Encounters with and Reefs of the Indian and Southwest Pacific Oceans

Review by Geoff Walker

To those who have not seen an , they may ask what it is, well, an Atoll is a circular-shaped coral reef, island, or series of islets, which surrounds a body of water called a lagoon. Sometimes, Atolls and lagoons encompass a central island. Channels between islets connect a lagoon to the open ocean or sea. They are best observed in tropical regions, particularly in the as well as the central and south west Pacific Ocean. They come in all sizes, some are minute, whilst others are massive in area, thus providing large, safe, protected anchorages. Some are well renowned, whilst others have never been heard of, and are little more than a miniscule notation or “dot” on an Admiralty Chart. There is a tendency for Atolls to form into clusters or groups and they can be a serious hazard to surface navigation. Many have taken their toll on unwary mariners, and which bear the evidence by numerous shipwrecks; a few of which are captured in this account.

The formation of an Atoll is a slow process that can take millions of years. It starts when an underwater volcano erupts, creating a buildup of lava on the seafloor. With the passage of time, and continued eruptions, the lava continues to build until it breaks through the ocean's surface and forms an island. With the passage of time, hard corals begin to build a limestone reef around the island. Once the outer reef is formed it is called a “Fringe Reef” and encircles the recently created island, just below the ocean surface.

Over millennial cycles, the ocean waves begin to erode the island, causing it to eventually subside and collapse below the surface, leaving a lagoon of water surrounded by a coral reef. This is known as a “Barrier Reef” due to the protective barrier it creates from the ocean and winds. Eventually the ocean breaks up the coral reef into tiny grains of sand which collect on the reef to form a ring or circle of low laying shaped island. The best examples of classic Atolls are seen in the Maldives, Polynesia, and Micronesia.

Some of the more famous Atolls, are located in such places as the Maldive Islands, which is situated in the north-central part of the Indian Ocean, and in reality, is little more than a chain of some 26 individual Atolls, and about 1200 small coral islands, running more or less north and south, over a distance of about 510 nautical miles.

There are four main navigable channels used by commercial shipping, running east and west between and across the archipelago, namely, the Kardiva Channel, Veimandu Channel, One-and-a-Half Degree Channel, and Equatorial Channel. The northernmost atoll is about 370 miles south- southwest of the Indian mainland, and the central area, including the capital island of Male’, is about 400 miles southwest of Sri Lanka. Some 200 of the islands are inhabited. All the islands are low-lying, none rising to more than about 1.8 meters above sea level. Barrier reefs protect the islands from the destructive effects of monsoons. The rainy season, from May to August, is brought by the southwest monsoon; from December to March the northeast monsoon brings dry and mild winds. The Maldive Islands are renowned for their wide range of mega resorts, in particular, to those attracted to aquatic sports, scuba diving and deep-sea fishing.

The cargo ship “Laganbank” built 1930, sailed from Calcutta with a cargo of Jute, Gunnies, Shellac and Tea, bound for Rio de Janeiro via Colombo, where she arrived on 6th January 1938, to load additional cargo of Rubber. All went well during this part of the voyage. The Master had intended to transit the One-and-a-Half Degree Channel, on the sector of the voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, but the vessel was hampered by weather and the Master was unable to take astronomical observations, causing him to rely solely on Dead Reckoning. The vessel stranded at 4.47 a.m. on the morning of the 13th January 1938 on the islet of Isdu, at the north-east corner of Haddummati Atoll in 2.6 N. 73.35 E of the Maldive Islands, and was abandoned as a total loss. All crew were rescued by “Tweedbank”. The Board of Trade court of Enquiry found that the Master had been negligent and had taken inadequate safety precautions with insufficient allowances made to counter a strong north-westerly current. His Master’s Certificate was suspended for a period of 12 months.

An interesting image of the 1930 built “Laganbank” seen in happier times.

