to

harbour after three hours’ sailing.

Finally on September 16, en route for Tanna, she was forced to heave to for five hours. • OFF THE AIR. The Colorado del Mar dragged and broke the sub marine telephone cable between Vila and Iririki Island while dropping anchor on September 15, leaving the British Residency and Baton Memorial Hospital, both of which are on the island, without communi cations to the mainland. Within a few days emergency cable was being laid.

"John Williams VI", the IMS ship based on Suva, is to be replaced next year by a new ship half her size. The new ship will be based at Tarawa, in the Gilberts. Building of the new ship will start in the UK at the end of this year. See p. 101.

Photo: S. A. Whippy

Western Pacific High Commissioner, Mr.

Trench, comes ashore at Ocean Island his first official tour of the GEIC recently, met by the Resident Commissioner, Mr. chi. Mr. Trench travelled in the "Coral Queen".

Photo: David Lopian

MISHAP TO VITI\ Although ss signals were sent out by the m motor ship Viti after she : a rock pinnacle off Whangarei > on September 9, she was able ich Auckland unaided, ned now by Mr. C, A. Odell, /as bringing timber from Ballina, , when she struck Bream Rock .10 a.m. about a mile off garei Harbour entrance, and a oot hole was ripped in the bow 5 water line. Fresh water tanks d the point of impact are said v& cushioned the shock. i’s distress call was heard as far as Honolulu. A preliminary •y was to be held into the ;nt.

Same Name, New Ship:

Williams VI, the London anary Society vessel based at is to be replaced in 1962 by a ship, to be based at Tarawa in filberts. No new name has been n for the new ship, but it will ibly be John Williams VII. The at JW, has accommodation for :ck and seven saloon passengers, /as built in Hull in 1946, bought le LMS in 1948 and converted, was launched by Princess aret and named after the 19th ry missionary, murdered in the Hebrides in 1839. e new vessel will have a steel i and keel, accommodation for issengers, and a wooden hull so repairs can be made at Tarawa.

DOUBLE CANOE: Possibly ast double canoe ( drua ) to be in Fiji arrived in Suva on Sep er 18, from Kabara in the Lau p. Named Gaunavou the canoe ‘ the journey specially for the Hibiscus Festival. She was on ay and took people for cruises ad the harbour. On arrival, the

crew in traditional dress pursued a number of fleet footed young women through the city as part of the Fijian custom known as cere. • US VISIT: The United States Navy ship Burton Island is scheduled to visit Suva, Fiji, from October 20 to 22. • A BOOK ON JOYITA : Some one advertised in the Samoa Bulletin on September 15, offering to pay “good prices” for any photographs or negatives if possible, of Captain “Dusty” Miller of the ill-fated Joyita or any of the passengers and crew who left on board the vessel in

October, 1955. Personal information was also sought. Maybe someone has a book in mind, or perhaps Viscount Maugham wants authentic material for the film script he is writing based on the story of Joyita’s disappearance.

• No Coals From New

CASTLE: Figures published in Noumea show that the Nickel Co. received during August more than 20,000 tons of coke from Bremen, Germany, delivered by three British ships, Ashburton, Waybank, and Southbank. Other shipments are to arrive. According to the Nickel Co,, German coke is not only cheaper but better quality than Australian coke.

R'S VISIT. From the Antarctic to the the Norwegian owned tanker [?]ov", seen here in Lae, New Guinea, she recently brought a first shipment dard Vacuum super grade petrol. Both and Vacuum announced simultaneously [?]ility of the new petrol in Port Moresby [?]e. The "Thorshov" had just returned efuelling one of the whaling fleets in the Antarctic.

Photo: Pat Robertson

SHIPPING CALLS: There has i marked increase in shipping t Avarua, Cook Islands, in the 1 months. Southbound ships of atson Line began making regu its to Rarotonga in mid-1960 ad made six calls by March, aelping to improve contact with ands and the outside world. :tober, 1960, the old Maui e was replaced on the New d-Cook Islands run by the larger and faster Moana Roa. calls included five by vessels of ion Company, and two each by usader Line and Reefer Ship 3. The cruise ship Bergensfjord anje also visited Rarotonga.

