ship in Germany

Pacific Shipping And Cruising Yachts

Nauruans may buy 6,000-ton ship in Germany

The phosphate island of Nauru, which is now on the way to independence and expects to become a republic soon, is to own and operate its own ship on an inter-islands service which will include New Guinea.

LfEAD chief Hammer Deßoburt is scheduled to visit West jermany in early July, with one of is Sydney economic advisers, to lake arrangements for the building f the ship. She will be owned by he Nauru Local Government 'ouncil, which wants a ship of 6,000 ms deadweight, with refrigerated argo space, and accommodation for 2 passengers. She would be jgistered overseas.

The Nauruans are going to Europe ir the ship because Japanese ship ards are reported to have too much ork on hand to be able to build le Nauruan vessel by the end of 968, when the Nauruans require ir.

Present plans are for the vessel ) carry European deck officers and

a Gilbert and Ellice Islands crew.

She would make a three-weeks run from Sydney to Port Moresby, possibly Rabaul, and then on to Honiara and Nauru. Return trip would be direct to an Australian East Coast port.

The new vessel would carry phos phate on the southbound run, and general and refrigerated cargo north bound. The idea is for a round-trip tourist service, enabling tourists to see New Guinea, the Solomons and Nauru, and then enjoy a pleasant un interrupted sea voyage back to the phosphate discharging point.

Such a service would probably be popular with Islands residents, particu larly those wanting a slow trip to Australia on leave, via Nauru. Nauru, at the moment is a difficult island

to visit as there are no hotels and no commercial transport.

There is no air service, but charter flights are occasionally made from Australia to carry BPC personnel.

The regular BPC phosphate ships, which also carry passengers from Melbourne and are extremely com fortable, are also for BPC personnel and Nauruans, and the ordinary tourist does not find it easy to get a berth.

The BPC ships, whose names all begin with the letters Tri, will con tinue on the Nauru service despite the island’s move towards indepen dence and the establishment of the Nauru Phosphate Corporation to take over the assets of the BPC.

The new NPC will enter into service contracts with the BPC for the charter of these ships, which will continue handling phosphate during the life of the deposits, which is another 30 years. There are 59.5 million tons of phosphate remaining on the island. Under the new phos phate agreement made in Canberra in June, the rate of extraction will be kept down to two million tons a year.

[?]e "Tri-Ellis", one of the ships of the British Phosphate Commissioners' fleet which serves Nauru.

Big Fish Catch At

Elizabeth Reef

Fishermen on the Sydney trawler Binjarra caught more than 3,000 lb of kingfish, shark and cod at Elizabeth Reef, about 100 miles north of Lord Howe Island, recently.

The trawler first tried fishing at nearby Middleton Reef, but after little luck, they moved on to Elizabeth Reef.

Binjarra has made several trips to he reefs, via Lord Howe Island, this fear. After returning to Sydney with ler 3,000 lb catch, plans were to luspend operations during the winter nonths and recommence late this rear.

Iong Kong Riots Delay

'Papuan Chief's" First Voyage

The China Navigation Company’s efurbished freighter Papuan Chief, vhich was to have begun an Aus ralia-Papua service on July 1, has lad her first voyage delayed by two /eeks.

The delay was caused by anti- Iritish riots in Hong Kong, which parked off strikes in the Taikoo )ockyard where finishing touches /ere being made to the ship.

The Papuan Chief will now leave ydney for Brisbane, Port Moresby, amarai and Sydney on July 15.

Another China Navigation freighter Vanliu, which normally calls at Labaul, Madang and Lae en route rom the Far East, will call at Port loresby on July 10 to lift cargo lat would otherwise have been andled by the Papuan Chief.

The Papuan Chief is of 2,439 ms gross. She will have two :hedules every 34 days from Sydney ) Papua.

The first schedule, taking 16 days, ill take in the ports of call of her laiden voyage. The second, taking 5 days, will omit Samarai.

Ew Ship For Papua's

Oastal Trade

Burns Philp (NG) Ltd. have ought a small inter-island trader, iing built in Sydney by Bjarne alvorsen.

The trader, which will be known > Govilon 11, is 56 ft long, and will : equipped with a 113 hp Gardner igine. Her speed is expected to be ght to nine knots.

Govilon II will be based at imarai, and will probably trade ong the south coast of Papua.

She will have an all-native crew : seven or eight.

The delivery voyage is expected to ; made in August.

Missionary Cruise

To Islands

The Australian Methodist Overseas Mission has chartered the China Navigation Company’s liner Kuala Lumpur for a 23-day cruise in September to New Guinea and the New Hebrides.

