Pacific Shipping

Hornibrooks will build another New Guinea wharf

With the lowest tender and an immediate starting date, a British group has won a $823,600 contract to build a 200-ft, deep-water wharf at Kimbe, new headquarters of West New Britain district, on Kimbe Bay, east of Talasea, beating bids from two Australian and one Canadian groups.

The successful tenderer is Horni brook Constructions Pty. Ltd., a name familiar in P-NG though taken over by London-based Wood Hall Trust finance and insurance firm several years ago.

Losers are Barclay Bros. (NG) Ltd,, which is known in NG for previous construction work; Dowsett NG Ltd., commercial and home builder in NG since 1960; and a new firm, Canadian Constructions Pty.

Ltd.

The wharf, to accommodate over seas ships calling for oil shipments from the palm oil project underway nearby, will be 40 ft wide and linked to shore by a 220 ft long approach road.

It will be built of concrete on tubular steel piles with a protection system to retard the corrosive effect of seawater by a continuous dis charge of an electric current.

It will also include special features to withstand frequent and intense local earthquake activity.

Hornibrooks, known in the New Hebrides and Solomons as well for wharf and general construction activities, is also carrying out general erection and supply work at Arawa Bay, Bougainville, for CRA’s major copper project.

At Arawa, Hornibrooks have built a temporary overseas wharf and are currently putting up a permanent wharf.

At Samarai, Eastern Papua, the firm is renovating the major wharf; at Lorengau, Manus, it completed a civilian wharf in February.

Hornibrooks has a steel fabricating supply business in Moresby and is hopeful of winning additional work building tanker moorings for a oil company in two territory centres.

Tonga Builds Biggest

Concrete Barge

Nearing completion in Tonga in mid-February was a huge ferro cement barge believed to be the largest of its kind to be built in the Islands.

Owned and built at his Nukualofa headquarters by Sydney businessman Peter Warner, who catches and buys crayfish in the kingdom for export, the barge’s hull was recently launched so that final fitting out could be done.

The barge is 54 ft long and has a beam of 15 ft. It was built upside down on wooden frames, and materials were 12 layers of half-inch chicken wire (or wire mesh), cement,

and six tons of riversand from Fiji.

For the launching of the hull, 70 men took about two hours to man handle it the few feet from the waterfront construction site to the sea.

Mr. Warner plans to equip the barge with a large freezer unit and it will be based in the Vavau group as a refrigerator storehouse for fish and crays.

If this first effort is successful.

Warner plans to build six more in 1970.

Construction of the present barge is directed by Mr. W. E. Richardson, of Dunedin, NZ, with Nukualofa harbourmaster, Capt. C. H. Hill- Willis (who is also a marine architect) as technical advisor.

Mr. Warner is also believed to be interested in building ferro-cement houseboats, similar to that on Dune din’s Lake Waihola, for accommodat ing tourists who want to travel around Tonga.

It looks odd, but it's the biggest barge built in the South Pacific (see above). Photo taken at its upside-down launching.—Photo by Sio Magisi.

Papuan Army Sailors

Visit Sydney

An Australian Army barge which avoided the recent cyclone in Queens land waters on a voyage south from Papua, reached Sydney with her Papuan crew in February.

The barge 3001, was due for a major refit. It will remain in Sydney for this operation, and 3000, a sister vessel, will be sailed back as a replacement.

The barge, 3001, was due to leave Townsville on the journey south on the night cyclone Ada struck. Fortun ately, the cyclone warnings came in time to prevent her sailing and she was able to ride out the storm without damage.

The return voyage was to be made early March.

Crew of the barge consists of three Europeans master, Sergeant Bill Brady, watchkeeper, Corporal Graham Stenner and the chief en gineer, Corporal Barry Harrison— and 10 Papuans.

Mill Considers Plans

For "Fanafjord"

MILI, the US Trust Territory’s shipper, is considering which schedule to put its new chartered vessel Fanafjord on when she arrives in April (PIM, Feb., p. 109).

One idea is to load monthly at Yokohama and Kobe, Japan, and to proceed to Guam and Saipan for major unloading. Then go to Yap and Koror. At Koror she’d load Yap cargo previously bought in by other MILI vessels from the US West Coast, backtrack to Yap, load copra and return to Japan.

