Pacific Shipping And Cruising Yachts

Cruising Yachts

A shipping international incident of goodwill got under way in early July when a US Navy ship, USS Greenlet, did a job on a Dutch vessel, Pelikaan, in Suva, Fiji.

IHE Pearl Harbour-based sub- I marine rescue ship USS Green ly was 2,900 miles from home, in e course of a goodwill visit in the uuth Pacific when she did her good sed. ?When the Greenlet arrived in Suva ie was asked to free a three inch coring line entangled in the Dutch ipply ship’s port propeller shaft, ailure by the Pelikaan to clear the laft made her stay at Suva look definite. \Greenlet divers, who inspected e mass of snarled line, said later I was “the worst” they had ever sen. Ten Greenlet divers began ork on Pelikaan on July 4. They jcbed and snipped with portable itting equipment for seven hours cm a barge and Pelikaan boat, hey failed to free the tangled line, ext day Greenlet then came along de the supply ship and eight hours ler divers rid the shaft of the ne. vG reenlet left Suva on July 8, E>und for Guam and duty with the

US Seventh Fleet. Before visiting Suva, she had called at Pago Pago and Apia.

With the Dutch Pelikaan was a submarine, Walrus, both on their way to West New Guinea. In view of Indonesia’s undeclared war with the Dutch it is a wonder there wasn’t a big scream from Djakarta and a flock of diplomatic notes pass ing to Washington protesting against this American aid to the Dutch.

• Host To Navies Of The

WORLD: Suva was to be the host to 11 naval ships from five countries between July 1 and August 2. In addition to the Americans and Dutch, visitors included a Japanese flotilla of four destroyers which was on a goodwill and training cruise in the South Pacific.

HMNZS Rotoiti was also there, arriving on a training cruise, the day the Greenlet left. Two weeks later two RN submarines, HMS Tabard and HMS Tapir arrived.

Just before the Japanese flotilla sailed into Suva, HMNZS Lach lan, the survey ship, which has visited Suva many times on opera

tions, appeared.

Recently she has been employed continually on a major survey of the New Zealand coast, with winter assignments in the Pacific, including Western Samoa and Tonga.

® Fijians Replace

SPANIARDS: The Chief officer of the cable ship. Retriever (Mr. J. R.

Mackay) arrived at Suva from Auckland in late June to engage 55 local men to join the crew of the ship. The men left for Auckland on July 6 to relieve a Spanish crew, who were to sail home in the Southern Cross on July 11.

Required from Fiji for the Retriever were six quartermasters, 10 able seamen, four ordinary seamen, two deck boys, one leading engine room hand, five greasers, seven cleaners, one cook for officers’ galley, one second cook and baker, one crew’s cook, 16 catering crew and an electrical workshop assistant.

O Refloating A Fortune:

Former Fiji hotel owner, Mr. Barry Philp, in June bought the 100-ton Japanese fishing ship, Asahi Mam No. 8, which ran aground on a reef off Sigatoka on February 11. The purchase price is believed to be about £1,600.

Mr. Philp plans to attempt to refloat the ship, which would then be worth many times what he paid for

The French Navy ship "De Grasse" at Noumea wharf with the Japanese vessels be hind. (See page 111).

The Japanese squadron later went on to show the flag in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji.

I Associated with Mr. Philp in ; venture is Mr. Harry Oakes, 0 was electrical engineer for the /V Mocambo Hotel, constructed by 1 Philp near Nadi Airport last year li subsequently sold.

Asahi Maru No. 8 is believed to in fairly good condition, and not led. When new she was worth out £70,000. She was a year old sen she went on the reef.

9 Last Of The Mien A:

ptain J. W. Richmond’s famous f schooner, Miena, which has seen ttoric service in the South-West cific in peace and in war, is to I the way of most old ships these ys. She sank at her moorings at ilagi, BSIP, in May (June, PIM, f 140), but has now been raised d beached at Tulagi where she $ been bought by Chinese interests, ey began to break her up for scrap June.

• North Queensland

}RTS OUT: The Burns Philp Lii bich began to route its ships on the ustralia-New Guinea service through aims and Townsville, Qld., last lar will now withdraw some of em.