The liner will leave Sydney on September 9 and call at Cairns, Port Moresby and Rabaul, and will pass through the Duke of York Islands on the way to Santo and Vila.

The aim of the trip is to show the 400-odd passengers Methodist and Presbyterian Mission stations in New Guinea and the New Hebrides.

The Rev. W. F. Pidgeon, the president-general of the Methodist Church of Australia, and his wife. Avis, will he host and hostess.

The Methodist Overseas Mission hired the Kuala Lumpur in June and July last year for a similiar cruise to Tonga, Samoa, Fiji and Noumea.

The Mission told PIM early in June that most berths had been sold for this year’s cruise, but several dormitory berths, at $lBO, and firstclass cabins, at $346, were still available.

New Zealand Company

Begins Service To Tahiti

The New Zealand shipping company, Holm and Company Ltd., has chartered the Danish vessel Magga Dan for a regular service to Tahiti and Rarotonga, and for occasional trips to Lautoka, Suva, Apia and Nukualofa. The charter is for one year, with an option of renewal.

The Magga Dan is a refrigerated vessel of about 1,700 tons deadweight. Built in 1956, she is owned

by J. Lauritzen, of Copenhagen, and will be under a Danish master and ief engineer. Her crew will be Ne ™ f * y Magga Dan will trade mainly vr° m ytt^et ° n m S° ut h Island of t i n f’ Auckland * n the

North Island

a^so su PPl ement another 2, , th ? com P an y s vessels, the MV ?f* m A burn l ° n regular Norfolk Island and New Caledonia run and U T S f d ? n ew Zea^and ‘ Chatham Islands run.

The ship can accommodate 34 passengers, but the company had not decided to the end of May if this capacity will be used to its fullest extent.

The Magga Dan was due in Lyttleton from Denmark about June 20. On her first scheduled Islands trip, she was expected to leave Auck land about June 26 for Papeete and Rarotonga, with calls at Lautoka, Suva, Apia and Nukualofa if cargoes warranted them. She will sail from Auckland every two months there after.

The Papeete newspaper Le Journal de Tahiti has commented enthusiastic ally on Holm and Company’s plans to provide a regular service to Tahiti from New Zealand. , Tn it J s issue f 9 r June 13 > th « paper devoted an entire page to the pro- P osed service most of the material being obtained in an interview with Captain Ron Barnett, of Holm and Company’s ship Holmburn, which arnved at Papeete on June 10.

Captain Barnett is well-known in Tahiti, having visited it regularly in the Namoiata, Aranui, Bodmer and Akatere since 1947. The Holmburn’s

The China Navigation Company liner "Koala Lumpur", which has been chartered by the Australian Methodist Overseas Mission for a cruise to New Guinea and the Ne w Hebrides in September.

it was a forerunner of those of ' Magga Dan.

Captain Barnett told Le Journal Tahiti that he was convinced it both Tahiti and Noumea needed regular shipping link with New aland. This should be at least once nonth.

Fie said freight charges from New aland were cheaper than from any icr country, and that Tahiti rchants could regularly import NZ it, vegetables, meat and dairy )duce at advantageous prices, rhe agents for the Magga Dan Tahiti will be Etablissements nald. besides the Magga Dan’s service the Islands, Holm and Company to use her for two 30-day tourist >s to the Antarctic early next year, 'lew Zealand reports say the trips being filled by United States rist agencies at $7,000 a berth for trips. (If this is correct, the trips I be the most expensive PIM has r heard of—making Matson and md O cruises look like bus rides), fhe Antarctic cruises are scheduled January and February and will ve Lyttelton and Sydney. The pro ed itinerary is Scott Island, Murdo Sound, Cape Hallett, the leny Islands, Macquarie Island, ckland Islands, the Snares and ford Sound. rhe NZ Press has recently quoted company’s managing director, ?t. J. F. Holm, as urging the NZ vernment to do more to encourage shipping in the South Pacific.

If New Zealand is to increase

its markets in the Pacific Islands and do even a fraction of the business that is now being done by Australia in these areas, it is first and foremost necessary to have a reason- Ported h to PP hav 8 e faW * W3S ""

“It should be understood that it is unfair, and, indeed, impossible for any NZ company to lose the amount of money involved in continuing a reasonable service without some help in the form of a subsidy from a Government until the trade is established.”

Referring to the company’s service to Norfolk Island and Noumea, Captain Holm said this had provided

only a “hand-to-mouth existence” because the company had not been able to get a guarantee of a con tinuity from the New Zealand Gov ernment.

