Pacific Shipping

Container plan may ease Pago wharf problem

A SUS 3 million-plus plan for container handling at Pago Pago, American Samoa, is being considered by the American Samoan Government and Matson Lines, whose liners and freighters regularly call at the port on trans-Pacific routes.

PlM’s shipping writer understands the plan would necessitate joining Pago Pago’s overseas wharf terminal with the oil dock, a distance of several hundred yards.

Currently, several government houses are between the terminal and the dock. If the plan is approved, these houses will be demolished and a new container wharf, with transit sheds and crane space, built on their site.

Proposed extensions to the luxury waterfront Intercontinental Hotel, adjacent to the oil dock, would be built on a diagonal block pointing to the main road.

It’s likely the territory’s new Governor, John M. Haydon, with his previous harbour experience as presi dent of the Seattle Port Commission, will favour this plan, or a similar one, to make Pago Pago a more important Islands port.

Money from the US

Matson is unlikely to finance the joining of the wharves; the money would have to come in above-budget grants from the US Government.

However, the company is considering a similar arrangement as at its Diamond Head, Hawaii, container complex, where it owns or leases all container-handling machinery.

The company carries several deck containers on its trans-Pacific runs but so far these have been hardly worth the trouble because of low cargo volume. Also there’s been the need to keep up with competitors’ container services.

Matson is unhappy with the current Pago Pago situation because only one liner can be accommodated at the terminal at once. Matson shins have had to be diverted to the oil dock, or stand off.

Economies are being made and efforts A longer wharf would enable a liner and a freighter to berth together. Also, the wharf facilities at the canning works, opposite the terminal, are too small for Matson freighters to berth and fish cargoes are being lost to competitors with smaller boats, such as the Polynesia Line’s Grazielle Zeta .

New Hebrides Call

For P&O

The New Hebrides will see a P&O liner for the first time in 36 years when the E and A Line’s (a P&O subsidiary) 13,809-ton Cathay calls at Vila on October 6 this year.

Last P&O vessel in the con dominium was the Oronsay which called in 1934.

Cathay will leave Melbourne on September 25 on a 20-day cruise and calls will include Honiara, October 3, Vila and Noumea, October 7.

Cathay recently replaced the E and A liner Aramac on the Australia- Japan run. Stopovers at Rabaul, New Britain, on Cathay’s southbound passage are made.