Pacific Shipping

Matson Now Sails

Under A New Flag

Following US Government ap proval for the purchase of Matson Navigation Company’s South Pacific passenger and freight services. Pacific Far East Line was to officially raise ts flag on the SS Mariposa on January 12 before sailing from San Francisco for the Islands.

Along with the Mariposa, Pacific Far East has acquired Matson Line’s )ther luxury liner, the Monterey [see PIM, Sept, p. 95), the freight vessels, Sonoma and Ventura, and a ihipyard contract for two container Lips under construction in Maryland, JS.

A Pacific Far East spokesman said n January the company intends to continue the same cruises now idvertised by Matson through the >outh Pacific and elsewhere. Matson Jne staff in Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland would be integrated into Far East’s organisation im nediately, but phone numbers and iddresses would remain the same in he interim.

Newly appointed vice-president of he Pacific Far East passenger ivision is Mr. Sam N. Mercer, former ►resident of a Washington travel •rganisation.

Ip's Sell The

Ast One

Bums Philp and Co. Ltd. has sold ic Montoro to Gibbons and Co. of ingapore. It was expected the Mon ?ro would be handed to the new wners in late January. A Singapore rew was to fly to Australia to sail ie ship to Singapore. On her de very voyage she was to take a cargo f wheat to Indonesia.

The Montoro, which BP’s operated etween Australia and P-NG, was the ist ship in the fleet to be sold. BP’s >ok delivery of Montoro, 3,700 tons, 5 a new ship early in 1957.

She was the subject of a clash stween BP’s and several maritime nions recently {PIM, Nov., 1970, p. 9)- s were prepared to spend up ) $200,000 to convert her to carry

an Australian crew. However, after a survey it was found impossible to supply single cabins, and to meet other requirements,

A Real Islands

Trader

Evangeline 11, an all-steel 250 ton 98 ft diesel motor vessel built in Japan in 1963, has been delivered to Majuro in the Marshall Islands.

Evangeline II will enter the Mar shalls inter-island service as an ocean going general merchandise store.

Owned by Majuro trader Ajidrik Bien, the ship was purchased in Japan and converted there for her new role. The main retail store housed in front of the bridge is complete with counters and shelves and island residents simply come on board with their shopping lists and select their groceries. Copra and other island produce will be pur chased and stored in the large single hold.

The ship carries a Japanese captain and chief engineer and six Mar shallese crew members. Eventually the Japanese nationals will be re placed by Marshallese, The Marshalls cover 600,000 square miles of sea.

Guam Retains Link

With Australia

Guam won’t lose its shipping link with Australia after all ( PIM , Jan., p. 88), Nauru Pacific Shipping Line has stepped into the breach, and, early in February will start a regular service between Melbourne and Guam with the Eigamoiya.

Something of a shipping infant, but a lusty one, Nauru Pacific now has three ships offering a variety of ser vices throughout the South-West Pacific. Among their calls are Suva, Lautoka, Apia, Nukualofa, Rabaul, Kieta, Lae, Madang and Guam.

Apart from the Eigamoiya, there are the Rosie D and the Enna G. The Eigamoiya, built in 1968 in Scotland, is a four-hatch cargo ship with a capacity of 5,875 tons for general cargo and 275 tons for refrigerated cargo. She has de-luxe accommoda tion for 12 passengers. Present inten tions are that she will not call at Australian ports, other than Mel bourne, on the Guam run.

The Rosie D is expected to call at Guam in May. Built in 1955, she has

The "Evangeline II".

Photo: Bill McGrath.

a capacity for more than 14,000 tons of general cargo and 100 tons of refrigerated cargo. Her passenger capacity is 48.

The Enna G is a cargo-passenger ship of 9,336 tons, air-conditioned, with capacity for 110 passengers.

Naum Pacific agent in Guam is Pacific Far East Line (Guam) Ltd.

Islands Ships

Held Up In Nz

The New Zealand Seamen’s Union was causing more hold-ups to Islands shipping in January. A black ban on the Jean Philippe lasted three weeks before being called off in the union’s favour, and work could begin on loading 1,000 tons of cement for the Rarotonga airport project. The Thallo, in Auckland January 18, faced the same trouble.

Both disputes had been causing trouble since early December. The union wanted, in the case of Jean Philippe, that the Fijian crew get NZ seamen’s wages and, in the Thallo’s, that the crew be replaced by NZ seamen.

Gammon-Milne, the consortium in charge of the Rarotonga airport contract, said they were considering picking up cement in Fiji, Taiwan or Japan if the dispute continued over the Jean Philippe.

When the union tried to get NZ wages for the crew of the Jean Philippe in early December, the officers took the ship to sea, but some of the Fijian crew on board refused to work. The Fijians were dropped at Nukualofa and it is believed non-union men replaced them. The January strike is over this and the owners’ (Reef Shipping Co.) refusal to pay NZ wages.