ISH BITES MAN; Returning to a Malaita, BSI, village in I canoe after dark, a man was 1 in the right knee joint by r s of a fish, the terminal three of both jaws breaking off at n level and remaining in the •int. Each jaw was about half i wide at its broken end and Jtween 24 and 30 teeth, a of an inch long. The fish is a “Bokofu” on Malaita. It is ly four feet long, and is thin ake like, after the pattern of h. It is reported to use great o follow flying fish, and it is : to have been after one of when it attacked the man in loe. [RST LINK: The first section round the world Common telephone cable—across the '■ —is nearing completion. The

British cable ship Monarch sailed from Southampton early in Sep tember, to lay the last 500 mile stretch. Approximately 2,100 nautical miles of submarine cable and 86 submerged repeaters or amplifiers, will have been used for the trans- Atlantic section. The second section of the £Stg.Bo million cable project will link Canada with New Zealand and Australia in 1964. A start will be made on laying the cable between Australia and New Zealand next year.

Proposals for the third section, providing telephone connection be tween Australia, Malaya, and Hong kong through New Guinea and North Borneo are now being studied by the Governments concerned.

• Floating Church: Ex

pected to be launched in December, 1961, at the Ballina Slipway (NSW) is the 87-ft Southern Cross IX for the Church of England Diocese of Melanesia, which includes the Caroline, Marshall, Gilbert and Solomon Islands groups. The new vessel will replace Southern Cross Vlll which was lost in heavy seas about a year ago at Guadalcanal. On board the new ship will be an altar and a sick berth accommodating 24 people. It will be the floating home of the Rev. A. T. Hill, Bishop of Melanesia,

• Tarawa Master Re

TIRES: Captain Bill Farrell, Gilbert and Ellice Islands senior ship’s master, has left Tarawa on pre-retirement leave. Captain Farrell first went to the Colony in 1950 and for 11 years had been Master of RCS Nareau which until the arrival of RCS Ninikoria in 1959 was the Resident Commissioner’s touring vessel. RCS Nareau has been sold. • VITYAZ : The oldest ex peditionary vessel of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet is to resume work in the Central Pacific, involv

APPROACH. When HMNZS "Royalist” approached Suva wharf recently carrying the ealand Governor-General, Viscount Cobham, who had been making a South Pacific the ship came in at too wide an angle and was put astern for a third of the [?]ance of the dock and had to make a second approach. Here she is coming in.

Photo: Rob Wright

STRUCK TROUBLE. The American owned "Yankee Doodle", in Suva recently with its owner, a former school teacher turned manufacturer of school athletics equipment, Mr. Jack Marston (pictured), his wife and 11 year old daughter. Also on the yacht were an Auckland couple, Mr. and Mrs. John Smith, who joined at Honolulu "Yankee Doodle's" next port of call is Auckland where the Smiths will leave her, and the Marstons will go on to Sydney. They are due back in Mr. Marston's home town, Portland, Oregon, in September next year.

"Yankee Doodle" struck Belcher's Rocks about 10 miles from Suva, on August 22, but there was no damage to the steel hulled yacht.

Photo: S. A. Whippy

:ismic and acoustal soundings, ivestigation of circulation and ire of water masses. Vityaz ) visit Honolulu for the Pacific e Congress where light was to d on the results of its 12 years in the Pacific and Antarctic hen proceed to Tahiti before g a large oceanic survey to

>Uva-Levuka Boat Race:

meting of Suva boat owners d in September that the Suva a boat race should be revived sssion Weekend in Fiji. It will e a yacht race but one open craft. Entry fee will be £l/1/-. e race will start in the Kaba it is hoped that cutters and ships will take part. Corn organising the event on the sr 7 week-end comprises n Hough, Messrs. Harry Houng Valter Whippy, Wilfred Bentley, wins and Willoughby. Mr. W. mson won the Vacuum Oil Cup •0 in the motor ketch Argo.