“ We understand the Australian " m f h n ‘ a f . or ‘ he here f an be £° , doubt ,hat the Australians ba ™ baaten "? , completely in establishing markets in this and other Paclfic areas > he added rillpl

New Geic Ship

In Service

The GEIC Wholesale Society’s new vessel Moana Raoi arrived in

Tarawa in early May and is now service in the colony. Under tl command of Captain E. V. Ward, tl new vessel brought 650 tons of carj from London and a further 250 to: of cargo from Christmas Island.

The Wholesale Society has bu up a regular trans-shipment send (from Columbus Line freighters fro Australia) to Majuro in the Marsht Islands at about eight-week interval Food from Australia, such as floi tea, rice, canned goods and frui forms the bulk of the cargo. A sm; quantity of specialised technical goo from Britain are also shipped.

Society vessels have also droppt off cargo at Majuro for delivery 1 Trust Territory shipping to the I anti-missile base on Kwajalein.

Scare For Ellice

Islanders

The magistrate at Nukulaelae the Ellice Islands reported on Mi 14 that six unidentified aircraft at one helicopter took off on that di from an aircraft carrier some thn miles from the island and had flov north, occasioning some alarm. T] same aircraft were later seen flyii over Funafuti.

Although there was no confirm tion, the aircraft were thought to 1 from an American aircraft carri returning from a Coral Sea Batl commemoration visit to Sydney.

Ship Sold To

Fiji Syndicate

A small Wellington ship, the 12 ton Coromel, has been sold to Fiji syndicate, according to NZ Pre reports. The reports did not nan the Fiji syndicate.

The Coromel was for years t! main supplier of Chatham Islan blue cod to the NZ market, and w the largest commercial vessel built NZ since the war.

The Strongman Shipping Compai had her built by the Mason Brothe Engineering Company, Auckland, ai ran her for eight years between Auc land and Great Barrier Island.

She had two owners after that the Juri Shipping Company, whit ran her to the Chathams, and Nelsc Fisheries Ltd.

Rabaul To Be Bypassed

On Far East Run

Dominion Far East Line vessels « the Far East-Australia run will st« calling at Rabaul after their 7,50 ton passenger-freighter George Anst calls there on August 23.

The ships have been calling Rabaul for the past four years.

They brought hundreds of touris

0 Rabaul each year and so gave the own many tourist dollars.

The line’s Sydney agents told PIM hat Rabaul would be by-passed in uture because freight carried to the own did not warrant further calls.

Jew P-Ng Fishing

Iompany Under Way

Top executives of the newly-formed outh Sea Fishing Co. Pty, Ltd.

PIM, Apr., p. 101), the most mbitious project yet to exploit '-NG’s territorial fishing waters, met 1 Madang in early June to get plans nderway for surveying coastal raters.

The company’s mother fishing ship, 'apuan Prince, left Madang in early une with four trawlers to make a vo-week survey of the Ramu and epik River mouths.

The venture is a joint Australian- Japanese effort. One of the Japanese directors of South Seas is Mr. D.

Ueda, also managing director of a subsidiary of a company which is claimed to be the world’s largest fishing enterprise with 1,000 ships and capital worth $37.5 million.

Reports say 40 per cent, of South Seas’ profits will remain in P-NG for further development and the company will use New Guineans as much as possible for labour.

An Australian director of the company said the company had “practically decided” on Madang as its main Territory base.

Mercy Call At

Christmas Island

A Japanese fishing vessel Iwakuni maru made an unscheduled call at Christmas Island, GEIC, in early May, to drop her engineer who re quired an emergency operation.

In the absence of proper facilities, anaesthetics and blood for a trans fusion, the District Commissioner for the Line Islands, Mr. D. J. Cook, contacted the Japanese Consulate in Honolulu with a request for a United States Coastguard emergency mercy flight to evacuate the patient to Hawaii.

Crayfish Trip

To Minerva Reef

The Tongan Government fishing vessel Pakeina made a short trip to Minerva Reef from Nukualofa in late May to investigate fishing potential at the reef.

The Pakeina’s commander, Captain George Walters, told Tonga’s Chronicle that fish were not as plentiful as previously thought.

Although hampered by bad weather, the Pakeina caught 398 lb of crayfish, 518 lb of reef fish and 638 lb of clam meat. The fishermen found there were good opportunities of catching reef fish with nets, despite strong currents. They were unable to investigate the crayfish potential of the reef.

On May 31 the Pakeina left for Limu Island in the Ha’apai Group to look at fishing prospects south of that island.

