NEW COASTER FOR WELLINGTON.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 152, 29 June 1926, Page 10

NEW COASTER FOR WELLINGTON.

TOTARA'S TEDIOUS PASSAGE.. TEN WEEKS FROM HULL TO FREMANTLE. '" : The small: steamer Totara, which is to enter the New Zealand coastal trade, is expected to arrive at Wellington from England via Australia at any time now. Ten weeks out from Hull the Totara, which is a vessel of 147 tons net and 421 tons gross arrived at Fremantle about three weeks ago. The reasons for the protracted voyage were the unsuitability of the coal consumed and the necessarily low speed of the vessel, which is one of the smallest cargo boats to have completed the voyage from, England to Australia. No wireless equipment is installed.

"We were ten days passing through the Red Sea," said Captain H. D. Naylor, when interviewed on arrival at Fremantle:'- . "There were head winds all the way, and the weather finished up with, squalls of hurricane force, which almost-blew us out of the water. Though we were heading. right into the storm, I suppose that at,times we were goin«* several knots astern instead of ahead. With, the exception of this experience the steamer has kept wonderfully, dry throughout' her long. voyage." After calling at Colombo, where -. a stay of five-days, was made, the Totara made a. direct run to Fremantle. The crew number seventeen all -told, and the accommodation for the firemen and the seamen in the fo'c'sle. and for the remainder of the crew in other partsVof the boat is excellent, especially when the limited space : available is taken into-account. - - ■ The Totara, which was built by--the Warren Shipbuilding Company, at New Holland, is a very up-to-date coastal freighter, her conveniences including hot and cold showers for the creiv. She:-has a : cargo-carrying capacity.. of. approximately 500 tons.