INTER-ISLAND STEAMER

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 66, Issue 196, 1 June 1946, Page 5

INTER-ISLAND STEAMER

HINEMOA LAUNCHED ALL MODERN FACILITIES (Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 10.55 a.m.) LONDON, May 31. The new inter-island steamer express Hinemoa, which has been launched, will accommodate 921 passengers, and will have a crew of, 113/ She will be a “one-class” ship with 230 double-hertli, 29 single-berth and two de luxe cabins. The remainder of the passengers will be accommodated into three and four-berth cabins, and provision is made l'or 74 portable berths on the lower deck. Accommodation for the crew will be in two-berth and four-berth rooms with separate messes for seamen, stewards, cooks and firemen. Empire timber is heing used for all furniture and fittings. There will be two large public lounges on the promenade deck, with furniture of simple modern design. One room is designed for a cafe and another as a lounge. All the public rooms, passenger cabins, and .crew quarters are ventilated and heated by the thermotank system with silent running fans and motors.

Special arrangements have been made for the expeditious handling and storage of cargo. . A galley is fully equipped to provide meals for the crew and occasional meals for passengers.

Refrigerated chambers for domestic purposes are fitted, on the- main deck. Seven large lifeboats and one motor boat are provided in addition to buoyant life-saving apparatus. Modern Radar Set The Hinemoa is turbo - electric driven, with two separate turbo alternators, each with its own condensing plant and'auxiliaries. The steam generating installation consists of four Yarrow-type high-pressure water tube boilers. Electric power for all auxiliaries, including lighting and cooking, is provided by three sets of turbodriven generators. The electrical equipment includes a modern radar set adapted for navigational purposes, together with the latest type c)f radiotelephony, wireless equipment and improved direction-finding set. The stern steering-gear is of the electro-hydraulic type, and a bow rudder has been fitted for manoeuvring in confined waters. - ' Vickers’ Barrow works, where the Hinemoa, Rangatira and .Awatea were all constructed, was one of Britain’s most important naval construction yards throughout the war, specialising in submarine building. A number of attempts to.bomb the yard were made, by the enemy, and once two 1000pounders were dropped without exploding near huge cranes used for handling warship fittings.

Origin of Name

Guests showed considerable interest at the official luncheon in the origin of the name Hinemoa, Mr J. N. Greenland recalling the Maori legend of Hinemoa and Tutanekai. While en route to Barrow to assist with the launching, the Liverpool tug Carlgarth rammed and sank a Fleetwood fishing smack with the loss of three lives.

“We don’t want to be satisfied with winning the war because the next ,10 years are going to he even more difficult than the last six,” said Mr Nash, speaking at the launching. “This company could not have lived without the men and women who worked for it. It is what it produced that matters. Let us have the work of hands and brains r to bring into' being the tilings that make life worth while. It is .work"that really matters. I want to see the day when there is a gate every family in Britain can shut, and one room every child can call its own, but we cannot have that without work. That (is why, as my friend Paddy Webb, would say, I often take my hat off to the British workers and designers.” . Mr Nash added that as he looked back to the days of liis boyhood in Kidderminster, and remembered the things that occurred then, he realised the amazing contribution the British Commonwealth had made to the progress of the world. The British people could justly feel proud of that effort, but they must also realise that it was their responsibility to maintain it in the years to come.”