Cooks Don't Want

Another Captain

Master for 14 years of trading ships in the Cook Islands, Captain Hugh Williams, who now lives in Sydney, has had plans to return to the Cooks as a ship’s master torpedoed.

Full of nostalgia for Island life, he managed to obtain another licence to buy and operate a trading ship in the group but Boyd and Silk, the only shipping com pany in the Cooks, appealed against the granting of the licence.

The appeal succeeded.

“I fought against the decision,”

Captain Williams told PIM, “and I even offered to reduce fares but it was of no avail against the closed-shop set-up there. Nobody else can compete against the present monopoly.”

During his 14 years in the Cooks, he sailed four ships among the islands. His first was Inspire, an 84 ft Brixham trawler which he sailed himself from England.

Then he operated with an ex-NZ cargo ship, the 300-ton Melva.

Dobiri, another ex-New Zealander of 150 tons, followed and the last of the line was a steel-hulled 350 tonner, the Apinui.

He sold out to the late Vic Brown about 10 years ago, said farewell to the Cooks and settled in Sydney. Latterly, he’s been restless and wants to get back to the Islands. Several months ago

he tried a substitute. He bought a Fairmile cruiser and took it up to Cairns. From there he ran pleasure cruises to the Great Barrier Reef.

“It was no good,” he said. “It wasn’t the same. The heat and the mosquitoes were much worse than in the Cooks. In any case, there was no substitute for the Island people, so I gave it away and sold the cruiser in Brisbane recently.”

Captain Hugh Williams.