Wide organisational

changes for P&O

The P & O group has made a num ber of changes. It is reorganising its operating and management structure and radio communications and has appointed Burns Philp (NG) Ltd. as general passenger agents in New Guinea.

The group’s reorganisation plans involve some 150 companies being co-ordinated under five new operating divisions. Each division is responsible in its field for commercial and ship management functions, and worldwide investigation of business opportunities.

P & O, through its 12 major ship owning subsidiaries, controls a fleet of about 240 ships ranging from trawlers to passenger liners; from conventional cargo ships to con tainers, giant tankers and bulk carriers. About 40,000 people are employed by the group, which at present has on order its largest ever consignment of 30 new ships—some $3OO million worth—ll of which will be in service this year.

The new operating divisions with their chief executives are: Bulk ship ping, A. B. Marshall; general cargo shipping, R. B. Adams; passenger shipping, P. E. Parry; special shipping, H. T. Beazley; European and air transport, Lord Geddes.

Five new central staff divisions, providing services to the board and the operating divisions, comprise: Finance, J. Mitchell; international affairs, F. T. Bird; technical services, D. W. Kerr; personnel services, F. H.

Thomasson; planning, yet to be ap pointed.

The new radio communications set up is called GTZU, a system whereby P & O’s 240 ships can radio each other for aid anywhere in the world, by means of a collective call sign.

Formerly the ships kept in touch by using individual call signs.

Bums Philp (NG) Ltd., has been port agent for P & O in a number of areas, but has never been general passenger agent.

The appointment follows the intro duction in February of monthly calls to the territory of the liners Cathay and Chitral —operated by E & A, a member of the P & O group. Each calls at Port Moresby from Mel bourne, Sydney, Brisbane on the way to Hong Kong and Japan, and at Rabaul on the southward leg. Port Moresby, Rabaul and now Vila, are also visited by P & O on cmises.

When the Iberia arrived at Vila in April, it was the first time P & O liners had visited there since before World War I.

"Columbus New Zealand"

miutDiuAV

On Hek Way

Columbus Line’s Columbus New Zealand was due in Melbourne May 13 after a maiden voyage from her Hamburg shipyards, via the US where she was due to have her crane mounted and to take on cargo. She is the first of three container ships (other two, Columbus Australia, Columbus America ) which will run the first fully-container service between the east coast US and Australia/New Zealand, not stopping at South Pacific ports.

A Columbus representative told PIM in April that the line intended replacing all its trans-Pacific ships with “similar type vessels”, starting at the end of this year. This means that Tarawa, one of the two Pacific ports serviced by the line (the other is Honolulu) may have to be modifled to handle some kind of container Sh GEIC seamen will man the three new containers (they already man Columbus s present Pacific sh ?P s^® ril 5 1 W iota the Ship They areworking in a general purpose capacity which means all but one have to hold an AB certificate. Bosun F. Ams, who has been running a GEIC able-seaman course left with them.

In command of the Columbus New The vessel is as modern as a container can be. She has a cruising speed of 22 knots, dead weight capacity of 21,200 tons and can carry

1.1*7 containers, 454 of which are insulated for frozen and chilled cargo.

Portable clip-on refrigeration units may be to the containers for movement overland or at a terminal/ depot wb ii e awaiting loading. A un i que feature is an on-board gantry crane , able to handle 80 per cent, of tbc sb ip’s containers, which can make the ship independent of shore-based facilities.

Columbus Line is wholly owned by Hamburg Sud, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year.

Another GEIC crew left the colony i n April, this time to man the MV ofto L eon hardt, a 40,000 ton bulk carrier carrying iron ore, grain and coal between Norway, Brazil, South Africa, Venezuela and the Continent, Tbe fa seamen are all graduates of the Marine Training School,

Amqther Ship For Nga Line

New Guinea Australia Line> a Sw're company from Rab g au i to Australia, the 5,500 ton gross Chief was formerly the Kwangsi on a Far East r .

