And Rescues
pp. 94-95 · Read in the full issue
Marine Mishaps
Several mishaps were reported last month and late September but there was no loss of life. However, a ketch and barge were lost. Two ships, which became disabled and had to drift, were rescued. Their stories follow: A Tonga oil barge, the Lolo manaia, sank near Vatoa Island in southern Lau early in October. She was on her way from Suva to Tonga, towed by the Hifofua, when she cap sized 19 miles east of Vatoa.
The Hifofua picked up the crew and the tow continued, for a short time, with the barge’s stern about 10 feet out of the water. The cargo of 500 tons of motor fuel for British Petroleum was lost when the Lolo manaia sank.
Later, Tonga’s Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. M. U. Tupouniua, called an emergency meeting with fuel suppliers to discuss the situation following the sinking of the Lolo manaia. Because of uncertainty about future fuel supplies, he appealed for co-operation in conserving fuel.
The LCU-1495, a US Navy boat on loan to the Marianas District, broke down and drifted helplessly for three days in September before she was rescued by a Japanese ship.
She was on her way from Saipan to Pagan Island in the northern Marianas with heavy equipment for use in dismantling and shifting a damaged US Navy aircraft which had crashed on the Pagan airstrip.
The Japanese ship, the Shichiyo Maru, found the LCU-1495 about 200 miles north - east of Saipan.
Several Navy and Air Force planes, and three ships took part in the search. A US Navy minesweeper, the Pluck, was detailed to rendezvous with the LCU-1495 and tow it back to Saipan.
Eleven Tongan fishermen arrived hungry and exhausted in Suva in late September after a chance rescue by the Fiji Marine Department vessel Vuniwai.
Their fishing boat Raiwaqa, was towed to Suva by Vuniwai after being spotted hundreds of miles off course, near the island of Ono-i-Lau in Fiji s Lau Group. Out of food, and with only a few bottles of rainwater, the Tongans were in an exhausted state after battling against stormy weather for six days.
The fishing boat left Nukualofa on September 14 on a three-day fishing trip.
She started to drift to the north east when a storm struck at 3 a.m. the following day. The crew spent the next three days trying to beat back to Tonga against 30-knot winds, patching ripped mainsails with fish sacks in the meantime.
By Monday, supplies had shrunk to two loaves of bread and two half bottles of water. By Monday night, the bread had gone. The following day the weather cleared and the wind dropped. During a rainfall, the men were able to catch enough water to fill bottles and cans.
On the Wednesday morning, the relieved Tongans spotted the Vuniwai anchored at harbour at Ono-i-Lau.
They were taken in tow, arriving in Suva on September 25.
The 26,000-ton oil tanker San Salvador drove its bows 7 ft into the pier on Saipan’s Charlie dock on October 10 while attempting to berth with a load of bulk fuel and oil.
As the tanker crunched its way into the pier, oil, enough to fill several hundred barrels, poured through a gash in the San Salvador’s bows into the harbour.
Public Works officials encircled the 450 ft long tanker with a boom of floating lumber and managed to con tain the oil spill. It was then “mopped up” with “tangen-tangen” branches and buckets.
Divers, who inspected the pier, said the gash went down for more than 20 ft and appeared to be extensive.
No estimate of the amount of damage has been made.
The San Salvador, which flies the Liberian flag, is on charter to Mobil Oil-Micronesia.
The most dramatic rescue was that of the crew of the 101-year-old ketch One and All, after the ketch foun dered in heavy seas on October 2 off the notorious Middleton Reef, north of Lord Howe Island, and the crew took to an enclosed life raft.
After a search by the RAAF and RAN, during which hope declined that there could be any survivors, the raft was sighted from the air and the submarine Otway on October 8 picked up the seven, all in good health. They had been adrift 5i days. They are Peter Dabbs, 50, the skipper, John Baird, 26, Miss Mar garet Collins, 21, James Perrin, 18, Garry Deacon, 45, R. R. Mclntosh, 45, and J. W, Kenny, 45.
In Australia there was great public interest in the rescue, especi ally as the survivors refused to give Press interviews on their return, having already sold their story ex clusively to the Sydney Daily Mirror group. When it was known that the One and All crew had been in the area to work on Middleton Reef there was speculation about what their object was—one newspaper claiming that a syndicate was to build an artificial island on the reef, which would later be used as a casino.
True or not, the venture was or ganised by a syndicate headed by Sydney accountant Lex Ure, of Ure Lyman and Associates, and includ ng Mr. Peter Dabbs. Mr. Ure has For some time been intrigued by Middleton Reef, the graveyard of nany ships, and has bought the best mown of the wrecks, the British Teighter Runic, which is firmly aedded on the reef. Mr. Ure has ilso “claimed” the reef.
Mr. Dabbs and his crew, im nediately before their ketch sank, lad completed installation of an auto matic radio beacon on the Runic, and i light on the funnel, and had in •talled a Morse key in the ship’s adio shack and stocked it with pro visions.
The reef, which is about half way jetween Australia and Norfolk Island, s thus better equipped to be used is a base—possibly for seismic ex ecrations of the seabed in the area.
Questions were asked in Federal parliament on October 14 by Mr.
Charles Jones (Newcastle) about the :ondition of the One and All before she sank. He said the public hould be told, by way of a marine inquiry, why the navigational beam lad been erected on the Runic, and ust what the “unseaworthy” One and ill, with a mostly inexperienced crew, vas doing there.