DESCRIPTION OF THE STEAMER.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIV, Issue 248, 19 October 1893, Page 5

DESCRIPTION OF THE STEAMER.

Tho Miowora ia a splendid now stool tteamor belonging to Messrs Muddarb, Parker and Co., and has visited the port of Auckland soveral times while running in the intercolonial brado at tho beginning of this year in opposition to the Union Steamship Company. She and her aistor ;iteamer, the Warrimoo, were recently placed in the Vancouver mail service between Australia and Victoria via Honolulu under tho auspices of the Canadian, Pacific und Australian Steamship Live. On this trip, on which she camo to grief, the Miowera was bound from Sydney via Honolulu to Vancouver, with mails, passengers and cargo. She is a fine oteamer of 3,500 tons register, and is built oi> what is known as the three-deck grade. She has a long poop deck which extends over her engines and boilers, with a long topgallant forecastle, and a complete system of water ballast on the cellular double bottom principle. Her decks are of epecially-solected teak wood of more than ordinary thickness, and the strength of tho vessel generally is far in excess of Lloyd's and tbe Board ot Trade rules—the exceptional weight of tho framing, admitting of hold beams being dispensed with. Her fine lines, double bottom, and watertight compartments combined to make her a very suitable vessel for war purposes. She carried six large lifeboats (two of which wero constructed of steal, and practically onsinkablo), with a cutter and dingy. She is lighted throughout by electricity, and carries a second engine in casa of the failure of the first, which supplies the installation, while there is a complete system of electric bolls all over the uhip. Her dimensions are : Length between perpendiculara, 340 ft; length over all, 360fb ; breadth of beam, 43ft ; depth of bold, 28ft. Sho ia fitted with engines of 4,700 horsepower, constructed, as were tho steel boilors, by the Wallsend Slipway Engineering Company. All her arrangements for the discharge of cargo aro on tho laboet priuciple. The whole of the saloon passenger accommodation is on the main deck, and is of a very superior order. The Baloon proper is a very handsome apartment, immediately under the poop deck, while alley-ways run from it to the three-quarter poop. The saloon is 50fb in length, and its breadth extends the whole width of tho ship, and ia handsomely fitted up with carved oak panels in polished frames in maple and walnut woods. The berthing accommodation consists of some 50 state-rooms, handsomely fitted and equipped with patent spring mattresses, iron folding beds, couches, otc. The Miowera has accommodation for 180 saloon and 100 Bocond-class passengers. The Miowora recontly made a very smart passage from London to Sydney, after her launch at tho end of last year. Sho frequently steamed over 16 knots per hour while inthe intercolonial running. She was only launched last year. Like the Warrimoo, she is rigged as a threo • masted schooner, spreading only fore-and-aft canvas. The Miowera represents a considerable amount of capital. Each of these steamers, tbe Miowora and Warrimoo, represents in round figures £90,000, tho hull costing £00.000, tho machinery £30,000, and the tictings £10,000. The weight of the hull bofore the engines were on board was 2,400 tons of solid steel. Each of these two ships would have to earn at least £200 a week throughout the year, in addition to the cost ot wages, coal, and stores, before sho could clear her expenses. Tho Huddart Parker Company are about to build a new steamer for the Vancouver sorvico. In order, however, to temporarily maintain thosorvicethey will no doubt place a chartered steamer in the Miowera's place.