Scrapped design cost $60,000

A replacement for the Fiji Maritime Co-operative Association’s ill-fated 800-ton tourist ship Tui Lau, wrecked off Totoya Island, Fiji in October, 1968, has cost $60,000 even before a keel is laid.

The $60,000 bill, which will be footed by the Fiji Government, is for the design of a new ship carried out by a British firm of consultants.

But the design has been scrapped as being too big and complicated for economic use in Fiji. Part of the cost was for a colour film of a scale nodel of the intended ship undergoing :ank tests.

The completed design was submit ed to the Maritime Co-operative As iociation, a group of Fijian provinces n Lau, but the association’s advisers ejected it, saying it would never nake money on the Lau service.

So the association cast around for i home-made design and found a lesigner in Mr. Arne Sannergren, a Swedish marine designer who is vorking for the Fiji Marine Depart ment under a United Nations tech lical aid scheme. In a short time, dr. Sannergren had sketched out a uitable design to be detailed later— without a colour film of tank tests.

The new ship is expected to be bout 125 ft long with a 10-knot ervice speed and room for 120 tons •f cargo, eight to 10 saloon passen ers and about 55 passengers seated •n aircraft-type seats. The ship will •e built in the Fiji Marine Depart

ment’s shipyard at Walu Bay, Suva and completed by the end of 1973.

The keel will probably be laid in August.

The Maritime Co-operatives have been dogged with bad luck over a ship for years, especially with the Tui Lau, which they bought in Norway early in 1968. She cost the Lau provinces more than $200,000.

On her first voyage in Fiji waters she lost an anchor and shortly after wards lost her second anchor. Then she lost her life when, under Captain Don Wendt, she ran on the reef on October 25, 1968 with 42 passengers and 37 crew on board. They were all rescued by a helicopter from the British guided missile destroyer HMS Fife. The destroyer made two un successful attempts to pull the Tui Lau off.

According to wharf gossip, the as sociation could have had a replace ment two years ago for half the price the new one will cost, but local pride stood in the way. A Hong Kong shipyard tendered for a ship bul strong pressure for a locally-built ship prevailed. • The Betio, Tarawa, boatyard is all geared to build one of its biggest vessels, a 75 ft landing craft, which has been ordered by the GEIC De velopment Authority. It will be similar to the Tabakea and will join the steadily-growing Development Authority’s fleet.