The freighters, Mortoro and r alekula, will continue to call there it cargo-passenger vessels Bulolo id Malaita will not. High costs id lack of freight are the reasons. • ANTI-FALLOUT: It took a [elbourne University Professor of bysics to convince the crew of the iosphate Commission’s Triellis that iey weren’t in much danger from illout from the current American aclear tests over Johnston Island.

The Triellis finally got away from Melbourne for the phosphate island of Nauru in mid-June carrying geiger-counters, protective clothing for the crew, and reassured by the Professor.

In the event, they were probably well away from Nauru before the many times delayed upper-atmosphere nuclear test was finally made by the Americans on July 9.

Nauru is about 1,000 miles from Johnston Island and probably had a good view of the auroral display that followed the 200-300 miles high blast. The pyrotechnics were very

clear in Hawaii, 750 miles away from Johnston; and Fiji and New Zealand much more than twice that distance away, also had good views.

Also having fallout jitters in June were the crew of the ex-New Zealand ketch Patsy Jean, now in American ownership and registry as Everyman 11. According to our Honolulu correspondent, they were, at end of June, “gaggling around the Pacific just outside the Johnston Island test area and giving the Atomic Energy Commission fits”.

After their recent appeal to the US Circuit Court in Honolulu to

[?] al youths of Japanese descent talking to [?] w members of the visiting Japanese navy vessels in Noumea. (See p. 111).

ohibit further atomic testing and permit them to sail into the test ;;a was refused, the three pacifists, Monte Steadman, Frank Zahn [j George Bennello, got permission sail anywhere outside of the 470 le radius test zone, irhe AEG then increased the zone Hius to 530 miles, and a US ;,ast Guard cutter on June 28 was route to the ketch carrying a US arshal who would deliver a court Her to them to back off the ad ional 60 miles.

Everyman II had, at that time, ;nt several days drifting just out e the old limit. Dr. Steadman d not been maintaining a radio ledule, but another Coast Guard tter had been riding herd on the llboat, which must make it the >t escorted sailing ship in recent pific history.

In general, Honolulu public inion seems a little less sympathetic yards Everyman II than to the jvious protests put up by Golden lie and Earle Reynold’s Phoenix. 3st Americans are becoming ligned to further testing just as a iy of life.

• Reef Channel For

UJRU: Work commenced in June f the excavation of a channel rough the reef at Nauru, at a int near the western end of the strip. The project is being anced by the Local Government Hindi and carried out by the itish Phosphate Commission, and Duld already be complete as the >rk was estimated to take a month.

The channel is of interest to

Nauruans only and will be able to accommodate no Queen- sized ships.

Canoes and fishing punts will be the H m it as it will have only two feet water j n at i ow tide.

C AT , C axtfa

• Under The Stars And

STRIPES: The ex-Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony vessel, MV Ncirccm, is reported to be doing a useful job for her new owner, Mr. Robert Reimers, of Majuro, Marshall Islands. The vessel was delivered to him at end of last year and has since gone into service carrying trade goods and passengers around the Marshalls and hauling copra and scrap metal to Majuro, the district centre.

The wooden vessel was built by the Ballina Slipway and Engineering Co., of NSW in 1950 and is of just under 80-tons gross and carries 25 deck passengers and six in cabins.

Captain Rudy Muller, who is well known in the Marshalls and the Gilberts, is her new master, Nareau is a welcome addition to the fleet of privately owned small shi P s in the Marshalls—the most important of which you can count on one hand: Mieco Queen, Tematapula, Alorriing Star and Aiftcwon,

• Lady Skipper In Retire

MENT: Eleanor Wilson, who now at 70 is serving her church in the civilisation of Hawaii, has taken a few pages out of the sacred book of the male in her time by becoming an ordained minister of the Congrega tional Church and the skipper of an Islands schooner, They are still talking about her exploits in what is now the US Trust Territory of Micronesia where she was a missionary from 1936 until late 1961. Says the Micronesian

These Nauruans will have an easier task now that a canoe and boat passage has been blasted through fringing coral. (See this page). These boats fitted with outboard motors are typical of those now in use on Nauru.

