Cruising Yachts

Pacific Shipping And

High hopes for new marine training school in GEIC

The Tarawa Marine Training Scheme, which has been siablished to train Gilbert and Ellice crews to work on over eas ships, could easily make up for the GEIC people’s loss of mployment when the Ocean Island phosphate deposits are ex austed, according to the British High Commissioner for the Vestern Pacific, Sir Robert Foster.

L Robert officially opened the school aboard the training vessel Teraka on August 18. 5 said the school would make tremendous difference” to the Wj asked the cadets to put up ;ood show” when they took up overseas as they would be the unners of many other Colony le coming behind them. ►th the China Navigation Comand the Columbus Line have orted the school and will take slanders trained on the Teraka f, Apr., p. 109). e captain-superintendent of the )1 is Captain W. S. Drew, who at the opening ceremony that ders would be taken on as ;s for a year. During this time would spend three months in of the deck, engine-room and ing sections. the last three months, the cadets

would receive specialist training in the section they had proved best at.

They would thus be familiar with all sections and much better at one.

General training, such as boat drill, fire drill and lifesaving, would also be taught.

Footnote: Four young men from the GEIC left Tarawa recently for Hong Kong to train as deck officers on China Navigation Company ships, The men are Tito Tapungao, Tabea Riwata, Houati lakopo and Wilfred Muller. They are the first deck officer cadets from the colony to serve their apprenticeships with the China Navigation Company.

MriAl ...

New Manager For

Bp Shipping Department

Mr. R. M. Stobo, manager of the Rabaul branch of Burns Philp (NG) Ltd., has been appointed the firm’s shipping manager at head office, Sydney,

Mr. Stobo succeeds Mr. W. T. G.

Morrison who retired on September 29 after 50 years with the company.

“Monty” Stobo, 57, is a well-known New Guinea personality. He joined BP in 1926 and served in Papua before the war.

Wharf For Erromanga

Timber Company

Etablissements Rougier, the French company which is preparing to exploit timber on Erromanga Island, New Hebrides, is to build a wharf at Pot Narevin and deepen the mouth of the Ipota River by blasting to allow ships of medium tonnage to enter the river.

The company owns a tug, a 150ton barge and a launch. Nearly four and a half miles of road have been built and 50 tons of kauri timber have been cut for a pilot scheme.

In April the company laid a buoy at Pot Narevin.

Fijians Rescued From

Overloaded Punt

About 18 Fijian men, some naked after their clothes were torn off in stormy seas, were rescued from an overloaded punt anchored inside a

An aspect of Pot Narevin where ship ping facilities are being prepared so that Erromanga's timber resources can be exploited.

Photo: J. C. Rouleau.

' at Vuata Vatoa, Lau Islands, y in September. he men had gone in two canoes a punt to salvage copper from American Liberty ship wrecked Vuata Vatoa more than 20 years oth canoes capsized, and the jpants struggled through rough to the punt, which was gerously overloaded.

Tie men were rescued by the u Lau, which was on her way to oa, their island home, about five ;s away. he punt had an outboard motor :h broke down, and the men ; afraid to use oars because the were too rough.

Ige For Japanese

Ter Plant In Fiji

43-ton barge with a carrying icity of 180 tons arrived in Suva September 6 on the freighter Fiji u for transport to Uda Point, ua Levu. It will be used for sporting copper ore from shore ship for the Daiwa Mining Co. of Japan. is the first of three barges which pass through Suva on the way Jda Point, on a copper ore processing on Vanua Levu began in August iL, Sept., p. 127). Copper con rate will be shipped to Japan for essing.

A Popular With

Nd 0 Cruise Ships

and O liners will make a record -alls at Suva next year. ■actically every large liner in the nd O fleet will make at least call at Suva, and one, the

Himalaya, will make eight con secutive calls en route from Sydney starting on July 22.

P and O officials said in Fiji in September that the company regarded Suva as “one of most important ports of call for its cruise ships”.