(Unknown photographer) The is another Indian Ocean group of Atolls and Islands situated in the central Indian Ocean, located about 1,000 miles south of the southern tip of the Indian subcontinent. It falls within the British Indian Ocean Territory. The islands, which were uninhabited when they were discovered by Portuguese explorers in the 16th century, were situated on the main international trade routes and became the focus of competing claims by European powers. In the late 18th century France took possession of the Chagos Archipelago and Seychelles as dependencies of , and coconut plantations were established to produce copra. Slaves were imported from to work the plantations. In the early 19th Century, the British repossessed the islands. The Chagos Archipelago are a group of seven atolls comprising more than 60 individual tropical islands in the Indian Ocean about 310 miles south of the Maldives archipelago.

In 1965 The and the United States decided to establish military bases in the British Indian Ocean Territory for the purpose of establishing defense and communications facilities. The new territory comprised the Aldabra Islands and the Farquhar and Desroches islands, formerly part of the Seychelles Colony, along with the Chagos Archipelago, formerly part of the Mauritius Colony. A major British-U.S. military facility was built on in 1971, and the plantations there were closed. Between 1967 and 1973, Britain removed the Ilois, or —inhabitants of the Chagos Archipelago, descended from African slaves and Indian plantation workers. They were given the choice of resettlement in either the Seychelles or Mauritius, which became independent in 1968; the majority chose the latter with a smaller number of Ilois resettling in the United Kingdom.

In 1976 the islands obtained from Seychelles were returned when that Colony became independent. Thereafter the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) in the region comprised only the islands of the Chagos Archipelago with a military base on Diego Garcia, the largest of the Chagos Islands. Since 1971, only the atoll of Diego Garcia remains inhabited, and only by military and civilian contracted personnel. There have been numerous international court cases as well as a Committee of Review in the House of Lords, as to the legalities of the United Kingdom evicting the original inhabitants of the Islands. However, the military establishment remains and as of August 2018, Diego Garcia is the only inhabited island of the BIOT.

Diego Garcia is the largest land mass in the Chagos Archipelago (which includes , the , the Three Brothers, the Egmont Islands, and the ), being an Atoll occupying approximately 67 sq miles, of which 10 sq miles is dry land. The continuous portion of the Atoll rim stretches 40 miles from one end to the other, enclosing a lagoon 13 miles long, and up to 7 miles wide, with a 4 mile-wide, entrance at the northern end. Three small islands are located within the entrance.

Map and aerial view show of the largest Atoll in the Chagos Archipelago, Diego Garcia. The island consists of the largest continuous dryland rim of all Atolls in the world

Situated about 1700 miles northwest of , Western , and 560 miles from Christmas Island, the Cocos Islands, also known as the Keeling Islands, are a group of coral islands that form two Atolls. Only two of the 27 islands are inhabited with the remainder unexplored. The Territory of Cocos (Keeling) Islands is an Australian external territory in the Indian Ocean, comprising a small archipelago approximately midway between Australia and Sri Lanka, and relatively close to the Indonesian island of Sumatra, and is therefore part of Southeast .

The territory consists of two Atolls made up of 27 coral islands, of which only two – West Island and Home Island – are inhabited. The population of around 600 people consists mainly of ethnic Cocos Malays. The Cocos Islands, together with Christmas Island, which is about 600 miles to the east, forms the Australian Indian Ocean Territories administrative group.

The islands were discovered in 1609 by William Keeling, but no settlement occurred until the early 19th century. One of the first settlers was John Clunies-Ross, a Scottish merchant; much of the island's current population is descended from the Malay workers he brought in to work his copra plantation. This resulted in the Clunies-Ross family ruling the islands as a private fiefdom for almost 150 years, with the head of the family usually recognized as resident magistrate. The British annexed the islands in 1857, and for the next century they were administered from either Ceylon or . The territory was transferred to Australia in 1955, although until 1979, virtually all, of the island's real estate still belonged to the Clunies-Ross family, and for many years, the islands were a powerhouse of copra production. Apart from disruptions caused by cyclone damage, the industry only ceased in 1987 but the abundant coconut palms throughout the Cocos still bear testament to the extent of the copra trade.

Two World Wars saw the islands become targets due to their strategic position in the Indian Ocean. From 1944 to 1946 the tropical islands came under military administration and hive of activity, home to allied military. The people of the Cocos Keeling Islands voted to become part of Australia in 1984. The remote atoll is now an internationally significant habitat for wildlife, and a faraway paradise for tourists seeking a tropical paradise.

