Cruising Yachts

Pacific Shipping And

Freight rates up on Islands routes

Freight rates between Australia and some Pacific Islands ports have been raised, or will be raised in the next few weeks.

The USS Co. started the round of increases with a general rise of 15 per cent.

THE USS Co. services Fiji, Western Samoa and Tonga with the Waimate from Sydney. Its new rates applied from August 1.

New rates to Fiji in the CSR Co’s Rona will be 10 per cent, higher for general cargo from September 1, but the rates for flour and sharps will remain unchanged.

The Tonga Copra Board, which operates the Niuvakai between Aus tralia and Fiji, Samoa and Tonga, will charge 10 per cent, higher rates from September 1.

Freight rates in the Mariposa and Monterey for Fiji will rise by 10 per cent, on September 1, and for Pago Pago by a similar amount on October 15.

The American Trading and Ship ping Co. which runs the Lakemba between Australia and Vancouver, via the Pacific Islands, will also introduce new rates soon.

These will probably be fixed before the Lakemba leaves Sydney on her next northbound trip late in October or early in November.

Trans-Austral Shipping, Australian agents for the Swedish line, Trans- Atlantic Shipping, will lift their rates by 10 per cent, from September 1 for all cargo, except flour and sharps, carried in their ships between Syd ney and Suva and Lautoka.

The line operates six ships, the Parrakoola, Goonawarra, Cumulus, Cirrus, Nimbus and Stratus, between

Sydney and the American west coast, with calls at Fiji on two out of every three trips from Sydney.

The USS Cos. announced that the higher rates stemmed directly from sharply increased costs generally, including compulsory levies which affected stevedoring and overall shipping operating expenses since the last alteration in June, 1965.

The company announced that the step had been taken with reluctance and as a means of meeting substantial trading losses experienced in the Pacific Islands services.

The company had absorbed a large share of the rising expenditure and hoped to offset the higher charges by further improvements in cargo handling wherever that was possible.

U.S. Research Ships

In Big Survey

Two United States research ships, Horizon and Argo, visited Noumea in early August.

The Horizon and Argo are making a survey of central and the south west Pacific in an effort to find answers to questions about the origin of island and land masses, and pos sible continental drift.

The ships are the Horizon and the Argo, operating under the auspices

The US research ship "Argo" at Noumea in August.

of the Nova expedition of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, of the University of California.

The area to be covered in the survey is a five million square mile region stretching from Australia to the seven-mile-deep Tonga-Kermadec Trench and the New Zealand structural line, to Tonga and Samoa, and east again to Fiji, New Caledonia and the Gulf of Papua.

Scientists from Britain, Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, France and Japan are co-operating with several United States universities in the survey.

The Horizon and Argo are sister ships.

The Horizon, which called at Suva recently, en route to Lau and later Rotuma, is a converted Navy sea going tug.

Japanese Ship Likely

To Be Write-Off

The Japanese fishing vessel Yashio Maru No. 1 seems likely to remain stuck on Uani reef, a remote spot between Hakupu and Luku villages on Niue Island, according to PlM’s

Niue correspondent.

The vessel was wrecked on the reef on July 8, and abandoned, her

holds full of fish ( PIM, Aug., p. 25).

The crew of 20 reached shore safely and slept on the beach.

Another unit of the Japanese fleet fishing out of Pago Pago, American Samoa, where the vessel was based, reached the wreck on July 11 and picked up her crew.

The same ship also collected some equipment from the wreck, which Niue Administration employees had salvaged in a short period of calm weather immediately after the wreck.

“Usually the south-east coast where the wrecked ship lies is pounded by seas driven by the South-East Trades and salvage of the hull is unlikely,”

PlM’s correspondent says.

Castaways To Be Crew

In Crayfish Venture

Mr. Peter Warner, the Australian owner of the vessel Just David, which rescued six Tongan castaways on un inhabited Ata Island, 90 miles south of Tongatapu last September, re visited Tonga early in August to engage the castaways as the crew of a new fishing vessel under construc tion in Sydney.

The ship, 70 ft long and powered by a 200 hp Gardner engine, is de signed for processing and freezing crayfish tails for the American market.

She will operate in Tongan waters

and will be called Ata after the island.

The Tongan crew was due to fly to Sydney in late August for train ing while the vessel is being fitted.

On her maiden voyage next January, the Ata will call at the island of Ata where Mr, Warner hopes to collect a bottle of rum he left there last year.

He has the utmost faith in the castaways, who, in 13 months on the lonely island, proved they could live and work together in harmony.

The Ata will work around the Ha’apai Group, where crayfish are plentiful and there are many ex perienced fishermen.

She will carry 12 to 14 tons of crayfish. The tails will be packed aboard and will go to Suva where they will be transhipped on Matson liners to the United States.

South Korean Interest

In P Ng Fishing

South Korea is interested in setting up joint fishing and timber ventures with Papua-New Guinea.