The Oronsay made the first post war call a{ Suva in 1953. In that year there were only three or four calls by P and O liners.

Another Fishing Venture

For American Samoa

The Government of American Samoa is making another determined

try to entice American Samoans to venture beyond the reefs and set up locally-owned fishing businesses.

With a make-believe bottle of champagne, Mrs. Tafa Aspinall, wife of the Governor, christened a new $25,000, 33 ft sports fishing boat in Pago Pago Harbour on September 9. She called it Tautai ae, an ex pression of good luck.

At present the local fish canneries use 4,000 imported Asians to catch fish for them.

It was intended originally that the Asian fishermen should teach the Samoans the technique of long-line fishing. But few of the Samoans ever showed much interest, and

:r Governor H. Rex Lee said le occasion that it was literally sary to go out and beat the s to get recruits, far, the new fishing boat, which mded for near-shore fishing, has >ood results. Only a day after christening Captain Chaco moto caught 85 lb of table ff Step’s Point, between Fagatele md Larsen’s Bay, Tutuila. s catch was worth between $5O >B5, depending on where it was :ted.

September 12, a 375 lb haul apper, jacks and other reef fish :aught from the Tautai ae, off astern tip of Tutuila at Cape apu, in less than 30 fathoms iter. The fish were caught by ine, in less than nine hours of r the catch, 322 lb of fish were it the market place at 40 cents in less than two hours for a >um of $128.80.

Shipment Of

From Vanimo

v Guinea Goldfields shipped its irder of logs from the corn timber lease at Vanimo, near ew Guinea-West Irian border, ptember 11.

Japanese vessel, the Tenrin loaded 3,553 super feet of ood, valued at about $16,000. m Vanimo, the Tenrin Maru » sail to Cape Hoskins for more ’ for direct shipment to Japan.

Consultants To

Study P-Ng Shipping

The Administration of Papua-New Guinea has hired a British-Australian firm of consultants to “study” exist ing. shipping services and port facilities in the territory.

The firm’s field officers will start visiting more than 40 of the overseas and coastal ports of the territory from October, gathering information on volume and types of cargo shipped, freight rates and port facilities. Their work will take two months.

The consultants are Maunsell and Partners, of Melbourne and London, who have retained Captain Sir John Williams, chairman of the Australian

Coastal Shipping Commission and the Australian National Line, as their specialist adviser on shipping.

Captain Williams and two repre sentatives of the firm were to visit the territory in mid-September for discussions with the Administration and private enterprise.

Shipbuilding Course

Pays Off

Zakarai, a young man from the Rai Coast area of Madang District, has spent the last 16 months building a six-ton 25 ft launch.

He has sold the launch for $6,500 to a group of villagers from Biliau.

Before building the launch at the Lutheran Mission workshop at

iket Island, Madang Harbour, rai spent two years at Baitabag meal School, Madang, and was inly New Guinean to accompany : Papuans on a South Pacific mission training course.

)Nesians Were

L Off Course

i Indonesian copra trading 1, the Karian Kamang, arrived r ewak on August 30 after having off course on a trip to the hern Celebes Islands, hen picked up by the Admini on trawler, Andra, off Walis d, near Wewak, the crew said had not seen land for 24 days had lived on rainwater and flour. ie Karian Kamang was towed /ewak and the crew taken to ak Hospital.

For New Bsip

*Er Project

47 ft tug, built at a cost of 14,000 and called the Vala left London aboard the iter Marabank on September 18 Kolombangara Island in the ern Solomons. She will be used .ever’s Pacific Timbers Limited ow logs or 100-ton capacity ;rs from the shore to waiting i-going freighters. 14 ft beam, Vala River is red by twin 72 hp Lister diesels, has two cabins and can also ;ed for personnel transport. Un , she is capable of eight knots, vers recently announced a $1 in timber project at Kolom

bangara and plans to transfer their big timber operations in the Solomons from Gizo Island to Kolombangara (P/M, Aug., p. 125).

Winds In Noumea Delay

Tourist Ship—Again!