Highlight of the visit of HMNZS “Royalist" to Apia, W. Samoa, in June, was the ceremonial handing over to the Samoan Government of a gift of a saluting battery of four 2-pounder guns from the New Zealand Govern ment. The ceremony took place at Mulinuu before a large crowd on June 20. Picture shows the NZ navy guard of honour in position behind the guns before the start of the ceremony.-/Samoana.

xorder of her in a recent issue. ‘Miss Wilson is known from one 11 of Micronesia to the other, since j not only taught many of today’s :ding Micronesian leaders during I eight years of teaching at the ission School in Kusaie, but also -ause in 1950 she took command the Mission sailing schooner, i jrning Star VI.

“Starting with a book called A imer of Navigation, and with the p of a Navy pilot stationed at vajalein, she learned to plot a arse and to use a sextant with the iomb of a Captain Cook. The st time she took a reading with her ;tant and had made all the (as • thought) necessary calculations, ; was shocked to discover that r location was apparently just off • southern coast of France.

“Miss Wilson’s adventures and ex igences as skipper, first of the orning Star VI, and later of the orning Star VII, have been told in Ferent articles and particularly in ; book, The Skipper Was a Lady, Maribelle Cormack.

“The Missionary pilot, who was years of age when she took mmand of the sailing schooner, lised the islands of Micronesia in -chiefly the Carolines and arshalls—and ministered to the eds of her widely scattered flock til the vessel was lost in a typhoon 1954. [*She received a new Morning Star, t VII in 1956; after it, too, EFered damage, from a typhoon in 58, it was sold to a copra trader d is currently operating out of ajuro in the Marshalls.”

• From Cattle To Hotels:

r. Rex Johnston, who was part mer and manager of the Wewak Insport enterprise until the Wewak is wrecked a couple of years ago, now trying his hand in a new lustry—he is manager of the Hotel til, at Lae.

While he ran the Wewak, Mr. hnston shifted no less than 40,000 ad of cattle over the waters around ipe York Peninsula, and 2,000 of em were brought into Papua and ew Guinea, for the herds of the ;ahy Brothers, the Atkinsons, and hers.

This system of transportation now being carried on by the Clausen ipping interests, of Denmark. At esent, they are using the Cora; it they are building a 14-knot sssel, at a cost of £750,000, which ill carry 800 head of cattle, and rvice cattle-farms on the coasts of ape York Peninsula, the Gulf of arpentaria, and Papua and New

Guinea. Mr, Johnston says the standard of cattle in P-NG now is far higher than in Cape York Peninsula.

• The $64 Dollar

PROBLEM: Inflatable rubber rafts instead of conventional life boats have frequently been urged for Islands smallships. They take up far less room and when not in use they are folded away in a container or capsule and are self-inflating when tossed into the sea.

A company which manufactures

these rafts has sent some of its experts into the South Pacific to demonstrate these rafts—one of them being Mr. Keith Glover who recently visited the Solomons.

The raft is not new in the Solomons—in fact enough is known about it to know that the difficulty comes only when you have reached the stage of trying to get the inflated raft back into its capsule. ? If you don’t get it back, it won’t work correctly the next time it is needed, In the BSIP no one was game to take the responsibility of repacking

This very useful little ship has been introduced recently to the Papua and New Guinea coastal transport fleet, by Steamships Trading Co. Ltd. It is the motor vessel "Pipi Gari", of 135 tons gross, or 47 tons net.

The "Pipi Gari" is 83 feet long, has a beam of 21 feet, and her two 513 Gardner engines give her an average speed of 8 knots. She is designed to carry 150 tons of general cargo, or 1,200 bags of copra.

raft and this is where Mr. Glover e in. He gave his display at ft Cruz, Honiara, and everything t like clock-work. On hitting the !r the capsule split in half and ipopped the contents in bubbles :h grew until the raft was com i, even to a rubber awning, tr. Glover said the secret of ng everything back into the ule was to get every possible bit lir out of the raft, even to us a vacuum-cleaner to such it out. dless to say there aren’t many uim-cleaners in BSIP (no carpets) he found one eventually, a couple

of days later, and has been able to instruct his agent on the finer points of the life raft.

• The Japanese Show

THEIR FLAG; On June 25 the Japanese Navy finally achieved what it unsuccessfully set out to do 20 years ago—four of its ships anchored in Noumea Harbour, New Caledonia.

