ships serving Pitcairn?

Ships

Whatever happened to British ships serving Pitcairn?

I The editor of Pitcairn Mis cellany’, the monthly newsletter of Pitcairn Island, recently had something to report about the dearth of ships now serving the island particularly British

ships.

Pitcairn has two kinds of

I shipping visitors trans

pacific vessels which make a * stop at the island if the mood and weather permit, and

supply ships which bring in

[ regular supplies and occasional

[visitors or returning islanders

[from New Zealand. There are

[also occasional visiting yachts.

[Unfortunately the regular [supply ships haven’t been too I regular in the last year or so.

This is what the Pitcairn I Miscellany said in its report,

[under the heading, ‘Where

[ have all the ships gone?’

The importance of shipping

to Pitcairn has often been stres sed in these columns, for with out ships, Pitcairn could not survive. The island relies on i ships for almost all its needs, [from food and fuel, to new issues of postage stamps. In ad dition, sales of curios to ships’

jcrews provide a large pro

portion of most Pitcairners’ income.

Fewer ships calling means

fewer sales, and therefore less income. And in these times of ■high inflation, no one wants a [reduced income.

So far, this year seems to have been a disastrous year for the number of ships calling here. In fact, at the time of writing, we had not had a ship call for almost two months. But to obtain a more general pic ture of the shipping decline, I prepared the attached table, which compares the number of ships calling up to the end of July each year, for the last five years.

There are some obvious con clusions to be drawn from this able. The most important is hat the total number of ships calling at Pitcairn has declined markedly over the last five

f'ears. Today, only about a

bird of the ships call which

SHIPS CALLING AT PITCAIRN UP TO JULY FOR THE LAST FIVE YEARS

used to call in 1975.

Visits by supply ships have

also fallen, especially since the

cancellation of supply ships

from the United Kingdom. A third interesting fact which emerges is that Britain, most certainly, no longer rules the waves, for even only three years ago, there were approx imately three times more Bri tish ships stopping here, than any other nationality. In 1979. a British ship appears on the table, only because it was

designated a supply ship, and

therefore paid to stop here.

Many of us on the island are a little frustrated by the atti tude of British ships, which regularly pass within 1000 m of our island, but refuse to stop here, even when ‘chased’ by the men in our longboats. And as we are a British island, it does seem strange to us that British vessels steam past, whereas similar foreign vessels are able to, and even welcome, a short stop here.

In any case, we here on Pit cairn continue to ask - ‘Where are your ships?’, and hope the situation will improve in the near future.

A Dock For

A Yap Atoll

A new dock to replace the lightering system is planned for the south-west side of the island of Falalop on Ulithi Atoll in the Yap District of Micronesia.

The wharf will be about 6 m wide and 18 m long and con nected to the shore by a cause way 64 m long. A berthing slip, 100 m by 30 m in front of the dock will have a depth of about 5 m.

New Entry

Port Wanted

The Town Council of Savusavu on the south coast of Vanua Levu in Fiji has applied to the Director General of the Ports Authority of Fiji, Mr Loh Heng-kee for the creation of its port as a port of entry for

Fiji.

At present, Fiji has three ports of entry, Suva and Lau toka on Viti Levu and Levuka, the old capital on Ovalau. The creation of a fourth port of entry at Savusavu was mooted some time ago when cruise ships began to include it in their itinerary, but at present ocean-going ships have to lie off shore and transport passen gers by boat as there is no deep water berth at the present wharf.

The council suggested that, as the present wharf is the big gest on Vanua Levu, it could be used as a temporary port of entry until another site was found.

Storms Hit

Portworks

Most of the wharf area on Niue was flattened when a cyclone struck the island in December.

One person was killed in the

big blow.

In the same month Tuvalu too suffered heavy storm dam age, estimated at $5O 000, to its

new deepwater wharf project.

Peter McQuarrie reports from Funafuti that recent work on the wharf was demolished

by high seas and the pile-driver

barge was seriously damaged

when it was driven into the wharf by the storm.

Seven Reefs

Opening Up

A New Zealand army reef clearance team started work early in 1978 to blast boat channels in the reefs of Tuvalu’s islands. The object is to create passages which are workable at all states of the tide, and so speed up shipping operations throughout the group.

Tuvalu’s nine islands are all atolls and raised coral islands with encircling reefs which dry at low tide. Only two atolls, Funafuti, the capital, and Nukufetau have lagoons which may be entered by ships. On all

remaining seven islands ships

must either anchor or drift off shore while passengers and cargo are transported through the surf by small work boats.

This can only be done for a few hours around high tide. When the tide is out, all work must stop.

Work started on Nui Island in 1978 with a four-man team, outboard motor boat, digger and some explosives. Some blasting and clearance work was completed but delays in getting supplies to the island and an inadequate digging ma chine hampered progress. At the end of the five month fair weather season the team was forced to withdraw with only about half its job done.

Last year a new team arrived with a greater supply of explos ives and with a much larger machine, a frontend loader, to complete the passage at Nui.

Tuvalu has only a single ship

to serve all nine islands and so once the teams are established on particular islands they must be self-sufficient for weeks at a time. It is sometimes a month between shipping calls. The four-man teams are under the leadership of a lieutenant and are the only non-locals on the islands where they work. They are treated very much as VIPs and enjoy the islanders’ hospi tality. The personnel are

Year Total Ships Nationality 1975 24 9 British. 4 German. 3 Australian. 3 Danish. I Norwegian. 1 New Zealand, 1 French, 1 Yugoslavian. 1 Korean. (4 supply ships) 1976 20 11 British. 2 German. 3 Norwegian. 2 Danish, I Dutch. 1 New Zealand (6 supply ships) 1977 17 4 British. 4 Norwegian, 4 German. 3 Dutch, 1 New Zealand. 1 Danish. (3 supply ships) 1978 17 7 German. 4 Norwegian. 3 British. 1 Belgian. 1 French. 1 Dutch. (1

supply ship)

1979 9 3 Norwegian, 3 Australian. 2 German. 1 British. (1 supply ship)

I changed once during each ■ season so each group has a I three-month stretch away from ■ New Zealand. [ Now that the teams are ■ coming to better understand

I the problems of reefblasting on

[coral atolls the project is speed-

I ing up. But it looks as if the op leration will go on for several ■years before passages are cre mated on every island. In the [long term, it is a very worth

f while project striking directly

at one of Tuvalu’s basic com munications problems. Peter

I McQuarrie.

THE PACIFIC Forum Line’s

[new container ship Forum

tSamoa reached Apia in ' December on her delivery voy

|age from Hamburg, Germany.

\forum Samoa, built in Ger many as a gift from the West [Germany Government, can carry more than 350 containers land has storage room for

refrigerated goods, general

cargo, vegetable oils and caus tic soda. She will ply between Fiji. Samoa and New Zealand.

Built at a cost of $2l million, she boasts a gantry crane which is multi-functional.