Mr. John Marshall, NZ Minister of Labour, said the dispute was covered by a 1968 agreement, signed by owners and union, that the ship, while trading out of NZ to any Pacific destination, would pay the Fijian crew NZ wages and observe NZ union conditions for half the time that lapsed from first arrival in NZ to first arrival in NZ on each sub sequent voyage. (The Jean Philippe is Suva-registered; managing director of Reef Shipping, Mr. T. McNicholl, is an Auckland home builder).

The dispute was resolved on January 18 after talks between the NZ Federation of Labour, Reef Shipping and Gammon-Milne. The parties agreed to abide by Mr.

Marshall’s explanation of the 1968 agreement —and cement was due to begin loading at Whangarei the next day. , On January 19, however, the strike was on again. This time watersiders walked off after a derrick collapsed when the first slings of cement were

loaded. All work stopped and a NZ Marine Department surveyor began an investigation.

During the same period the Thallo, chartered by the Cook Islands Gov ernment from New Zealander-owner Athol Rusden, arrived in Auckland.

When last there in December ( PIM , Jan., p, 89) watersiders refused to work her until the owner agreed to replace Fijian crew with NZ crew in 1971.

When Thallo docked on January 18, tvatersiders agreed to unload bananas but not non-perishable goods. Water siders and Seamen’s Unions met to liscuss further action.

However according to a Cook islands Shipping Agency spokesman, ;he crew would be replaced with seamen, not NZ ones. This vas legitimate as the Thallo was on i traditional Cooks run.

Japanese Tuna Boats

:an stay in p-ng Japanese tuna long-lining ships may ontinue to operate in Papua-New Guinea’s 12-mile declared fishing zone or a further five years, according to n understanding recently reached in 7okyo under the terms of the Australian/ Japanese Fisheries agree ment of 1968 relating to P-NG.

Conditions are that the Japanese Jovernment will make every effort to stablish joint venture fishing enter rises based on P-NG facilities. Japan ; also required to make a feasibility tudy on the establishment of an in- Jgrated fishing and canning industry ased at Madang.

Ip Go Freight Rates

The New Guinea-Australia Line, .arlander and Conpac Pacific Ex ress Lines are to lift their freight ites on cargoes from Sydney and risbane to Papua-New Guinea and le BSIP, and vice versa. The new ites, up 15 per cent., will apply om March 1.

The increase is the first on these :rvices since July, 1961. It comes ard on the heels of an announcement y Nauru Pacific Shipping Lines of a se of 20 per cent, in freight rates Jtween Melbourne and P-NG.

The three companies concerned id that rising costs had eventually /ertaken economies that had been ade through the introduction of utised services, and a later rationali ition by main operators (Burns Philo id AWP Line).

■Ng Shipping Inquiry

Ill Meet Soon

The recently - appointed Coastal lipping Commission in Papua-New uinea (PIM, Dec., p. 30) will soon :gm its investigations. Under its rms of reference it’s required to

make recommendations on four points: • The ownership and control of coastal shipping; • The degree of control to be exercised by the Administration over the volume and types of tonnage, and on navigational and safety matters; • The methods by which such con trols should be exercised, the forms of licensing and certifica tion and the vesting of the powers; • Regulatory, investment and train ing measures for the continuing modernisation and stability of the industry, especially the inter main port trade, including the possibility of direct participation by the Administration.

The members of the commission far appointed are Captain J.

Lewin (chairman), Commonwealth Department of Shipping and Trans ient; Professor Kolsen, Economics professor, Queensland University; Captain W. J. Gibson, Superintendent >f Marine, Department of Transport. fourth member, an independent P resident, is yet to be named.

Lut The Matson

Lag Flies Here

Flying the white and blue flag 'f Matson Navigation Company, her ormer owner, the Falls of Clyde /as gently tugged to her permanent erth in the Port of Honolulu in ite December. The 92-year-old iron essel, former general cargo vessel, latson bark rig, and sailing oil anker, is being restored as a floating aaritime museum. She is the world’s nly four-masted full-rigged ship still float and the only sailing oil tanker ill in existence.

But in 1963 she almost became part f the breakwater off Vancouver, he was saved by public donation, ad since 1968 the Bishop Museum i Honolulu, present owners, has been storing her. The lower standing gging has been installed to make le Falls of Clyde look like a sailing up again and the museum has ;arched the world for such authentic ems as various types of wire to ipport the masts, rigging leather, ockhold tar, teething wire and ham ■olme. Completed quarters feature ich elegant trapping as carved teak almgs and a curved glass skylight /er the saloon. Two cargo holds mdships are being converted into .hibit areas. Restoration costs are ose to SUSI million and admission the ship and sales from a local gift op, go towards this.