FASHIONS IN SHIPS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 194, 18 May 1938, Page 6

FASHIONS IN SHIPS.

CHANGES DURING A CENTURY. It is interesting to note how in the last hundred years what may be termed fashions in ships have changed, says a writer in “The Observer.” A century ago the vogue was all for fiddle or clipped bows, more often than not adorned with a figurehead. Today, after many years of ugly, straight steins, the raked or flared bow is the most popular form. This is strongly reminiscent of the clipper type, and lovers of maritime beauty, as opposed to mere utilitarianism, are grateful to those Norwegian ship owners who are reintroducing the figurehead in a modern and modified form.

A century ago every true sailor shuddered at tiie sight of a funnel poking its sooty nose between the tapering masts and fouling the sails, hut in the years between about 1880 and 1914 Ahe cry was for more and more funnels. They were supposed to convey to the ignorant traveller a sense oi power below decks, and so strong was this feeling that many liners were fitted with dummy funnels merely for the sake of appearances. From an aesthetic point of view, one of the worst examples of this funnel complex in recent times was provided by the Union-Castle liners Arundel Castle and Windsor' Castle, with four apiece. Built at Belfast soon after the Avar, they have been the subject of much sarcastic comment on the Southampton and Cape Town waterfronts, but they, too, have hoav followed the wheel of fashion.

Both ships have been re-engined, to make them faster, and in the process they have been shorn of thir four spindly stacks. Each has now but two low, unobstrusive funnels. Some ship owners—such as the East Asiatic Company, of Copenhagen—have in their motor liners eliminated funnels altogether, while others have striven to make these useful excresences as little noticeable as possible. The first ship to be completed at Belfast this year, the Lamport and Holt motor-liner Delane, is a pioneer in tills latter respect. Her funnel is cunningly combined and almost hidden by her midships superstructure. Funnel, bridge, captain’s quarters, wireless rooms, and passenger accommodation are all 'in one streamlined piece, and the camouflage effect is heightened by the normal funnel markings—black, blue, and white—being carried in broad bands of paint across the whole of this structure.