Map showing Cocos Island Aerial view of Cocos Island Atoll Most of the world's Atolls are in the Pacific Ocean, with concentrations in the Caroline Islands, the Islands, the Marshall Islands, the Tuamotu Islands, and the island groups of , Tokelau, and Tuvalu. Islands in the Pacific Ocean, which are collectively called the Pacific Islands. Three major groups of islands in the Pacific Ocean are Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia.

The three main groups which collectively constitute the Pacific Islands.

Micronesia - The majority, of the islands in the area are part of a coral Atoll. Coral Atolls begin as coral reefs that grow on the slopes of a central volcano. Kwajalein Atoll - is part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). The southernmost and largest island in the Atoll is named Kwajalein Island. The total land area of the Atoll amounts to just over 6 square miles. It lies in the Ralik Chain, 2,100 nautical miles southwest of Honolulu, Hawaii.

The US Navy has operated a naval base at Kwajalein Island, the southernmost part of the Atoll since World War II. In the late 1950s, the US Army took over the base as part of their Nike Zeus anti-ballistic missile programs, and since then the Atoll has been widely used for missile testing of all kinds. Today it is part of the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site, with various radars, electronic tracking devices, missile launchers and many support systems spread across many adjacent islands.

Map of the American administered Kwajalein Atoll. Rongelap Atoll is a coral Atoll of 61 islands in the Pacific Ocean and forms part of the Ralik Chain of the Marshall Islands. Its total land area is 8 square miles, and it encloses a lagoon with an area of 1,000 square miles. It is historically notable for its proximity to the US hydrogen bomb tests in 1954 and was particularly devastated by fallout from the Castle Bravo test.

The first sighting recorded by Europeans was by Spanish navigator Álvaro de Saavedra in 1528. Rongelap Atoll was claimed by the German Empire along with the rest of the Marshall Islands in 1884, and the Germans established a trading outpost. After , the island came under the South Seas Mandate of the Empire of , and following the end of World War II, Rongelap came under the jurisdiction of the United States as part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.

An image of Rongelap Atoll taken from outer space by a NASA astronaut.

Another, well - known Atoll within the Marshall Islands is Bikini Atoll, meaning "coconut place". It was sometimes known as Eschscholtz Atoll between the 1800s and 1946. It is a coral reef in the Marshall Islands consisting of 23 islands surrounding a 229 square-mile central lagoon. The Atoll is at the northern end of the Ralik Chain, approximately 530 miles northwest of the capital Majuro.

In 1946, following the Second World War, Bikini Atoll gained notoriety when its inhabitants were relocated, after which the islands and lagoon were the site of 23 nuclear tests conducted until 1958, by the United States. A fleet of 95 target vessels was assembled in Bikini Lagoon. At the center of the target cluster, the density was 20 ships per square mile, three to five times greater than military doctrine would normally suggest. The stated goal was not to duplicate a realistic anchorage, but to measure damage as a function of distance from the blast center, at as many distances as possible.

The target fleet included four obsolete U.S. battleships, two aircraft carriers, two cruisers, thirteen destroyers, eight submarines, numerous auxiliaries, and amphibious vessels, and three surrendered German and Japanese ships, the wrecks of which now scatter the seabed of the lagoon. Map of Bikini Atoll, showing the location of the target area for ships deliberately sunk, as a consequence of atomic testing.

The Atoll was seriously affected by nuclear fallout following the atomic tests. The Atoll is occasionally visited today by divers, and a few scientists, and is occupied by a handful of specialist caretakers.

Tarawa Atoll – is also within the boundaries of Micronesia and is part of the Kiribati Group of Islands and serves as its capital city.