A side-port loader, she will carry special oil tanks for the new service and should be ready by the middle of the. year. The company’s three other ade-prat e/-run Another . Swire company, . Fiji Australia Line, charters the Taiyuan from China Navigation to run Suva- Lautoka-Noumea-Sydney.

Marshalls Shipping Under

Fire On Safety Question

In a tough April editorial, the Micronitor , published in Majuro, has warned that a major tragedy at sea will occur unless something is done to enforce safety precautions in district shipping.

The editorial said inadequacies pointed out to the newspaper included: ships operated commercially with inadequate personnel on board to provide for a licensed individual to oversee each watch; life rafts on most vessels operating in the Marshalls were either inadequate for the num ber of passengers, overdue for inspec tion, or have had no inspection at all; fire-fighting equipment was old, in adequate, and overdue for inspection; drills to familiarise crews with emergency were non-existent; radios were not required on many com mercial vessels which carry passen gers; flares were not carried on most small ships and vessels.

In particular, many activities by small boats (with special mention of the starfish control boat) had been thought a danger to large shipping in the port area, the paper said.

The editorial concluded: “Proper enforcement of recommended safety requirements by the District Trans portation Office will do much to fill the vacuum left by individual shippers who have proved, unfortunately, that we all try to get away with as much as we can.”

And in April a VSO member in the GEIC, John Hope, called for in creased safety equipment for small craft crossing the passage between Abaiang and Tarawa. He was writing

to the Colony Information Notes, in connection with the recent disap pearance of two nuns and two Gilbertese in such a crossing (PIM April, p. 112). The four have not been seen since March 21.

He said this was not the first time lives had been lost in the passage.

The dangers could be lessened if all boats carried out regular engine maintenance, carried spare pair of oars, a supply of food and water and a small repair tool kit. Laws should be passed to enforce this.

Ideally, he said, small craft should be stopped making the crossing; or else a regular ferry service should be resumed in the style of the old Tabakea.

Tonga's "Ekiaki" Can

Take Big Catches

Tonga’s new ship, Ekiaki (below), should be able to take big catches within a 150 mile radius of the Tongan coasts. Costing $T120,000 and formerly the Taiki Maru of Japan, she carries a crew of 20, has a steaming range of 25 days and has four separate freezer holds with a total capacity of 50 tons.

Tonga’s Fishing Master, Mr.

Susumu Kawakame, has always con sidered the previous fisher, Pakeina, unsuitable for longlining, due to in sufficient fuel, water and refrigeration capacity. While on leave in Japan he was commissioned to find a more suit able vessel, and the Ekiaki was pur chased. With a Tongan crew she recently sailed non-stop from Japan to Tongatapu.

Mr. Kawakame maintains Ekiaki’s potential for bigger catches is ex cellent. Yellow finned tuna and marlin are plentiful, as are albacore.

which could command top export prices in Fiji and Samoa where the canning industry is well established.

Mr. Kawakame also thinks fish should be canned in Tonga, not for getting fish sausage, fish ham, fish paste and fish meal as a fertiliser.

That there are plenty of fish in these waters is obvious to all. Tonga is con stantly plagued with Pago Pago based longliners encroaching in territorial waters.

Recently the Pakeina arrived with a prize game fish aboard—a 650 lb black marlin which apparently swallowed a 20 lb tuna caught on the ship’s longline, and only 26 miles east of Tongatapu. And from Niuafoou, the proceeds of a large groper, weighing over 400 lb enabled the fisherman to pay his poll tax for the next year.

Why The Government

can't build a boat Stinsons Ltd. (a name synonymous with Fiji tourism) is to build a 72 ft cruiser for the tourist industry—but the business won’t be going to the government shipyard.

This state of affairs was queried by an Opposition member in Fiji’s House of Representatives and he was given this prompt answer by the Minister for Communications, Works and Tourism, Mr. Charles Stinson: “I leave it to the imagination of members to consider the form of the parliamentary questions which would have been asked by members of the Opposition if the government ship yard had undertaken the construction of a vessel for a firm in which the Minister responsible had a financial interest.”