Noumea’s conservative Bulletin du Commerce, which has been campaigning for better port facilities in Noumea for many years, waxed very acid over an “incident” which befell the cruise ship Kuala Lumpur in Noumea recently.

The paper said that the Kuala Lumpur, with 182 tourists and 105 scouts from New Zealand, was scheduled to sail from Noumea at

10 a.m. on August 22 for Vila. She got away nearly 24 hours later.

Persistent westerly winds made it impossible for her to leave the wharf earlier.

The ship was prised from the wharf after hours of effort with the help of two small tugs from two firms in Noumea.

It is not the first time that a vessel has suffered delay from the same cause.

“This case is the more regrettable in that the Kuala Lumpur is a tourist vessel and a regular visitor to Noumea,” the Bulletin du Com merce said. “The result is not good tourist propaganda for the country.

“Noumea is still waiting for the

)0 hp tug promised for nearly 20 rs. Such a tug is absolutely essary to help ships in the port Noumea during their berthing rations.”

Reglass Boat

:tory for suva I new factory was opened at li, near Suva, in early September nanufacture small fibreglass boats, iwned by Sea Craft Limited, with ominal capital of £F 10,000, the ory is an extension of a large rear-old New Zealand company ch has made more than 3,000 II boats up to 21 ft long.

Ir. Y. L. Sands, of New Zealand, tie managing director. Mr. R. J. idman, of Suva, Mr. B. D. G. dor, of Suva, and Mr. J. Broun, Mickland, are the directors.

Ir. Sands told The Fiji Times that policy of the new company would to employ as much local labour lossible.

A For More Space

Rabaul Small Ships

strong call for additional tides to be built for small ships Rabaul Harbour has been made Rabaul’s newly-started monthly spaper, the Rabaul Reporter.

Elaborate plans to extend aul’s harbour facilities make no ision for small ship berthage, ite the fact that our small ship (already more than 80 vessels) ys less wharf space today than ;ed pre-war,” the newspaper says, t is no secret that primary pro ion—and consumer buying—are reted to double in the next 10 s throughout the NG islands.

Ml this additional cargo must be ied to and from Rabaul in small s. Yet not only are no extra 11 ship facilities planned, the only ible land for wharves and cargo s is being gradually whittled y for parks and private houses.” be Rabaul Reporter says that war there were five substantial rves ranged along the harbour’s irn side. Today there is only one. t busy times now it is common to small ships lying two or three ast while trying to load and ad cargo.

Ding Craft Does

Gunga Din"

landing craft built by the Fiji ernment Public Works Depart t to carry heavy equipment reen the scattered islands of the p had a new role in September irrying water, took over 200 tons from Suva

to villages in the Yasawas Group, which have been badly hit by drought.

The water was carried in the double bottoms of the landing craft and pumped ashore into tanks and other containers and into at least one well.

John Dean Now

Skipper Of "Kathleen"

Mr. John Dean, who figured in PIM several times last year as skipper of the yawl Te Mariner, is now working as captain of a small Islands trader in New Guinea waters.

In a note to PIM from Madang in July, Mr. Dean described what he had been doing since he sold Te Mariner in Sydney last year ( PIM, June, 1966, p. 111).

“The proceeds of the sale,” he said, “were invested in a business in Sydney which went bust and so did I. I just had enough money to fly to New Guinea and take a job with Len Willis, as mate on the Kathleen, 50 ton net.

“After three months I obtained my local master’s ticket and am now skipper of the good ship Kathleen.

“I see Joe Pachennegg quite fre quently with his yacht-like Laurabada,

K) get the opportunity occasion for a yachties’ ‘gas’, ave had letters from Dennis , formerly of the yacht, Crewcut, he is busy flying for a crop ig company in New Zealand, e has just finished his new 40 ft and hopes to be away on the again by the end of next year.”

