| Business |
Captain Frank's
final voyage
By A Special Correspondent
One of Papua New Guinea's
most-respected mariners has finally sailed into the sunset.
There were no newspaper obituaries and eloquent eulogies for this
great man of the sea; however, his death has left an irreplaceable
void in PNG's shipping industry, more so, in the hearts of his
young family.
Those in the business will remember him as being the man behind
the wheel of such icons like MV Morobe Coast and MV Niugini Coast,
to name but two.
His feats on the sea are the stuff of legend, as many a sailor can
vouch for, and would fill volumes and volumes.
Captain Frank Buluini Gorohu, 59, from the Hoboimo clan of Elevala
village in the National Capital District, passed away suddenly on
Friday, March 23, 2007.
Captain Frank, one of the pillars of Consort Express Lines, was
taking a well-deserved break from the sea to be with his beloved
family when he suddenly collapsed and died at 3am that fateful
Friday.
He is survived by his two wives, 13 children (nine from first wife
and four from second wife), and 21 grand children.
Captain Frank continued a great family tradition from days of
yore, such as the great Hiri voyages into the Gulf of Papua, when
he took to the sea.
His grandfather, Frank Rei, was a great seafarer for Steamships
and one of the company's ship was in fact named after him.
The legacy lives on as two of Captain Frank's sons, Robert and
Heni, have also taken to the sea in ocean-going vessels like their
father.
Former Consort general-manager Peter Kvam, in an email message
upon hearing of Captain Frank's death, said his passing was a
great loss to PNG.
"A large and important part of Consort's history has unfortunately
come to an end," Mr Kvam lamented.
"Captain Frank was to me, as the manager, of enormous help in
developing the company from a small coastal shipping company to be
the best and biggest PNG has ever experienced.
"His interest for the development and progress of Consort often
led him to make very sound and invaluable advices to me in keeping
the company on a steady and correct course.
"Captain Frank was a remarkable man.
"He has this seldom gift of having automatic authority.
"Nobody needed to be told he was a leader, as one could sense it
right away.
"He always used this gift for the betterment for Consort, from
which the company benefited very much.
"He is a person that the young country Papua New Guinea can
ill-afford to lose, and a person the young country needs a lot of.
"Captain Frank would have completed 25 years of dedicated service
to Consort and the company has lost one of its strongest pillars.
"I have lost a very good personal friend and his family has lost
an outstanding father.
"I am joining them in their grief as he meant a lot to me,
particularly in our struggle for Consort to become the best."
Captain Frank's sister, Valo Igo, remembers him as "a very humble
person, respectful to his parents and his fellow mates".
He did his primary schooling at London Missionary Society school
at Hanuabada, and then Hagara primary school.
From there, he went to Sogeri high school, where he did Form 1 to
Form 4, and in 1967 was one of the pioneer enrolments of the
University of PNG.
His first wife, Kevau, remembers that he was doing his preliminary
year at UPNG in 1967 - with big dreams of becoming an airline
pilot - when she fell pregnant with their first daughter Dairi.
"His father and grandfather were not happy and said I had spoiled
their plans," she recalls.
"He saw this ad in the Post-Courier (for Calendar Australia).
"He applied and was accepted and they set a date for him to fly to
Lae and join the ship MV Sletton there, and go to Australia.
"He was a cadet on the ship."
Captain Frank studied for the next three years at the Australian
Maritime College in Sydney, Australia, for his Foreign Going
Ticket.
After that, he worked on various vessels for Calendar Australia
such as MV Sletton and MV Salamaua, before returning home to work
for Morehead Shipping, then Sea Freight.
In the early 1980s, Captain Frank joined Consort Express Lines
along with two likewise very talented Papua New Guineans in
Captain Lokes Kusunan of Manus and Captain Sod Baim of Madang.
"They (Captains Frank, Lokes and Sod) were the three pillars of
Consort," said Captain Frank's brother Kelly Frank.
"During his (Captain Frank's) time with Consort, he took ships as
far as Shangai, China, to dry dock.
"He served Consort for about 27 years until the time of his
death."
They buried Captain Frank Buluini Gorohu on the hills overlooking
Hanuabada and the deep blue ocean on Saturday, March 31, 2007.
The words of Requiem, that famous poem by Robert Louis Stevenson,
rang true:
Under the wide and starry sky
Dig the grave and let me die
And I lay me down with a will
This be the verse you grave for me
Here he lies where he longed to be
Home is the hunter, home from the hill
And the sailor
From the sea
 
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