Shipping Cattle; Kar-

New Guinea Line 600-ton (see PIM, August, p. 97) has orted over 500 head of cattle w Guinea in the past year. It ed the old Slevik which trans i many cattle while chartered iama Estates. The No. 2 hold evik is partitioned to take 90 ) cattle. On a recent trip from 5 to Lae, 86 head of Zebu cross s were loaded at night direct road transports. At first some

took fright when the vessel sailed, but all settled down and arrived in Lae, remarkably clean after a week on board - • NFW boat FOR crr>. a • N£ W BOAT FOR STC: An 83-tl motor vessel Pip, has been launched in Hongkong for the Steamships Trading Company of Shipbuilding 1 launched in September will join a fleet of 16 others on the coastal trade.

• New Zealand Tuna

FISHING: J. Wattie Canneries Ltd., has purchased the Bluff crayfishing vessel Olwyn with a view to establish-

ing a tuna fishing industry at Gisborne. The company has engaged an American expert, Mr. Dari W.

Phillips, who will operate the 57-ft boat - Although the Olwyn is smaller than Ja p ane se craft used in the Gan, Pacific and not ideal for , h industry, she was the best available a t the time and will be adapted for '“>* « investigations proVe s “ ( ccessful the company will approach the NZ Government for licences and if warranted, larger boats will be used. Four attempts by the cannery to import Japanese tuna have been refused by the NZ Government because of import restrictions.

/een 70 and 80 Japanese fish- Dats are now in the South based at Samoa, and the Hebrides, hauling an £ of 17,000 tons of tuna a Japan is exporting frozen tuna e quantities, particularly to the States, which took 134,000 i 1959. iSIP ADDITION: A recent n to the BSIP commercial fleet L ilihina, built and fitted out by Roderick J. Cox, of “Lilihina” ion, Marovo Lagoon, New a. ship, a 38-ft copra and general vessel is of 10-ton capacity, as designed by Sydney naval ct, Arthur N. Swinfield. It ;onstructed mainly of local by Mr. Cox, with one native it. It is double planked and i on heavy scantlings. Beam feet 4-inches, draught 4-feet, ower is a 6-cylinder diesel )ing 85-hp. vessel is busily plying general and copra in the Western t.

Cox has had experience in g dinghies and large sea-going rans, mostly in Queensland. hipping line without : When the 4,324-ton liner ? (built 1926) left Sydney for t time on August 15, its owners

the Australian Oriental Line, had no ships in service. Captain Eric Beehan, in command on this final voyage to the Hongkong shipbreakers, also took another AO Line vessel Changte, to the breakers’ yards earlier this year.

Taiping’s regular master, Captain T.

Haworth was to join the ship in Brisbane. The ship has been on the Australia-Far East run for many years.

News of Cruising Yachts

• L’EOLE, 30-ft two masted yacht owned by the late Guy Clabaut who died from the rigours of his around world voyage (see PIM, Sep tember, 1961) has been sold in Noumea for about £l,OOO at auction.

New owner is Andre Gaillard, a local business agent, L’Eole has an electrically welded metal hull, no motor and has about a 12-foot beam. • DOROTHEA, a 31-ft cutter built in England in 1934, was due to leave Papeete for Honolulu in Sep tember with skipper Peter Tangvald, of Norway, aboard. With a French friend, Tangvald has spent the last three months sailing the Tuamotus, Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora, Huahine, Raiatea and Tahaa. Dorothea has no engine, no electricity, no winches, radio, etc. • TIBURON, owned by American Ed Vessey, which sailed from Samoa to Fiji and New Zealand, was due to leave Auckland in September on

its way back to Tonga and Samoa.

While in American Samoa earlier this year, Ed married a Samoan girl Volita who is cruising with him. • SEA CHANTY, skippered by E.

C. Monk, left Whangarei, NZ, on September 16 on a return trip through the Pacific to Canada. Sea Chanty arrived in NZ about two years ago after a two year voyage. Crew for the return trip is Messrs. L. Connell and J. Bauer, of Whangarei, and M.