Mysterious "Hole"

In Seabed

A mysterious “hole” in the sea bed, nearly 4,000 fathoms deep, was the major discovery of the Australian naval research ship HMAS Diamantina on a recent 10,000-mile cruise of the South Pacific.

The ship located the “hole” about 400 miles south-east of Noumea in

i area normally no deeper than 000 fathoms. It was not determined the “hole” extended for many miles ■ was merely one great drop in the abed.

The Diamantina left Sydney in pril and cruised to Fiji, where she ?pped for two days, and then aded north-west and straddled the }uator until reaching Manus Island, the Admiralty Group of Papua ;w Guinea.

From there she continued on round 1 coast of West Irian to Darwin, ssed through Torres Strait and re tried to Sydney in early June.

Five marine scientists, all from the >mmonwealth Scientific and In strial Research Organisation, led Mr. H. R, Jitts, made the trip study marine life.

Tcairn Call To

Abandoned

Shaw Savill passenger-cargo vessels, lich have been making periodic Us at isolated Pitcairn Island for )re than 50 years, will stop calling the island in 1968.

The company’s Australian office s told this by its head office in ndon in June.

The Gothic and Ceramic, the rrent Shaw Savill ships involved, ike world-wide trips from the UK, South Africa, Australia, NZ, nama and the UK. On their dlington (NZ)-Panama leg, about ;ry six weeks, they have steamed 3ut a day out of their way to visit cairn and drop off small quantities cargo and give travellers a break m wide expanses of Pitcairn ean.

The Gothic will leave Wellington March 8, 1968, for its final call Pitcairn and Ceramic will leave dlington on May 31 for its last 1.

When the ships arrive at Pitcairn, islanders are allowed to board i sell handicrafts and fruit, pro ing them with a small, but steady h income. \s with Shaw Savill’s two other ps, Corinthic and Athenic, the thic and Ceramic will be converted purely cargo ships with no isengers.

Mplaint On P-Ng

Ipbuilding Contracts

Phe managing director of a Rabaul pbuilding company said in Rabaul June that the letting of three large 'JG Government contracts to com lies in Australia might lead to re retrenchments of his native ployees. fhe director, Mr. Henry Chow, of Toboi Shipbuilding Company,

said the government had let contracts for three trawlers to outside firms although his tenders were up to $lO,OOO lower. His company had been awarded the tender to build a fourth boat.

He said the Toboi company had been established in Rabaul for nine years. Until April it had employed 86 native craftsmen, all trained in its own yards.

Thirty-six had been retrenched, and the new move might lead to further men losing their jobs, he said.

Mr. Chow said his company’s tender for one 58 ft vessel was $61,000. The successful tender was $71,000.

The company sent a strong protest to the Administrator over the alloca tion of the contracts.

Snag In Avatiu

Wharf Extensions

Workmen were having trouble finding sufficient fill for extensions to the Avatiu wharf at Rarotonga in May.

The wharf is being extended 270 feet from the end of the present wharf to allow inter-island trading vessels such as the Holmburn and the Pacific Enterprise to berth.

Thirty feet piles have been driven in near the present wharf, but fill to

build the wharf behind them was scarce because much had already been used in a waterfront beautification project.

Alotau Wharf To

Cost $44,000

The Papua-New Guinea Admini stration has decided to spend $22,000 more than originally planned on a small ships’ wharf now being built at Alotau, Milne Bay, which used to be named Cameron.

The wharf will cost $44,000. The Director of the Department of Public Works, Mr. J. Burns, said recently that the additional money would be used to clear coral nigger-heads from the waters near the wharf.

A small fender system would also be installed to protect the ships’ sides when they came alongside the wharf.

Putting It Briefly

• The Aoba (New Hebrides) Local Council launch Ambae was reported adrift from Narovorovo on Maewo Island in June. She is 17 ft long and painted white. The name Ambae is painted on both sides of the cabin. • The 4,250-ton Union Steam Ship freighter Matua will make monthly calls at Haapai, Tonga, from July 11 until the end of the year on her New Zealand-Fiji-Western Samoa-Tonga run. The Matua will carry cargo to Haapai and pick up bananas, destined for sale in NZ. • The French Government light house ship, the Marius Moutet, called in at Port Moresby in early June for supplies and minor repairs. She is on the way to Tahiti. • A noted Cook Islands diver, Tekake Williams, was to accompany a government survey team to Manihiki in late May in the 200-ton MV Akatere to examine the local shell situation and survey the reef passage, which may have to be en larged.