The Republic of Kiribati is an independent island nation in the central Pacific Ocean with more than half of the population living on Tarawa Atoll. The state comprises 32 Atolls and one raised coral island, Banaba (previously known as Ocean Island). They have a total land area of 313 square miles and are dispersed over 1.4 million sq miles of ocean area. Their spread straddles the and the 180th , although the International Date Line goes round Kiribati and swings far to the east, almost reaching the 150° W meridian. This brings Kiribati's easternmost islands, the southern Line Islands south of Hawaii, into the same day as the Gilbert Islands and places them in the most advanced time zone on Earth: UTC+14.

Kiribati gained its independence from the United Kingdom, becoming a sovereign state in 1979. The capital, South Tarawa, now the most populated area, consisting of a number of islets, connected by a series of causeways. These comprise about half the area of Tarawa Atoll. Prior to its independence, the country had exported phosphate; however, those mines are no longer viable with the export of Copra being the main economic driver. South Tarawa is a string of islets between the Tarawa Lagoon to the north, with a maximum depth of 25 meters, and the Pacific Ocean to the south, with a depth of up to 4,000 meters. Most of South Tarawa, is very low laying, with an average height above sea level of less than 3 meters, with an average width of only 450 meters. Therefore, it is critically hampered by rising sea levels due to climate changes.

Image showing a coastal dwelling protected by sandbags against rising sea levels (RSL) due to global warming. This is quite a common site in today’s Kiribati, and considered a real threat, to the habitability of the Island group, in the years ahead.

A small inter-island coastal vessel loading bagged Copra. The cargo is usually taken and transferred to larger commercial oceangoing vessels lying at anchorages within the lagoon, for international export. Part of the bow of one such vessel is captured in the extreme left of the image.

(Unknown photographer)

Below, an ocean-going freighter “MV Foylebank” belonging to The Bank Line – London, anchored at Tarawa, waiting to load a cargo of Copra, most likely destined for Europe. The “Foylebank” was one of several purpose-built vessels, constructed during the 1950s, by Bank Line Limited, to service their lucrative Pacific Island Copra and Palm Oil trade.

“MV Foylebank” seen at anchor in the pristine waters of Tarawa Lagoon.

(Unknown photographer)

Map of Tarawa Lagoon. Jarvis Island, formerly known as Bunker Island or Bunker's Shoal is an uninhabited 1 3⁄4-square-mile coral island located in the South Pacific Ocean, about midway between Hawaii and the Cook Islands. It is an unincorporated, territory of the United States, administered by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service of the United States Department of the Interior as part of the National Wildlife Refuge system. Unlike most coral Atolls, the lagoon on Jarvis is completely dry.

Jarvis is one of the Line Islands and for statistical purposes is also grouped as one of the United States Minor Outlying Islands. Jarvis Island is the largest of three U.S. equatorial possessions, which include Baker Island and Howland Island.

In 1913, the barquentine Amaranth was carrying a cargo of coal from Newcastle, , to San Francisco when it was wrecked on Jarvis' southern shore. Amaranth’s crew, left Jarvis Island in two lifeboats. One reached Pago Pago, in American Samoa, and the other made Apia in Western Samoa. The ship's wreckage was visible for many years and was plundered repeatedly over ensuing years. Lumps of coal from her cargo was still strewn over the Island beaches well into 1930s.

Left, the Barquentine Amaranth (Unknown photographer)

The - Are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen mostly dormant volcanic mountains in the western North Pacific Ocean, between the 12th and 21st parallels North, and along the 145th meridian East. They lie south-southeast of Japan, west-southwest of Hawaii, north of New Guinea, and east of the Philippines, defining the eastern limits of the Philippine’s Sea. They are found in the northern part of the western Oceanic sub-region of Micronesia. Generally, the Islands have coral fringe reefs, most of which, are visible to the eye. Politically divided, into two jurisdictions of the United States, the Commonwealth of the and, at the southern end of the chain, the territory of .

The islands of Tuvalu are spread out between the of 5° to 10° south and of 176° to 180°. The Western Pacific nation of Tuvalu, formerly known as the Ellice Islands, consists of nine tiny coral Atolls (approximately 10 sq miles), home to about 12 000 people, its location is south of the equator and west of the dateline about midway between Hawaii and Australia. The reef islands have a different structure to the Atolls, and are perhaps better described as “reef terraces,” as they are small, tabular platforms that lack the salt-water lagoon typically found on reef islands.

