ISLAND HOTELS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 108, 18 February 1936, Page 8

ISLAND HOTELS

IN MID-PACIFIC. AIR SERVICE SCHEME. When on July. 25 last the 0000-ton freighter North Haven returned to San Francisco from its pioneer construction expedition, Pan-American Airways Company had a complete chain of modern, fully-equipped seaplane bases strung across the Pacific, says a San Francisco correspondent. In anticipation of the establishment of air passenger service across the Pacific, the North Haven has been again chartered by Pan-American Airways Company, and is making a second trip, having left San Francisco carrying a construction crew of approximately one hundred men. The object of this second argosy is to enlarge these seaplane bases into modern communities offering every facility for the comfort and convenience of the air travellers. The North Haven is making a short stop at Honolulu for additional cargo, and then proceeds on to the intermediate island stations, and finally Manila. The ship will stop at each of the three islands, Midway, Wake, and Guam, only long enough to unload part of the total construction, personnel, and some 2000 tons of, what is probably the most varied cargo ever carried on a freighter. The cargo includes materials with which to build three modern hotels. Each hotel will have 24 large double rooms, with hot and cold running water, and both in each room, a large dining-room, lounge, and kitchen, all of which will be completely furnished in every detail.

Diversified Cargo. Tl,iere will be tens of thousands of feet of pre-cut lumber, to be used in building servants’ quarters, extensions to the employees’ quarters, and additional docks, floats, and barges. Among other items carried by the North Haven were cables, ropes, wheelbarrows, baskets, buckets, a 30ft. power launch for Midway Island, a 20-ton power hoist for Wake Island, three 36inch airway beacon lights, 3 90ft. steel towers, gasoline engines, cement, steel railway rails, a five-ton locomotive, coal, three new beach station automobiles, and hundreds of cases of foodstuffs for a varied hotel cuisine. The construction work will be under the general supervision of Mr Frank McKenzie, Pacific division airport engineer for Pan-American Airways Company, who was on the first construction expedition of the Nbrth Haven. Working with Mr McKenzie will be Mr A. K. Jensen, in charge of construction at Midway, Mr George Kuhn at Wake, ‘and Mr A. A. Mittag at Guam. Under these men will be construction crews of carpenters, plumbers, and electricians. Ten Chinese cooks will accompany the crews. On each island a huge new navigating beacon light, 36in. in diameter, will be mounted on top of a 90ft. beacon tower. At Midway Island transportation for passengers will be provided for the two beach station automobiles, equipped with oversize balloon tyres which enable them to travel over the soft coral sand when fully loaded. Four Months’ Work. At Wake Island a concrete dock will be built and a 20-ton power derrick installed to lift heavy equipment from the barges which convey supplies and equipment to the dock from the ship. In order to transport building materials and regular supplies across the island, 2000 feet of narrow-gauge railway will be constructed and a five-ton gasoline locomotive will he used to pull flat cars. According to present plans it is estimated that the work of the expedition will he completed and the ship will return to San Francisco in approximately four months. On the return trip the North Haven will carry supplies from Manila to be stored on the islands for personnel, and later, for the service of air passengers. Mr K. A. Kennedy, Pacific division tiaffic manager of Pan-American Airways, when interviewed, stated that over 300 applications had already been received by the company from persons anxious to make the first passage as passengers on the inaugural clipper passenger aeroplane oyer the Pacific from California to the Orient. He declined to divulge any names, hut it was known that several Eastern magnates and scores of Hollywood celebrities were among those who had asked for reservations, on the trans-Pacific jpnssenger aeroplanes. Apparently these mid-Pacific islands will become eventual tourist resorts, and, with the installation of modern hotels, every convenience will be provided for globe-trotters. Opportunities will be furnishecl for theatregoers, who will be able to visualise the latest moving pictures, as films will be* carried on each trip of the clippers for exhibition purposes on the air-base islands at the new hotels. The new mid-Pacific communities firmly established will open up a hitherto isolated region of the “trackless wastes” of the wide expanse of the Pacific, thereby ensuring new links with the distant Orient and the American mainland.