Yap is the bugbear, with Tom'il Harbour unable to cope with West Coast vessels. Fanafjord, however, would be able to load alongside the Kolonia warehouse.

New Smallships Wharf

At Bua, Morobe

A smallships wharf at Bua, west of Lae in the Huon Gulf area of New Guinea, was opened in Feb ruary.

The concrete 130 ft wharf was built by the Huon Local Government Council and local villages. It cost $2,500 of which the council contri buted $1,500; the remainder came from the Administration.

The Administration also spent $3,500 on roads in the Bua area which will assist the people in getting their copra to the wharf for ship ment to Lae.

"Gangsters" Destroyed

Marine Resource

A 75-foot marauding fishing vessel, captured by the Palau constabulary last April, has been condemned and forfeited to the Trust Territory Gov ernment. The legal decision was handed down by the territory’s High Court recently.

The decision to forfeit the vessel was made after the Okinawan fisher men failed to pay an SUS 18,000 fine levied by the TT High Court. They were tried and found guilty on August 1.

The Okinawan fishing vessel, Kyoshin Maru Number 23, was skip

pered by Capt. Yusin Kaneshima and manned by 18 divers when it plundered the reefs of southern Palau District in April. The fishing boat was an unlicensed vessel that left Okinawa in mid-March and headed for Helen Reef, about 500 miles south of Koror. The area is not inhabited.

The men ravaged Helen Reef, cutting 5,000 pounds of precious clam muscles from over 2,000 clams.

They left the clam meat behind.

They also took 214 large turtles with them before heading back to Oki nawa.

But on April 9, while passing Koror, the vessel was spotted close

to shore by the crew of the 46foot fishing boat owned by actor Lee Marvin. The constabulary was notified and four officers, aboard a motorboat, intercepted the Oki nawans.

The men were held in custody for several months, unable to pay the $lB,OOO fine. Ordinarily, fishing boats and crews violating Trust Territory waters are fined about $lO for each crew member and $250 for the vessel. However, this case, according to Associate Justice D. Kelly Turner, was a different matter. The Kyoshin Maru Number 23, was an unlicensed vessel considered in Okinawa as being owned by gangsters.

“They wilfully, deliberately and maliciously destroyed an extremely rare marine resource,” Turner said.

In their haste to get back to Japan with the muscle and turtles, they didn’t bother taking about 50 pounds of valuable clam meat. They also didn’t take time to pull the heavy shells out of the water.

Each shell is worth at least $2O.

The clam muscle is an extremely expensive delicacy in Japan. The value of the stolen seafood is estimated between $15,000 and $20,000.

Helen Reef is considered to have one of the largest concentrations of giant clams in the Pacific. It is also known for its large population of turtles.

In the High Court’s decision to condemn and forfeit the vessel, pro vision was made to give the libellee an extra 30 days to appeal the case.

Solomon Islands Get

Shipbuilding Help

With derelict war equipment, re covered in the British Solomon Islands, the New South Wales Branch Foundation for the Peoples of the South Pacific has been conducting a school for the training of Melanes ians in maritime skills.

In early November, Australian Catholic Relief made available a grant of $5,000 out of the proceeds of the 1969 Project Compassion appeal to help the foundation replace worn-out World War II equipment wtih new and modern ship-building machinery, and enlarge the workshop area so that larger vessels can be repaired and built.

The project is located at Buma on the mid-western coast of Malaita Island, which has no town and no roads. Travel is by canoe, launch or ship, and Buma is the centre for If),000 saltwater and bush Melane sians, whose economy depends on a small copra export trade and the

sale of trees to the Buma Mission timber mill.

Malaitans are anxious to build and sail their own boats so that they can transport their own copra and turn to fishing as a secondary industry.

The project began after World War II following a decision of the present Catholic Bishop, who encouraged a brother engineer to collect the derelict war equipment, to put it in working order and start a small slipway for repairing the overworked mission launches the

only means of communication around the islands.

The slipway grew gradually into a boat-building shop and boat building training school, which has already graduated 20 Melanesian diesel mechanics and 12 Melanesian shipwrights. The school takes married students, provides each one with a home and wages while he is at the centre and helps him find permanent work after he graduates. At present there are eight married students, and the grant will assist the school to enlarge its roll to 16.

S. African Ship In

New Guinea Service

Greyville, a 18-year-old Dutch vessel of 1,284 tons, reputed to be NG’s largest coastal trader, went into service out of Port Moresby in Feb ruary. On her delivery to her owners.

