Nukumanu Atoll's Links to Three Coastal Vessels in PNG

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Nukumanu (lit. "Bird's Beak") Atoll is a ring of more than twenty islets on a reef surrounding a large lagoon situated north-east of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea (PNG), four degrees south of the equator. The nearest land is Ontong Java Atoll, 38km to the south in Solomon Islands, whose Polynesian inhabitants share many cultural affinities with those of Nukumanu Atoll. Takuu Atoll, another Polynesian outlier in PNG, is situated west of Nukumanu Atoll, 250km north-east of Kieta, Bougainville.  Nukumanu Atoll achieved international fame in 1937 as the last known position report of the aviator Amelia Earhart and her co-pilot Fred Noonan, 1,300km into their ill-fated flight from Lae, PNG to Howland Island in the North Pacific.

Since the late 1800s, Nukumanu Atoll has lent its name to at least three coastal vessels that have operated in PNG waters. In 1897 a two-masted trading vessel named Nukumanu was built at Brisbane Water on the central coast of New South Wales, Australia. A wooden-hull, 30 ton, fore-and-aft schooner, Nukumanu was built to the order of the trading firm of E.E. Forsayth, of Ralum, New Britain, owned by Emma Elisabeth Forsayth, often referred to as "Queen Emma". 

Soon after this tragic event, Nukumanu's hull was towed by a recovery vessel to Ralum  where it was re-fitted for further service. In early June 1900 Nukumanu departed Ralum on a trading voyage, but had only sailed 11km when a strong current in St. George's Channel forced her onto a reef between the islands of Mioko and Ulu, Duke of York Islands, where she was wrecked. Fortunately, the captain and crew had time to lower a boat and safely leave the vessel before its destruction. 

In 1949, 52 years after the construction of the schooner Nukumanu, a 584 ton, steel-hull motor vessel named the MV Elmore was built at Maryborough, Queensland, Australia for the Australian Government. In 1966 it was bought by Bougainville Trading Company Pty. Ltd., Rabaul, re-named MV Nukumanu, and put into service collecting copra and cocoa from commercial plantations dotted along the east coast of Bougainville, PNG. The MV Nukumanu continued to operate until 1974 when deteriorating economic conditions led to its sale to the Morehead Shipping Pty. Ltd., Rabaul. In 1975 it was re-sold to Sulpicio Lines Inc., Cebu, Philippines where it operated as the MV Dona Lily until 1987 when it was scrapped, thirty-eight years after its construction. 

The third and most recently built coastal vessel linked to Nukumanu Atoll is the cargo vessel MV Nukumanu, owned and operated by Bougainville Sea Transport, an enterprise managed by Lauta Atoi, prior to his election to the PNG Parliament in 2011 as the Member for North Bougainville. Lauta Atoi, of Takuu and Nukumanu parentage, also managed a marine products company named Nukumanu Marine Resources, Buka, purchasing and exporting trochus shell and dried sea-cucumber.  The 26/08/2007 edition of the PNG Post Courier newspaper reported that Kieta Copra Exporters (KCE), Bougainville's only copra exporter, was planning to charter the MV Nukumanu to ship copra from KCE's copra-buying depot at Kokopau town to Kieta, Bougainville. From there it was to be loaded on ocean-going vessels bound for overseas markets.

While details of the destruction of the schooner Nukumanu and the cargo vessel MV Nukumanu (ex-MV Elmore) are recorded, the fate of the most recent MV Nukumanu is unknown. With the planned revitalisation of Bougainville's coastal shipping outlined in the Bougainville Strategic Development Plan 2018-2022, perhaps the MV Nukumanu will play a role in improving sea transport services to Bougainville's neglected outlying islands, including Nukumanu Atoll.