Missing Boat Found By Japanese Trawler

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30886, 20 October 1965, Page 1

Missing Boat Found By Japanese Trawler

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, October 19.

The Napier crayfish boat Karena, missing off the east coast since Sunday, was found in distress by a Japanese fishing trawler 135 miles north-east of Auckland this afternoon.

The first report that the Karena had been located was received by Auckland radio at 3.20 p.m. in a morse-code distress message it picked up from the Japanese trawler.

The two men on board the distressed vessel, the owner, Mr J. M. Spottiswood, aged 24, of Napier, and Mr K. Ganaway, aged 19, also of Napier, were reported by the Japanese to be “healthy.”

The first distress message picked up by Auckland radio was logged at 3.13 p.m. Radio staff however, had difficulty deciphering the morse messages because Japanese use different signals from those in the international code system. At 3.19 p.m. it was ascertained in disjointed international morse code signals that the caller was the fishing trawler Massa Maru No. 11. At 3.20 the message that the boat and men had been found was received.

Twenty minutes later the trawler’s position had been noted and the message was immediately transmitted to the Navy training ship Inverell, which was on fishery protection duty in the area, to

meet with the Massa Maru and take off the two men. The Karena was sighted from the air soon after 6 p.m. ABANDONED At the time the Karena was abandoned, her anchor trailing, her mast was broken and an aerial trailed in the water. About 15 miles south-east on the trawler, the survivors appeared to be standing on the deck of the Japanese ship. The 30 or so Japanese crewmen could be seen bringing in trawls. They waved each time the aircraft flew over. A rendezvous between the Inverell and the Massa Maru was scheduled for 9 p.m. The Inverell was then to make for Tauranga. The Karena left Napier on October 9 and reached Hick’s Bay, near Gisborne, on October 12. From there she set off for Whitianga and was not heard of until today. The 20-year-old boat, which has a new motor, carried seven days’ food and 86 hours’ fuel.

On Monday Air Force Sunderlands and Bristol Freight-

ers began searching the 40,000 square miles search area between Napier and the Coromandel Peninsula. The area where the men were picked up was due to be covered tomorrow. “This was a fringe benefit,” said Mr T. W. Keals-Smith, the search and rescue controller, tonight. “We don’t know

1 how the trawler came to be - in this position.” The photograph shows ' the abandoned Karena 1 adrift with her mast unstepped about 65 miles north-north-east of Great Barrier Island. The photograph was taken from the air about 6.15 p.m. yesterv day.