Palm Shipping and Trading Pty. Ltd., she brought 450 tons of sand from South Africa, which was used to improve Moresby’s Ela Beach. Her four-week run will include Kieta, Rabaul, Wewak, Madang, Lae and Moresby.

The ship’s South African crew has been replaced by a NG crew.

Master is Captain John Earlston, a newcomer to NG. Greyville was to have been renamed Moresby Palm, but owners decided, in light of the necessary complicated procedures, to leave the name unchanged.

"Tobi Clipper" Finds

Another Charterer

Hetherington Kingsbury Pty. Ltd. have taken up a short-time charter of the 750-ton Danish freighter Tobi Clipper, following the lapsing of the freighter’s charter by the W. R.

Carpenter-TNT group (PIM, Feb., p. 103).

Tobi Clipper has been re-chartered by Hetherington Kingsbury to one of this company’s wholly-owned sub sidiaries, Southern Cross Shipping, and put on coastal trading in NG.

In February Tobi Clipper was on her first monthly Moresby-Lae-Kieta- Rabaul-Kavieng (Manus or Wewak on inducement )-Madang-Lae Moresby run.

For Southern, she’s replacing the 960-ton Lemana, which has been working in the territory for two years. Lemana is in Brisbane for docking.

The Tobi Clipper charter, from Weco Shipping Australia Pty. Ltd. of Sydney, will last until Lemana is ready to resume her NG run.

Another Weco vessel, the 1,000-ton Gunner, completed a timber charter for Gibbs Bright and Co. Pty. Ltd. (PIM, Feb., p. 114) from New Britain in February.

Weco’s assistant manager, Mr.

John Wegebe»-g, said she had been sent for docking at Whangarei, NZ.

After docking, Mr. Wegeberg said, she would be chartered to a company whose name he “couldn’t tell” and carry building materials to Islands territories outside NZ. He said he would “rather not say” which terri tories Gunner would call at; her NZ charter, however, would end in “mid-May”.

New Efforts To Free

"Santa Teretia Ii"

Efforts were to be made on Feb ruary 20, with the aid of expected spring tides and a makeshift slipway, to free the Gilbert Islands’ mission ship, Santa Teretia 11, aground on a reef off the western side of Nauru since January 4 (PIM, Feb., p. 114).

The inter-island trader struck the reef in a 40 knot gale. She remained high and dry on the reef and early efforts to refloat her failed.

The British Phosphate Commis sioners, which were to help efforts to refloat her on February 20 said if ef forts failed she would remain a stark reminder to the perils ships could encounter in storms which lash the western side of Nauru in the cyclone season, from mid-December to early March.

Ng Backloading Still

Shipping Bugbear

Australia-West Pacific Line is currently promoting its 16-days Sydney-Brisbane-Lae run with the Nimos, leaving its three-week run to Port Moresby and Rabaul to the Delos.

Nimos has priority loading status in Lae, because of her fast off-loading pace (1,850 tons were recently handled in 14 hours) with modern equipment, and has won for AWPL a 37 per cent, share of Australia-Lae traffic.

AWPL has no plans to win Kieta cargoes, as other shippers have done with the major copper project nearby, but prefers to concentrate on Lae.

NG cargoes quietened down in January and February, according to most shippers, who put the trend down to the slack season after Christmas.

A cargo freight rise, however, according to shippers, seemed “in evitable” and one company tipped soon after April 1, when rates to the Far East go up.

Backloading, still shippers’ biggest problem on NG runs, is still very much Burns Philp’s ace card. BP’s, despite unofficial protests by com petitors, still carries most of the southbound copra; and, besides, a growing timber trade—and there’s little else going to Australia.

Gilbertese crewmen from the "Santa Teretia II", constructing the makeshift slipway in an attempt to re-float the mision ship.—Photo by Kevin Whelan.

Shipping Briefs

9 A strong 32 ft towing and general duties launch is being con structed in the Cooks and is expected to begin operations in August.