Turk, of Auckland, with Canadian E. C. Monk at the helm. • MAKOA, also from the US, left Papeete about the same time with

"Si Yi Pambili" was wrecked in the Austral Group in August. See p. 111.

Mr. and Mrs. Don Gillum mage daughter aboard.

EA STAR, from Seattle (US) oner with three people aboard Papeete recently according to e dropped to RIM, from ' Floyd Christenson (Marinero). iARINERO, 38-ft ketch, from ido (California), with Mr. and 7 loyd E. Christenson and son aboard which has been in e, since January was due to end of August for the Cook irotonga and Fiji, with crew t Fred Sibthorpe. iOOD NEWS, 55-ft yawl, on a the world voyage, and one of its in the Tahiti-Honolulu race, Suva in September. iANU RERE, 34-ft gaff rigged er skippered by Wes Herr was ye Papeete in September for i with one Tahitian, one Aus , and one American aboard.

EA FEVER, owned by Larry argaret Alexander, with young •hnny aboard, left Papeete in ■ for the Leeward Islands, nga, Tonga and Fiji. *HOENIX, the 30-ton yacht made world headlines when

Dr. Earl Reynolds sailed her into the Bikini atoll area as a protest against American nuclear tests in 1958, may well be on the front pages of the Press during October. For the pacifist Dr. Reynolds left Hiroshima, Japan, on September 25 bound for Vladivostok to protest against Russia’s resumption of H-Bomb tests. He was accompanied by his wife, son, daughter and one crew member. Some 1,500 people fare welled the yacht which has six months food and water aboard but no Russian entry visa. • FAIR WEATHER, a 57-ft gaff rigged schooner, on a 10 year world

cruise has left Acapulco, Mexico, and is bound for the Marquesas. On board are the Adams family, Bill, wife Suttie, and children Rick 19, Jon 16, Suttie 11 and Patrick 7.

Making up the crew is Vern Hansen. • DIANA, 41-ft ex-Falmouth quay punt, has been the floating home for seven years of Mr. Norman Egerton Young, CB, CMG, MC, aged 69. In 1954, when he retired Mr.

Young boarded the yacht to cir cumnavigate the world and has since visited 201 ports and anchorages.

Most of recent years’ sailing has been done in the Pacific and New Zealand waters, although during September he

laking his third visit to Fiji, g Gibraltar in 1954, Mr. arrived in New Zealand in then sailed 1,000 miles along eat Barrier Reef on the Aus coast in company with , the smallest craft to sail handed around the world.

Bade Winds, A 40-Ft

-sail cruiser” was expected to it the end of September on a from Lake Macquarie (NSW) ua-New Guinea, with Mr. and fames Hedwell and children, i, 17, Phil, 11 and Pam, 14. ledwells bought the cruiser Winds last year and said that ilready proved its seaworthiness ip to Noumea with a previous In New Guinea, Mr. 11 will look for work and con loing anything, including “skin- EW WORLD, 28-ft yacht with id Greda Graeber, a young a couple who are now ised Canadians, was due to Auckland in September, if keep -1 .their original plan from ! in May. While in Papeete, irked as an extra on “Mutiny Bounty”. iAYLIS, a 60-ft over-all ketch craft, has now probably in Papeete after sailing i Panama Canal on delivery from France. Owner Capt.

Jarnois, was aboard with crew

(all who live in Papeete) Serge Amour, Laris Kindinis, and one woman, Joulette Goiran, aboard.

PlM’s last report came from our man in Fort Amador, Panama Canal Zone. • SI Yl PAMBILI, 42-ft ketch, with five men on board was wrecked on the reef at Rurutu, in the Austral Group, 300 miles south of Tahiti about August 21. The ketch on a pleasure cruise, and owned by two Rhodesians, called at Rurutu to take on water before continuing from Tahiti to Auckland. When leaving the island’s lagoon, heavy seas smashed the ketch against the reef.