Nsnails Settling

N Nicely

special consignment of live snails, sent recently from the Hebrides to aid Tahiti’s shell industry, are reported to be shing in their new environment autira, on Tahiti’s east coast, greensnails were fished from ik, Efate. It is hoped they will multiplied sufficiently within years to permit commercial itation. out seven years ago, 50 living uses were sent from the Con lium to Tahiti, and the success is experiment led the Fisheries rtment in Tahiti to import the snails.

Iries Research Vessel

Iched In Fiji

fisheries research vessel for the Government was launched and d Gonedau (Fisherman) re ' by Adi Lala, wife of Fiji’s Minister, Ratu K. K. T. Mara, s ship was built by the Fiji c Works Department. She will out research and experiment methods of fishing in Fiji s.

Jalofa's New

Rf Open Soon

e STI million Queen Salote orial Wharf at Ma’ufanga. alofa, will be opened by King u IV on October 11—the same m which the late Queen Salote crowned Queen of Tonga in late September work on the F was nearing completion—final aling was laid on the causeway,

new cargo sheds received last-minute touches and tests were carried out on the water-depth in front of the wharf.

A huge buoy, attached by chains to two 23-ton blocks on the sea-bed, was laid east of the wharf for mooring purposes by local divers, Manu Mapu’aho, ’llaisa Makasini and Sione Maka, under the direction of Mr. J. Riechelmann.

The buoy is designed to hold the largest of cruise ships to come alongside the wharf.

Residents of Nukualofa saw the causeway flood-lit in early September as workers worked well into the night tar-sealing the causeway road surface.

Quickening Interest In

Crayfishing

News of new crayfishing ventures - n t h e s ou th Pacific is coming thicker and f aster these days. For example: An , G . . • The . Auckland fishing vessel Loch Lein returned to Auckland in early September with a haul of 800 of crayfish tails caught at Tongas Minerva Reef, 300 miles south of t D r She Wlll return to Minerva Reef * n October, Six Tongans are being trained in Sydney by Australian industrialist, Mr. David Warner, as crew of his 70 ft motor cruiser Ata, which is to

for crayfish in the Ha’apai Group / next year ( PIM, Sept., p. 101).

Warner first met the Tongans i he rescued them on uninhabited Island, 90 miles south of »atapu last September, after they been cast away for 13 months.

The Auckland fishing trawler, Elizabeth, found no crayfish in Kermadec Islands, 600 miles i of Auckland, when she went ; to investigate the potential in ist. Trawling by long line was “hopeless” because of rough sea ims.

M has previously reported p. 103) that a new company, idly Islands Traders Limited, formed in Fiji recently to use a ft fishing trawler Coromel to i crayfish in Tongan waters, a base at Suva.

Ersea Mountain

Near Penrhyn

i undersea mountain as big as Zealand’s 12,000 ft Mt. Cook been found by the navy survey HMNZS Lachlan south of lyn Island, in the Northern s. e Lachlan returned to Auckland a survey voyage in late June. >mmander I. S. Monro, captain le Lachlan, told the Press that nountain had been found in an which was previously believed j all about 2,000 fathoms deep, peak came with 600 fathoms of urface.

Some Brief Items

• The East New Britain Advisory Council has recommended a reef light for emergencies be set up at Pomio in East New Britain. The council said that while shipping did not normally enter Pomio Harbour at night, the entrance to Pomio was narrow and Pomio itself was a grow ing administration centre and emergencies did arise. • Six men, without food and water for six days, were picked up in late September from Nukutolu Islet in the Northern Lau Group, 150 miles north-east of Suva.

The Fiji Governor’s yacht Ra Marama rescued the men, but the Governor, Sir Derek Jakeway, was not on board. • A tidal wave hit Mutulalo vil lage on Nukufetau Atoll, Ellice Islands, on July 30, sweeping water through the village and into the village. For a short time Islanders floated about in their houses but there were no casualties. • Two cranes were to be shipped to Mangaia, Cook Islands, in Sep tember to start widening the island’s harbour passage so that Islanders can handle some 40,000 cases of pine apples for export before November.