The South Korean Ambassador to Australia, Mr. Dong Whan Lee, said this in Port Moresby on August 8, according to a report in the local Press.

Mr. Lee said he hoped South Korea could import New Guinea :imber and take part in territory ishing projects.

He said discussions with Adminis ration officers about the possibility af Korean ships fishing in territory vaters had reached “the point where here were now only legal aspects to complete”.

: Amiliar Vila Hulk

30Es On Last Voyage

The copra storage hulk Mombah, i familiar sight to shipping in Vila Tarbour for 20 years, was towed iway to Mele Bay and sunk in about >OO ft of water by Condominium > ublic Works Department staff in :arly July.

The Mombah had been leaking for ome time and her general condition vas so bad she could have sunk at ier moorings and been a hazard to hipping in the area where the new /ila wharf will be built.

Mombah was built in Sydney in 923 for coal bunkering. She was >nce used by the Royal Australian 4avy.

Based in Sydney, she never had neans of propulsion and was towed o wherever she was required.

The French Government bought ier after World War 11. She reached /fla in 1947, Until July she was

moored between Fila Island and Iririki as a store for copra waiting for export.

To sink her, workers blew her up with dynamite. She went down with about 200 tons of rotten copra, some rats and cockroaches.

More Anchorage Space

In Suva

Old telegraph cables, some of them laid more than 60 years ago, have been lifted from the sea bed in Suva harbour by the cable ship Retriever.

The removal of the cables will provide more anchorage space.

The cables, part of the Suva- Fanning Island section of the trans-

Pacific cable laid in 1902, have not been needed since the Compac cable was opened three or four years ago.

The recovered cables were dumped at sea in 500 fathoms of water so that they would not represent a hazard to shipping.

The Retriever also picked up a couple of rifles, and a quantity of wire, part of the boom defences of the harbour during World War 11, as her grapples dragged the seabed.

New Ship May Call

At New Guinea

Anew s3i million passenger-cargo vessel, MV Milos, made her first direct Australia to Japan voyage in

August for the Australia-West Pacific Line.

Her master, Captain G. Paulsson, told PIM in Sydney he hoped the 6,787-ton Milos would be calling at New Guinea ports by February to pick up timber for the Australian market.

He said the Milos was the last of three ships the Hillerstrom group of companies of Helsingborg, Sweden, ordered in 1965 from a Gothenburg shipyard to replace ships on their Australia-Far East shipping runs.

She is equipped with remote controlled cranes and cargo space to accommodate 150 ISO containers (8 ft x 8 ft x 20 ft). There are air conditioned cabins for 12 passengers in four double and four single rooms,

New Venture For

Captain Darr

American master mariner Captain Omer Darr, who has been knocking around French Polynesia for the past 20 years as skipper of Nordlys, Te Vega and Wanderer, and as a property owner at Moorea, is to start a new venture soon.

Captain Darr is to reopen the coco nut plantations on Flint, Caroline and Vostok Islands which he has leased from the British Government.

The three islands, which come under the jurisdiction of the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, are 600 miles or so north west of Tahiti. They were formerly leased to Mr. M. P. A. Bambridge, of Tahiti, but they have not been worked for some years.

Captain Darr has acquired the Topaz, a 30-year-old Danish sailing ship, to transport copra from the islands to Tahiti.

The Topaz was built at Ring Andersen’s Shipyard, at Svendborg, Denmark. Captain Darr was in Svendborg in July to take delivery of her.

In a note to PIM from Svendborg,

Captain Darr said the local people were particularly interested in details of the Topaz’s new career.

He also sent us a clipping from the local paper, Svendborg Avis, about his plans.

As far as we can make out from this —our Danish not being too good —some 80,000 coconut palms have been planted on Flint and Caroline Islands, and Captain Dan* expects an annual copra production from them of 800 tons.

We also understand from the clip ping that Captain Darr plans to call at the Gilbert Islands on his way back to Tahiti from Denmark to hire about 60 labourers for work at Flint, Caroline and Vostok.

Norfolk Fishing Boat

Swept On Rocks

The fishing boat Maitai, owned by Norfolk Island Processes Ltd., was swept from the Cascade Pier on the night of August 10 and was found on the adjacent rocks next morning.

She was lifted back on to the pier

• The new passenger-cargo ship "Milos".

by crane and towed to the fish factory at Cockpit.

Maitai’s aluminium hull was exten sively damaged though her engine was still intact. A terrific sea must have risen during the night, for on the preceding and following days the water at Cascade was relatively calm.

Unusual Visitors

For Niue

There have been unusual ships visiting Niue lately.

The first was the Nationalist Chinese Republic boat Yu Sheng No , 1, which had a sick man aboard and called to get him medical treatment.

Attached to the Taiwanese fleet fish ing out of Pago Pago, she had been at sea for 45 days, fishing off New Zealand.

The Yu Sheng stayed at Niue a week while the man was treated. She was anchored off Alofi, and enter tained the locals with Oriental music played very loudly over a powerful public address system.