At least 11 islands are inhabited, expanded over the biggest isles of the nine atolls, plus two islands in Funafuti. Funafuti is an Atoll and the capital of the island nation of Tuvalu, making it the country's most populous Atoll, with 60.15 percent of Tuvalu's population. To left, is a NASA astronaut’s image of the Atoll of Funafuti, the island consists of a narrow band of land between 20 and 400 meters wide, encircling a large lagoon which is 11 miles long and 9 miles wide. The average depth of the Funafuti lagoon is about 20 fathoms or about 36.5 meters.

The land area of the 33 islets around the Atoll’s rim totals only 0.9 sq mile; taken collectively, they constitute less than one percent of the total area of the Atoll. Cargo ships can enter Funafuti's lagoon and dock at the port facilities on Fongafale, which is the largest of the islets in Tuvalu. It is a long narrow splinter of land, about 7.5 miles long and between 10 and 400 meters wide, with the South Pacific Ocean and reef on the east and the protected lagoon on the west. The north part is the Tengako peninsula, and Funafuti International Airport runs from northeast to southwest on the widest part of the island, with the village and administrative center of Vaiaku on the lagoon side.

The “SS Runic” was a Shaw Savill & Albion cargo liner built for the UK/ trade in 1949. She had a GRT of 13587 tons and a service speed of 17 knots. On 19 February 1961 while on a passage from Brisbane to New Zealand the ”SS Runic”, ran aground on Middleton Reef, about 120 miles north of Lord Howe Island, in the Tasman Sea, after sailing through the peripherals of a Cyclone. Despite attempts at salvage the ship, bad weather hampered the efforts, and the ship was pushed further onto the reef, causing it to take on water and flood. On 22 March salvage efforts were abandoned and “Runic” was declared a constructive total loss, her crew of 69 was evacuated onto the Shaw, Savill ship “Arabic” and taken to the Port of

(Bathy 87) Remains of “SS Runic”, aground on Middleton Reef, slowly yielding to the sea,

Kure Atoll located in the central Pacific region, only about 55 miles west-northwest of Midway Island. Kure Atoll was formerly known as Ocean Island. There is a coral ring six miles across that encloses a shallow lagoon several meters deep. The only land of significant size is called Green Island and is a habitat for hundreds of thousands of seabirds.

The Atoll has become the final resting place for many shipwrecks, with their crews stranded on Kure Atoll after their ships having been wrecked on the surrounding reefs, and had to survive on the local seals, turtles, and birds. The shipwrecks remain on the reef today, including the USS Saginaw. The USS Saginaw wrecked on the Atoll in 1870. The crew was able to abandon ship, but not much was saved. A crew of four sailed the Captain's Gig to the island of Kauai, but only 1 survived the difficult one-month long voyage. Despite this, word did get to the authorities, who sent a rescue ship to the stranded crew which was able to rescue them in January 1871.

Two shipwrecks in the early 19th century were the Gledstane and the Parker, in 1837 and 1842 respectively. The crew of the Gledstane were able to make it to the island and able to make a new vessel from the debris of their old ship, and some of the survivors sailed it back to the mainland Hawaii. Once the reached Hawaii, they sent a ship back to rescue the crew members that stayed behind on the island. The wreck of the Gledstone was found in 2008.

The Parker’s crew had a somewhat more difficult time but did manage to get to land by floating on raft for several days. On Ocean Island (now Green Island), they managed to survive on a diet of birds and other wildlife on the Atoll. They even encountered a dog from the Gledstane that had been living wild on the island in the previous years. They attempted to make contact with the outside world, by attaching messages to sea birds.] The Parker had been wrecked in September 1842, and the crew having lived at Kure Atoll were finally rescued on April 16, 1843, and the remainder on May 2, 1843. The first rescue ship was the James Stewart, and the rest of the crew by the whaler Nassau.

