YACHT AS HOTEL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24409, 21 September 1940, Page 13

YACHT AS HOTEL

PAN-AMERICAN AIRWAYS VESSEL ACCOMMODATION AT NOUMEA (From Our Own Correspondent) SYDNEY, Sept. 12. The American luxury yacht Southern Seas, which will be used as a floating hotel at Noumea for passengers flying across the Pacific Ocean by the Pan-American Airways’ service, has arrived at Sydney to be cleaned, and to undergo minor internal alterations for the service. Mr Harold Gatty, the representative for Pan-American Airways m the South Pacific, said that the decision to use the Southern Seas as an hotel had been made because of the indefinite political situation in New Caledonia, and because adequate, hotel facilities were not available at Noumea. The Southern Seas, formerly the Lyndonia, is sailing under the flag of the Republic of Panama, and is nominally owned by Panama Airways, a subsidiary of Pan-American Airways.

She was formerly owned by the late Cyrus K. Curtis, American newspaper magnate. The yacht. Diesel-driven, is 825 tons gross, and had been laid up in New York for nearly 10 years before Pan-American Airways took her over. These are suspicious days at sea. The Southern Seas and a British freighter suspected each other at sea during the voyage to Sydney The Southern Seas’ dazzling white hull, clipper bow and Pan-American coat of arms in red, white and blue on her side, invited attention. The crew of the yacht saw a grey hull well down on the horizon and a smudge of smoke away on the beam. A stir went through the yacht as it was seen that the grey ship was heading towards the yacht at full speed. Smoke from the funnel increased, and soon the crew could see the white foam at her bows ‘ A raider is after us,” was the remark of many. When the ship got closer the crew of the yacht saw that she was a British freighter. The British ship altered course and ran abreast of the yacht, then dropped astern and followed her for half an hour. Apparently satisfied by then as to the identity of the white ship, the freighter turned away.