Designed by Sydney naval architect, Warwick Hood, the launch will move at up to eight knots and tow lighters around Aitutaki’s extensive lagoon. 9 The NG Administration expects to receive two new vessels and a barge, being built in the territory at a total cost of $190,000, in March and May. The vessels, a 35 ft fish ing research boat and a 46 ft general purpose craft, are being built by Tobi Shipbuilding Co. of Rabaul and the 82 ft 120-ton barge, by Coastal Shipping Co. of Rabaul. ® The 70 ft steel-hulled Minne sota, passenger and cargo carrier for the NG Anglican Mission, made her first run recently from Lae to Samarai. Skippered by Jerry Abagina she carried 30 cabin and deck passengers and about 70 tons of cargo. • Two converted wartime Japanese submarines, which have been used around the NG Islands as powerless fuel carriers, will now be used to supply fresh water to visiting liners at Rabaul. The 110 ft submarines, which carry 50,000 gallons of fuel, have been given this new lease of life by Rabaul business man, Mr. Pat Robert, who has also used them as fenders for ships anchoring off Toboi Wharf. 9 As reported last month ( PIM, Feb., p. Ill), Burns Philp’s 21-year old flagship Braeside has been sold for an undisclosed sum to a Liberian based group with associations in Manila. She was to be pulled off the NG run in March and her Singapore crew repatriated; her sale put a question mark on the future of her skipper, Captain Brett Hilder,

Captain Brett Milder.

BP commodore and employee since 1928. Conjecture has it Brett may be given a research role for the Big Firm, • Lae is the latest port that the P and O Line is considering for calls on Islands cruises. A company repre sentative, Captain M. A. Trenfield, recently Visited local travel and port authority people, before reporting back to Sydney headquarters. PIM understands no decision had yet been made. • Coral Seas Fishing Company, of Honiara, Solomons, with a local refrigeration plant, is now selling up to 5,000 lbs of fish a week to Honiara and is considering exporting surplus supplies. The company’s vessel, Gudrun, takes catches throughout the protectorate and has gone as far afield as San Cristobal and New Georgia. • In an effort to prevent depletion of fish around American Samoa, the territory has extended its offshore limits from three miles to 12 miles.

Foreign vessels are barred from fish ing for any form of marine life, including live coral, within these 12 miles. US and American Samoan boats can fish within the region and it is hoped that the measure will boost Samoa’s almost non-existent small fishing enterprises. • A 12-car 75 ft ferry, operated by two cables, is improving com munication between Koror and Babelthuap, two key centres of the Carolines’ Palau District. The 5U575,000 ferry has replaced a much slower two-car M-boat across the 1,000 ft channel. • Etablissements Donald Tahiti will introduce a new 346 tons deadweight motor vessel Valinco on its trading runs among the Society and Mar quesas Islands in April.

Valinco will complement the com pany’s other two French Polynesian traders, the 425-ton Taporo and 181ton auxiliary schooner Vaitere.

Donald has two branches in the territory— at Papeete and Uturoa, Raiatea.

An associate of the NZ-based group, A. B. Donald Ltd., of Auck land, Etablissements Donald was set up in 1882. Its capital is now 250 million Pacific Francs. A. B. Donald, a private group, began Cook Islands trading in the same year, 1882.

O A fully-equipped deepsea fish ing boat went into service out of Honiara, Solomons, recently. Opera ted by Tropicana Promotions Ltd. (BSIP), the boat, capable of 22 knots, is available for charter six days

a week. On Sundays, it will make a trip to Savo Island, off Guadal canal, for sightseeing and a lunch at Tambea Village. • Tonga’s Minerva Reef welcomed yet another unexpected shipping arrival in mid-February when the $lOO,OOO 70 ft cray boat Ata was grounded in heavy seas. Ata is owned by Sydney businessman, Mr. Peter Warner who in late February was on the way to Minerva aboard the Union steamer Taveuni to help a tug from Tonga atempt to free the Ata.

Coomonderry, another Cray boat, was lost on the reef last October (PIM, Nov., 1969, p. 109).

• Three liners recently bought by the Italian Sitmar Line and the British Shaw Savill Line are scheduled for cruising the Islands at later dates.

Sitmar’s ships are the 25,000-tonners Fairland and Fairwind, both capable of carrying 2,000 people, which will begin operating in May and July next year.

Formerly Cunard Line vessels, they are currently undergoing refurbishing in Europe.

Shaw Savill’s ship is the 12-year old 24,500-ton Empress of England, capable of carrying 1,056 passengers.

A former Canadian Pacific ship, she’s scheduled in Australia on May 24.