When the sick man had recovered and was put back aboard the ship, the Yu Sheng sailed along the reef until she was under the cliffs below the hospital. There the seamen per formed flag dances on the deck to loud music and the fishing boat steamed in circles, to show thanks to the hospital.

Another brief visitor was the 55ton Korean fishing boat Nam Hae No. 265, which put into Niue with engine trouble and stayed a day for repairs.

The lights of such fishing boats are often seen at night fishing close in, sometimes inside the three-mile limit too, but none has ever called before.

New Touring Vessel

Reaches Tarawa

The RCS Tautunu, one of the two new 85 ft touring vessels built in Singapore for the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony Administration, arrived at Tarawa on August 9 with her delivery crew of 13 under the :ommand of Captain J. B. Wallace.

Phe ship called at Darwin, Honiara and Ocean Island en route to Tarawa.

The other new touring vessel, Tabuariki, is expected to arrive in he colony towards the end of Dctober or early November.

'Jew Master Of

'John Williams Vii"

Captain Richard Beadon, 29, has aken up a three-year appointment is master of the missionary vessel *ohn Williams VII. With his wife Denise, Captain Beadon was due to

arrive in the vessel in Tarawa from Suva on August 20.

Captain Beadon, a Yorkshireman, served his apprenticeship in Burma Oil Company tankers and in 1963 passed the examination for his master’s foreign-going certificate. He has also passed the first part of the examination for his extra-master’s certificate.

The main task of his new ship— his first command—is to carry pastors, missionaries and school children in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. She also carries church sup plies.

The ship is owned by the Con gregational Council for World Mis sion, formerly the London Missionary Society.

Japanese Ship

On Fiji Reef

Fifty tons of fish were transferred from the Japanese ship Fuji Maru No. 28 to refrigerated stores at Levuka after the ship ran aground an a reef off Kaba Village, Fiji, on luly 28.

The Fuji Maru No. 28 was on her way to her Levuka base from the fishing grounds when the mishap accurred.

The people of Kaba took the crew )f 20 ashore in punts the next norning.

Captain Stan Brown, of Suva, and Vlr. T’akeo Kaneta, of the South Pacific Co-op. Fishing Association, ater inspected the ship, and Mr. kaneta announced that an attempt vould be made to refloat her on the ipring tide on August 20.

Nterest In Old

'Jew Caledonian Wrecks

The French naval vessel L’Orient use was due to make a visit at the :nd of August to Poya, on the north vest coast of New Caledonia, to nvestigate the remains of an armed laval transport ship, La Cher, which vas wrecked there in 1885.

Two officers from Noumea naval >ase and Mr. Luc Chevalier, curator )f the Noumea Museum, visited J oya early in August to reconnoitre he wreck.

La Cher, which was powered by team and sail, was running under ail only when she ran aground on in uncharted spur of reef near lslet off Poya Bay on anuary 10, 1885. There was no loss )f life.

Various attempts have been made >ver the years to salvage material rom the wreck, but these were rustrated by heavy seas.

Mr. Chevalier is said to be parti cularly interested in retrieving several cannon from the wreck.

He is also interested in another wreck a mysterious one which trochus divers are reported to have found on the reef at Poya.

The wreck is believed to be that of a ship called Undine, as the trochus divers are said to have read this name on the hull.

Research by Mr. Chevalier in old Noumea port records shows that a British naval vessel by the name of Undine made visits to New Caledonia and the New Hebrides from Sydney in the 1880’s.

However, research in Sydney by PlM’s assistant editor, Robert Lang don, has revealed no evidence that HMS Undine came to grief in New Caledonian waters.

On the other hand, the Australian Encyclopedia, in its list of ship wrecks associated with Australia, records that an 800-ton clipper ship called Undine, which was built in England in 1867 for the China trade, sailed in ballast from Brisbane for Foochow, China, on May 15, 1873, and was never heard of again.

The date given in the Encyclopedia is apparently incorrect, as there is

no mention of the clipper Undine in the Brisbane Courier’s shipping columns for April, May and June, 1873, and the Undine was still listed in Lloyds Register of Shipping for 1874-5.

The L’Orientaise will investigate the Undine wreck if it can be located and if the expedition has time.

Japanese Company Buys

New Ship For Islands Run

Daiwa Navigation Co. Ltd., of Osaka, Japan, has bought a new 9,595-ton ship, which has been named Samoa Maru, for its monthly passenger-cargo run from Japan to the Pacific Islands.

Samoa Maru will begin her maiden voyage from Japan on September 1 and will make stops at Guam, Apia, Pago Pago, Suva, Labasa, Lautoka, Noumea, Vila and Santo before re turning to Japan about October 14.

The company plans to introduce another 9,000-ton vessel in Novem ber and at that time transfer its two other ships, Fiji Maru and Tahiti Maru, to its Japan-Hong Kong-West Irian line.

Both the Samoa Maru and the other new ship have 50-ton capacity heavy lift derricks and refrigerated cargo room.