The squadron of four ships was in command of Admiral Noboru Nagai on the destroyer Terusuki, which was escorted by Harusame, Ugure and Ariake.

On the evening previous to their arrival, the French anti-aircraft

cruiser De Grasse had arrived in the course of a world prestige cruise.

The hand-picked Japanese crews

are reported to have made a good impression in Noumea, because of their excellent behaviour and cheeri ness and because they were good

spenders—in dollars.

A major effort was made to enter tain officers and men and excursions around Noumea and into the country were many. Various sporting fixtures were arranged between the crews of the ships culminating in a Judo con test held in one of the local theatres.

This attracted a huge crowd.

At the invitation of Admiral

sai, thousands of Noumea resi :;s visited the ships. The squadron for Australia on June 28 and * visited Suva, Fiji.

I Bulk-Fuel Barge For

BRIDES: Messrs. D. J, Gubbay Company of Santo have laid the t of a landing barge, which is jg constructed in Santo, he barge will be about 65-ft t and fitted out for the carriage imlk fuel. Alternatively, a pile- Ing unit may be carried in her. he barge will be powered by two sis of 225 horse-power, and she be launched sideways into the U on completion in about four iths time.

All This And Educa-

N, TOO: Ten thousand roses irated the Matson Liner iterey when she left San Francisco June 20 for the South Pacific return. This was the Flower mging Cruise, the first in son’s “special interest” voyages 1962. (The others are photo hy, golf, art and navigation), wo arrangers from one of San icisco’s most exclusive florists ped on the voyage and during its

six weeks duration will instruct passengers on all types of flower arrangement.

® Stardust Again: The Con

verted Sydney Fairmile which made the headlines frequently when cruis ing the Pacific in 1959, 1960 and 1961 has settled down to a regular life of tourist cruising in Fiji waters.

“Stardust Cruises” are being run twice weekly out of Nadi to the nearby Mamanuca Islands. Each cruise is of three days which gives passengers plenty of opportunity to potter around the small islands of the group. Accommodation is in two berth cabins and the vessel has a dining room, two lounges and a bar.

Cost per person is £F3O.

9 Samarai Gets Ran Visit:

Navy visitors usually head for Port Moresby, but Samarai, Papua, had its day in June when the Australian Navy destroyer Voyager spent 20 hours there on the way home from Far Eastern service.

During the action-packed visit the Royal Australian Navy taught resi dents “The Twist”, held a cocktail party, took European and native men, women and children on a cruise to Milne Bay and back and beat locals in a football match.

Hundreds of natives had lined the shores as the sleek “Daring” class destroyer, in command of Captain D. C. Wells, swept up the China Strait and came smartly to her anchorage about half a mile off shore opposite the Samarai wharves.

It was a great day for Samarai and particularly for Department of Native Affairs Cadet Patrol Officer Daras Wells, son of the Captain, who is stationed at Esa’ala and came into headquarters to meet his father.

• John Williams Vi Says

FAREWELL: The London Mis sionary Society vessel, John Williams VI, left Tarawa, Gilbert and Ellice Is. Colony, in June for Suva, at the end of a farewell journey round the Gilbert Islands, which began in April.

The Mission plans to sell her in August, and replace her by a smaller ship, the John Williams VII, now being built in the United Kingdom.

The new ship will be named by Princess Margaret in a ceremony at the Pool of London in October.

• New One For Gona: New

est member of the Rabaul-based Gona shipping fleet is the 60 ft trawler Raskai.

Raskai previously plied New Ire land coasts for the Kavieng Catholic Mission; now having no further use for her they have handed her over to Gona who will set up regular schedules to Talasea, Manus, Kavieng and Buka Passage.

RaskaVs early trading history is centred around Bougainville where many plantations remember her as the Numa Numa. (Over)

The converted Fairmile "Stardust", now on tourist duty - see below.

Left; The 40-ft sloop "Restless" of Whangarei, NZ, in Suva, Fiji, in July. Below: Those who sailed in her (left to right), were: Mrs.

Christine Capon, Mrs. Hansen, Mr. H. Hansen (owner), Mr. Charles Capon; and, in front, Stuart, Grant and Carleen Hansen. The party will probably spend three months in the Fiji Group. (See page 116).