The Dunnotar Castle was shipwrecked in 1886, and the crew was able to reach Kauai, but some lives were lost. Kure Atoll is located within the span of a major current which washes up debris from the Great Pacific garbage patch, such as fishing nets and large numbers of cigarette lighters, and a wide variety of other plastics and flotsam, on the island. These pose threats to the local animals, especially birds, whose skeletons are frequently found with plastic in the stomach cavity.

In 2020 a crew of four stayed on the island from February through to October. While there is no television or mobile phone service, limited internet connectivity allows for emails to be sent and received. The island is now occupied by two crews each year that are rotated in and out. Their job is to keep an eye on the island, and they also try to clean up trash that washes up on the coastline because of the ocean currents and surface winds.

Tabuaeran, known in English as Fanning Island is an Atoll that lies about 4 degrees latitude north of the equator, in the central Pacific, and forms part of the 33 coral Atoll, Kiribati Chain.

A NASA satellite image of “Fanning Island” which was first sighted by an American, Captain Edmund Fanning, of the American ship “Betsy” in 1798; it was named after him. and it was uninhabited at that time. It was however, regularly visited by whalers over the ensuing years and about 1832 the whaler Harriet was wrecked there. The Atoll is more or less, Oval, in shape.

Captain William Wiseman of HMS Caroline formally annexed Fanning Island to Great Britain in 1888. In 1939 the Atoll was incorporated into the British colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. In 1979, it gained independence, becoming part of the Republic of Kiribati. The main export from Fanning Island is Copra and Coconut Oil.

A deep opening into the lagoon, named the English Channel, was blasted on the west side of the Atoll. Fanning Island hosted a station on the to Australia section of the “All Red Line telegraph cable system”, beginning in 1902. This was part of the communications network and was so named, because of the fact, that on an Atlas the British Empire was usually depicted in Red. Fanning Island Post Office opened on 29 November 1902. In September 1914, the cable station was set upon by the German cruiser SMS Nurnberg and was severely damaged when a landing force went ashore to put the station out of action. In 1939 the Atoll was incorporated into the British colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. In 1979, it gained independence, becoming part of the Republic of Kiribati.

The land area is 13.02 square miles, and the population in 2015 was 2,315. The maximum elevation is about 3 m above the highwater mark. The lagoon has an area of 42 square miles. The deepest water in the lagoon is about 15 meters, but it is mostly very shallow. Fanning Island experiences strong Rip Tides and has become the final resting place for many shipwrecks, even in relatively recent times. It is notorious and demands much vigilance by navigators operating in its area. On August 17th, 1975, the handsome British cargo ship “Lindenbank”, on a voyage from Kimbe to Europe, with a cargo of 5,300 tons copra, 1,100 tons palm oil, 1,100 tons coconut oil, 500 tons expeller meat, ran aground, on a reef, off Fanning Island, where she had been drifting offshore during the hours of darkness. In accordance with the customary practice of similar sized vessels, the “Lindenbank” drifted off the island to load cargo from surf boats, frequently adjusting her position to provide a maximum lee for the surf boats. At the end of the day’s loading, she would be allowed to drift seaward in a north-westerly direction. It was during this procedure that she succumbed to her fate. Various attempts were made to refloat her, but all were unsuccessful. She was eventually abandoned as a total loss. The Board of Enquiry censured the Master and imposed a fine upon him of GBP 500 towards the legal costs.

(Photo Banklineonline.com).

The Bank Line vessel “Beaverbank” (built 1950) also grounded at Fanning Island during 1959 but was fortunately refloated without sustaining any significant amount of damage, after she had jettisoned part of her cargo of Copra.

(Photo Banklineoneline.com)

Picture right, “Beaverbank” seen lightening her cargo at Fanning Island, during attempts made to refloat herself, whilst aground.

(Photo Banklineonline.com)

(Photo Banklineonline.com) “MV Southbank”, prior to her loss in December 1963. Seen alongside at possibly Kieta or Rabaul, in . Both were frequent destinations for vessels on the “Copra Run”.

The “Southbank” which was built in 1948, also owned by Bank Line, was lost at Washington Island. “Southbank” grounded (when drifting to load copra) at Washington island, Line Islands, Mid pacific around Xmas day in 1963. The ships company spent several days on Washington Island, looked after very well by the local natives, before the US Navy ship “Winnebago” picked them up. The crew were eventually repatriated once they had been rescues by the American naval ship. The second mate was crushed by the lifeboat, and sadly died, due to heavy seas, when leaving the wreck.

