West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 - 1954), Tuesday 10 September 1940, page 6


PACIFIC AIR SERVICE. LUXURY AT NOUMEA. Yacht as Floating Hot1l. SYDNEY, Sept. 9.-The American luxury yacht Southern Seas, which will be used as a floating hotel at Noumea for passengers flying across the Pacific 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 in the South Pacific, who is in Sydney, said today 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 facillties were not available at Noumea. The first commercial passenger flight by Pan-American Airways from San Francisco to Auckland would begin tomorrow. The service would be fortnightly and this meant that a flying boat would be at Noumea once a week. As the planes carried from 20 to 25 passengers and a crew of ten, the problem of hotel accommodation was formidable. Later, when a satisfactory hotel service had been established at Noumea, it was intended to run the Southern Seas between Noumea and Sydney. The Southern Seas, which has luxurious accommodation for 40 passengers, was formerly owned by the American millionaire publisher, Mr. Cyrus Curtis. It was then known as the Lyndonla. The vessel is of 830 tons gross and is 230 feet long. It is probably the only ship in the southern hemisphere fitted with gyro-stabiliser equipment, which reduces the roll of the vessel by. about 75 per cent.