He added that if he were a private citizen, he would have no hesitation in approaching the government ship yard for a quotation—“Or, in the case in point, in persuading the firm of Stinsons Ltd. to make such an ap proach.” It was precisely because he was also a Minister, and particularly one with responsibility for the Marine Department, he said, that he couldn’t under any circumstances contemplate such action.

Mr. Stinson said he had, as a Minister, consistently advocated the need to develop Fiji as a centre for ship-building and ship repair. The cruiser, designed in England, is being built at Millers’ Suva shipyard and is expected to be ready for launching in 18 months.

Ships to 220 ft long, or around 1,000 tons gross, will come within the construction capacity of the Fiji Marine Department, after a

5F200,000 expansion programme for its shipyard at Walu Bay, Suva.

Giving details, Mr. Stinson said in April the expansion would make Suva a ship-building centre of the South Pacific with potential to win orders from Australia and New Zealand.

The size of the present yard limits shipbuilding to 150 ft or less. Its redesign has been planned by United Nations shipping expert, Mr.

Arne Sannegren, and Marine De partment staff. The first phase of work, due to start this year, will cost $50,000. The whole project, over three years, calls for the re moval of two steel sheds, the ex tension of No. 1 building, erection of a 35 ton gantry crane and mod ernisation of the boilershop.

Two New Replacements

For Cooks Shipping

Silk and Boyd Ltd. of Rarotonga is searching for vessels to replace two of its three-ship inter-island fleet of motor vessels.

The 169 tons gross Tagua, stranded on Mangaia Island’s reef last Decem ber, has been declared a total loss and will be replaced by a larger vessel. She will be cut up and sold as scrap. In March-April Don Silk was overseas looking for a second hand ship with a speed of around 10 knots.

Also to be replaced is the slow and ageing 201 tons Akatere, probably by a steel hulled motor vessel of 200 tons, with a speed of nine knots and capable of carrying 18 cabin passen gers as well as general cargo.

This ship will probably be built in Taiwan and is expected to be in service next year. Both replacement vessels will employ Cook Islanders as crew.

Shipping briefs

• Sitmar Line is to make Raro tonga one of its ports of call in 1972. The company, which carried European migrants to Australia until its contract ran out in June last year, is now concentrating on normal liner services from Europe to New Zealand and Australia via the Panama Canal. Sitmar, which also calls at Papeete and Suva, will make its first Rarotonga call on April 7, 1972, with Fairsky. • The Fiji cruise boat, Sea Spray , ran on a reef at Kadavu Lailai on April 16 and stayed there over an hour before refloating under her own power. • The twin deck, 6,500 ton dwt Tenos left Sydney on April 5 on her first voyage for Conpac Pacific Line, stopping Brisbane-Port Moresby and

back. She had just completed a rough delivery crossing of the Pacific. With a Swedish crew and captain, she was carrying 2,000 tons of cargo (PIM, April, p. 87) and was due back in Sydney 16 days later. • The Holm Shipping Company increased its freight rates by about $4 a ton on New Caledonian freight from New Zealand on April 5. In a letter to customers the company said the latest financial results indicated substantial losses on this route which the company was unable to absorb.

Holm runs the Holmburn fortnightly from Auckland to Noumea. • An unexpected call was made at Rarotonga on March 31 by the

Russian scientific research vessel, Dmitry Mendeleey, from Honolulu.

On board were Captain MikhailSobo velesky, 90 crew, and 70 scientific personnel.

The 6,800 ton vessel is equipped with several laboratories, equipment that can recover specimens from depths of 7,000 metres, and a com puter that can make 5,000 calcula tions per second and can transmit data to Moscow for further process ing.

This four-months’ research cruise of the Pacific is the fifth voyage the two-years-old Dmitry Mendeleey has made. Pacific ports of call on the current voyage being the Galapagos Islands, Honolulu and Rarotonga.