Misfortunes Plagued Islands Voyage

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30561, 2 October 1964, Page 18

Misfortunes Plagued Islands Voyage

(New Zealand Press Association)

ROTORUA, Oct. 1. Storms, an inexperienced crew, an incident with French Government officials in the New Hebrides, and finally a broken leg have forced a Rotorua adventurer, Mr Bill Christophers, to sell his auxiliary schooner, Tiare Taporo. Mr Christophers, at present in a Noumea hospital suffering from a broken leg, sold the 173-ton ship to a trader in the New Hebrides after two trading trips to the islands. The 51-year-old Pacific Islands ship sailed out of Auckland for Raratonga on July ■ 14 after being delayed with crew problems. She took cargo to the Cook Islands. According to Mr A. C. Christophers, Rotorua, his son’s last voyage was plagued with bad fortune. Put Back “After, leaving Auckland he struck bad weather near the North Cape and had to put back to Russell to shelter.” Apparently the ship had bad weather all the way to Noumea. From Noumea it took a party of scientists to an island volcano that had exploded. Later, arriving in Vila in the New Hebrides, the ship struck the port’s electrical in-

stallations and plunged the town in darkness. “Not long after, the ship lost one of its two masts in a storm. Then, when Bill got back to Noumea, he broke his leg in an accident on the wharf,” said Mr Christophers.