The “Kelvinbank” was one of Bank Line’s wartime samboats. The old WW2 Liberty ship was driven ashore on Ocean Island at Sydney Point, after the main engine failed.

She was later refloated but struck wreckage of another vessel and was abandoned, eventually breaking in two, and the wreckage mostly disintegrating thereafter. Seen in the image (to the left) shortly after grounding and before breaking up

(Photo Banklineonline.com) Yet another was the grounding of the “Maplebank” off Wakaya Lighthouse on the morning of 27th November 1975 whilst on passage from Suva to Lambassa. The image at left, shows her forefoot well out of the water, heavily aground amidships

(Photo Banklineonline.com)

Following several unsuccessful attempts to refloat the ship, success came on 4th December when she floated free of the reef, mainly due to lightening of the ship and using a sunken fishing boat as a “Super Anchor” to draw her free. The re-floating took place on the last of the spring tides and at night. There were a few anxious moments when the wires of the heavy lift tackle, connected to the “Super Anchor” parted on deck. The tugs efforts were then intensified and with a skewing action, in combination of heavy use of the engines, she came free. The sunken hulk of the fishing boat then slid down the underwater cliff but still had lines attached, which were very quickly released. The vessel then returned to Suva.

It should not be wrongly assumed that the Bank Line suffered more than their fair share of casualties in the Pacific and Indian Ocean. During the 1960-70s Bank Line operated a large fleet, mostly engaged in worldwide tramping, at one stage their fleet totaled 65 ships. This, coupled with the fact that their ships often visited unusual, and “off the chart” ports, many in the Atoll strewn Pacific and Indian Oceans, inevitably took its toll. Statistically, they really suffered no more losses from stranding, than any other shipping concern, considering the number of ships they operated and the remarkable destinations they visited.

Of course, there were many other casualties due to groundings and stranding. Amongst those that spring to mind, and which was much publicized at the time, was that of the “Waigani Express”, which provided dramatic images for news readers and TV channels, of containers being lifted of the ship by Australian Defence Force helicopters to reduce her draft. The stranding initially looked like an instant right off, due to the fact that the vessel had grounded at speed, was hampered by stormy weather and very high tides. The final outcome may have been very different had it not been for the use of Chinook helicopters, used to lift off containers. This solution was again used only a few months later when to Ro- Ro Container ship “Anro Asia” grounded at the northern tip of Bribie Island when entering Moreton Bay, on her way to the Port of Brisbane.

The German flag vessel “Waigani Express”, Built 1971, 5084 GRT, on charter to New Guinea Express Lines, stranded at 2345 hrs on 4th July 1981, on Hula Reef, only 1500 m offshore and within sight of Hood Point Lighthouse, about 40 miles Southeast of Port Moresby. The vessel was carrying a cargo of containers from Australia to Papua New Guinea. The ship was refloated on 31st July, after numerous containers had been lifted off the vessel by Australian Defence Force Chinook helicopters. After being refloated, the vessel was towed to Port Moresby, then to Singapore for repairs. The “Waigani Express” was subsequently sold and renamed “Papua”, before returning to service. Bottom damage was reported to be substantial with heavy indentation to portside forward and starboard side amidships.

(Unknown photographer)

”MV Waigani Express”, seen high and dry on Hula Reef off Hood Point. Chinook helicopter airlifting containers from the vessel during salvage operations.

End

References: Various online data available on Public Domains, from which much material has been sourced.

Disclaimer: This is a “Not for Profit” document. Unless otherwise specified, images are from various unknown sources on the Public Domain and used under the Fair Use category for review, commentary, and educational purposes only. Photographs of unknown origin – owners of these images should make themselves known by contacting me via this website and I will be pleased to give due accreditation. No infringement of copyright is intended. Whilst every effort has been made to provide accurate information, it cannot be guaranteed, because of multiple reports and varying accounts.