Delayed Verdicts: A

iine court in Fiji in July decided the Masters of two local ships, Yatu Lau (Anare Vula oureta) and the Roblyn (Pita jula) should be severely repri sed for stranding their ships. strandings had taken place six iths previously in the case of u Lau, and 12 months previously ae case of Roblyn. he Yatu Lau grounded on a coral ih in a Vanua Balavu lagoon i after daybreak on January 4, 2. She had entered the passage oad weather in darkness, guided ime of the ship’s boats. Damage in the region of £2,350. he court considered that the nap was due to an error by ire in navigation, and that Anare been careless. he Roblyn was stranded on a 1 patch at Cagilai, Lomaiviti, on 25, 1961, in darkness. The 't said that Pita had been igent, and had taken an un ;ssary risk in entering waters wn to be dangerous at night, icularly after he had been warned nst this by the ship’s owner.

ews 01 Cruising Yachts

. Veteran Yachtsman

>SES: Probably the best known all South Pacific cruising yachts i in the last 30 years, George bern died in an Auckland street, June 12. His equally famous ran ketch Te Rapunga, sprang ank and sank in Auckland waters ;w weeks previously, fibbern was born in Germany in later years claimed inter onal status. He bought Te

Rapunga from a relative in Germany in the early 1930’s and sailed her across the Atlantic, through the Canal and to California and then to New Zealand. With NZ as a base he cruised to the Pacific Islands and was well known there, particu larly in the Cooks, as a pre-war and post-war visiting yachtsman.

He was a veteran trans-Tasman yachtsman also and was as well known in Tasmania as in NZ. About 1951 he shared a £lO,OOO lottery prize with a friend and bought an island olf Tasmania where he lived for seven years.

In 1958 he sailed Te Rapunga back to Auckland from Hobart but seven days out the ketch was dis masted near Greymouth. Te Rapunga was repaired but a year later she was dismasted again when crossing

the Tasman and towed into Auck land by a Japanese freighter.

Dibbern did not sail her again until six weeks ago when she grounded, sprang a leak and sank.

Dibbern was about 72 and probably one of the few men of this century to have lived life as he wanted it. He is understood to have had a wife and family in Germany. • RAMONA, of England, recently in the South Seas with Yard Wallace, has been sold to Californian Bill Long, and end of June was en route to the Coronado Yacht Club in California. • ENTICER, 46 ft ketch, of Honolulu, skippered by Carl Gillette and crewed with a crowd from the Hawaii Yacht Club, was outward bound for Tahiti in June. (Over)

Chanty", of Vancouver—see next page.

• NORDLYS, arrived in H lulu (minus her starboard h main shrouds), in June and is for sale at an asking price of $6O.

She will probably return to the mainland. ® SEA CHANTY, of Vancoi arrived in Honolulu in June, 19 out of Nukuhiva, with skipper Monk and crewman Jack Bauer, well and happy. They immedi slipped the boat, and will prot return to Canada this autumn several years Down Under. • GRACIAS, hailing f i Boston, USA, made a slower N hiva to Honolulu passage of 29 ■ with Ken Bohlin single handing; troubled with light air. • TANE, 35 ft steel ketch Ralph Thorvaldsen single han has returned to Hawaii from thi mainland. • TATOOSH and owner-sk Elmore E. Brown found the j too rough and turned back 300 : out on an attempted Tahiti c from Honolulu in June. Brown last reported heading back to US, where the ocean is more c • FORTUNE, owned and s by Dave and Nellie Goeffney, outfitted as a marconi cutter in of her former gaff ketch rig,, leave Honolulu early in Juli return to Tahiti. • RESTLESS, 40 ft New Ze: sloop, arrived at Suva from Zealand on June 26. Her o< Mr. Henry Hansen, his wife, three children, Miss Christine Ro and Mr. Charles Capon, all Whangarei, were aboard. They' 9i days on the voyage.

They struck indifferent weatj storms, after which they werr calmed for 14 hours, and when were 300 miles south of Fiji j hove to for 20 hours becauij gale force winds up to abou knots.

The Restless, more than 30 old, was built at Auckland by 7 Brothers. Mr. Hansen, sina acquired her, has cruised on New Zealand coast, and last with his wife and family, ms 12i days crossing of the Ts to Australia.