All were saved including an Aus tralian J. C. Harvey, 27, of Adelaide, who returned to Australia by air on September 25 from Tahiti. Accord ing to Mr. Harvey the men spent three weeks on the island before being picked up by the trader Paraita and taken to Tahiti. • SEPTEMBER SONG, having stopped over in Port Moresby, P-NG, for the last 10 months, was due to depart in September for return to the United States via Colombo, Ceylon, Aden, Suez and the Mediterranean. Finance for this stage of the journey was raised by Mrs. Lee working in the Magistrate’s Court and Dr. Lee practising dentistry and making a number of ABC talks. • S. K. WING, aboard the ketch John Hanna, at Watchorn Anchorage, San Pedro, California, writes a friendly letter asking for informa tion about the schooner Canton —or more likely, any piece of it—in Canton Island in the Phoenix Group.

Mr. Wing, who is a descendant of

a long line of Englishmen despite his name, says his great-great-grandfather discovered Canton by accidentally running aground on it and he would like to hear of anyone with any knowledge of the disaster or of the location of any remains. • ATE A, from the Bay of Islands, NZ, arrived in Avatiu Harbour (Cook Is.) via Tahiti in August with owner R. M. Mcllvride, his wife and daughter Patricia, Harry Hudson and William Roberts. Leaving Tahiti on July 20, Atea called at Moorea, Raiatea and Bora Bora. Next port of call for Mcllvride, who is commodore of the Bay of Islands Yacht Club, will be Suva, Fiji. • TANGANUI, also arrived in August at Avatiu (Cook Islands) from Tahiti with W. N. Alfred and B. T. Clifford, Auckland yachtsmen aboard. Tanganui will also head for Suva. • SVEA, an American yacht from Tahiti, in the Cooks in August with R. Y. Kettredge, Mary Kettredge and Robert Kettredge aboard, was to go on to Nukualofa, and then join the yachting procession to Fiji. • KEHUA, made the fourth yacht from Tahiti to arrive in Avatiu Harbour in August. • EVE, 29 ft yacht, reached Vila from Tahiti on September 3, and fol lowing a battery explosion on board the craft in Vila harbour, one of the crew members, M. Sauzier was taken to hospital in a serious condition. • NELEH, 34 ft ketch, with Captain Louis Reese, and Teero Raa, was in Honolulu from Tahiti after a 56 day passage reported by the Cap-

BAUL. Rabaul interests recently pur the "Talama" from Australasian [?]m Company, Port Moresby, but instead [?]g her to Rabaul she was shipped aboard "Soochow". Here she is arriving in Rabaul.

Photo: M. R. Hayes

HERE AGAIN. Back in South Pacific waters again, the Russian re search vessel "Vityaz".

See p. 103.

to be very rugged—two good and 54 days of storms. Also in lulu from Tahiti is the Farida, ketch with Mr. and Mrs. Claude on and two crewmen, and ess, schooner with Bob Ferris hree crewmen, 31 days out of Bora.

PATSY JEAN, 33 ft ketch, is in lulu with Brian White and two len, after a leisurely cruise from through Christmas and ng Islands. One member of the Amosa Arena, of Rarotonga, a Honolulu correspondent he njoying Hawaii and sent his re to family and friends back WESTWARD HO, a yawl re bought by a missionary with iling experience for a planned ar trip in the South Seas con g the natives, returned to Hilo, ii, a few hours after putting out,

beset by sea sickness and a leaking ship. • POSEIDON, with Jack and Leah Wheeler and family, is reported out ward bound from Honolulu to Truk, where Jack has a Government job in the radio field. The Wheelers cruised extensively through the Pacific several years ago in their ketch Gemini. • RAMONA, motor sailer with Captain Malcolm MacDougall, has sailed from the Marquesas to Maui, Hawaii in 22 days. Crewmen include Ralph Sprague, of Auckland, who is living aboard the Ramona in Hono lulu. • C’EST LA VIE, 23 ft sloop left Sydney on October 2 bound for New Zealand and Tahiti. On board

were two Sydney men, Lyall Price, 26, of Dee Why, and John Pryke, 25, of Queenscliff.

[?]irst's "Staghound", a 40 ft ketch which [?]n seen in the New Hebrides, the Solomons [?]abaul lately. Hurst is an American.