From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 14, no. 2, May 1999.

Hamburg Sud., the parent company of Columbus Line and South Seas Steamship Line in March announced a two-phase program to upgrade its shipping services between North America, Tonga, New Zealand, Australia, Europe, and South America.

Its new vessel, the Tausala Samoa, arrived in Tonga in March, replacing the Ariki Pacific in the first phase of the upgraded service. The Tausala Samoa has 1,116 TEU capacity and it is equipped with two shipboard cranes, each with a 45 tonne capacity. The ship can carry over a 1,000 containers. The Tausala Samoa will sail every three weeks from Los Angeles to Tonga, then to New Zealand and onward to Australia before returning to the West Coast USA.

The second phase later this year will see the introduction of a second new vessel to replace the Tui Pacific. These two new vessels according to a press release from the Dateline Shipping, the local agent for Hamburg Sud. are larger and faster than the ships they replace, and it will reduce their round voyage from 54 to 49 days.