Tentative plans were to about three months cruising ii Fiji Group. • OKEANOS and Joe Pach© report from Yokohama at en;

■ just prior to setting off for a : haul across the North Pacific ILong Beach, California- Joe [dated that it would be a 50-60 t passage but that the schooner in good shape and that he con olated no difficulties. Says Joe: ■ girl Benita just joined me three xs ago from Wewak, New nea; and New Zealander Bill non, of Reuter’s Press bureau, do, also wants to give the sea 0 and will come with us as far he States”. The three of them :a 45 minutes TV interview on a >o station—proceeds of which, says, will help to keep the good Okeanos and her crew icially afloat for a month or so. is high in his praise for the lome and the assistance they got apan. ; LOTA, 30-ft Sydney yacht, went in cruising the easy way in June :i she left Sydney as deck cargo Messageries Maritimes vessel 'tien. She is owned by Sydney pany director, Mr. S. A. uson, who is at present in Europe business. The yacht will be un ed in Papeete where he and Miss tshford, of Sydney, will join her a three months cruise of French tnesia.

ImANU MOAN A, 50 ft New and yacht, recently in New donian waters was reported in , New Hebrides, in June, ted and skippered by Dr. Richard y she has a crew of four. After Solomon Islands the yacht is cted to head eventually for gkong. 1 WHITE LADY, ketch of ley, reported from Lord Howe id in mid-June after completing first leg of their planned Pacific sing to the USA. She is owned [sailed by Joel and Ellen Hart Ison Joey, aged seven. Dick dter, from Lord Howe, will join i for the next section of the ige—to Tonga. The Harts report nificent fishing from Middleton I where they say you can land lbs of fish in a few hours.

US, the 32 ft. Sydney cutter, :h turned up at Norfolk Island r being the centre of one search une became lost again when bad ther forced her to put out from folk with two men aboard. (See r July, p. 127). iter being feared lost for some J Isis returned to Cascade Bay.

I two-man crew—George Mc ®rty and Derek Brewin—were

tired and suffering from the effects of a week-long struggle against wind and weather. McCafferty said that the Isis had been blown about 200 miles north-west of the island following the gale force winds which struck the island on June 17.

They had found it impossible to lift the dinghy inboard so they had cut it adrift. (This had led to speculation that the Isis had foundered when the wrecked dinghy was washed

as^® r . e |-

Ricky had trouble with his back.

He had an operation for a slipped disk some time ago and pulling and

stretching in that weather didn’t do it any good,” McCafferty said, They had found the ship’s chrono meter four minutes out and only got back to Norfolk by homing on the island’s airport direction-finding sig nals. On their arrival, they advised the owner, Walter Martindale, who had returned to Sydney only 12 hours before—and suggested he send a substitute crew. They obviously had had enough of the Isis.

In an effort to prevent a recur rence of the events of the previous week and have to take to the sea again, it was decided to take Isis

through the reefs at Cascade Bay and anchor her in the small lagoon at Emily Bay. This is a tricky opera tion since the passage is a dog-leg between coral niggerheads and leaves little margin for error. It is ten years since an attempt was made to bring a vessel to this safe anchorage. At high water on the following day, on June 19, a direct descendant of Fletcher Christian, Mr- Frank Christian, successfully navigated Isis into Emily Bay. Christian displayed the customary Norfolk Islander’s skill in the operation. • GOLDEN LOTUS Chinese junk manned by three New Zealanders, Brian Clifford, Graham

Clifford and Max Matthews (1 July, p. 9), caused something U sensation around Auckland they completed the last leg of 7,500 mile journey from Hong (they were in Sydney in June)., gave them a heros’ welcome anti leading Auckland newspaper the best part of a page to exploit. Junks are rare in Maorii it seems.

After a week of being blown to sea, "Isis" finds a peaceful mooring in Emily Bay, Norfolk Is. (top picture). The centre photo graph, taken at low tide, shows the narrow dog-leg passage through which Frank Christian guided "Isis" into Emily Bay. It is 10 years since this was last attempted. Bottom picture shows the two crew members, George McCafferty, on left, and Derek Brewin, who brought the "Isis" safely back to Norfolk.