MOTOR SHIPS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 69, 22 March 1928, Page 10

MOTOR SHIPS.

FAVOURED RT RRXTAXH.

IMPORTANT PRONOUNCEMENT.

(From Ottr Special €e respondent.)

VANCOUVER, February 10.

According to latest reports from shipping circles in London the White 4Star Line and associated lines will soon *be a motor ship line, instead of a steamship line as at present, if the policy of Lord Kylsant, prominent shipping magnate, is carried through. At the present time there are under construction 700.000 gross tons more shipping to he equipped with marine internal combustion"epgtaes than there, are ships-being btdlt to nave steam propelling power installed, a total of 1,680,000 tons for motor ships, rampared with 1,485,000. tons for. all other types of vessels combined. In 1914 the 'largest motor vessel afloat had only a power of just over 2000 horsepower, while there are now ships afloat developing 7000 horse-power from four engine», making a total- of 28,000 horse* power* v Great 'Britain, which 1$ not regarded 'as a motor-shipping nation on account of her huge coal deposits, awns and operate#' 40 per cent, of the motor ahipe of the world, and of this tojtal Lord Kylsant operates 20 per cent. He ownf the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company and control* 3,000,000 tone of shipping, including the White Star and associate lines-. He is rapidly Dieselising all ships under his control, and report states that the proposed new White Star liners- will all be Diesel-driven.

■? This ,20 per , cent of British-owned, motor shipping represents 0.2 of the world's motor shipping, Which "is only slightly less than the total motor shipping owned by Italy, who, it is stated, is making a bid for world supremacy in this trade, having no coal of her own. The Saturnia, largest and fastest motor ship afloat, has just completed preparations for her first trans-Atlantic voyage in February. This vast ship will ply between New York and Italian ports. The new Italian motor ship has 35,500 tons displacement and. is of very graceful lines, according to pictures which have arrived in Canadian ports. Scandinavian ownership of motor ships Is growing, especially In the "tramp" trade, many of their ships having be»n engaged on the Lakes during the past summer, carrying grain from Canada to Europe. '

The New Tramp. Fears have been expressed for the future of the tramp with the advent of the motor vessel, but Canadian shipping men say that although the tramp is disappearing in one sense, yet in another it /Is not altogether true. In the old days the tramp, it is stated, was in very fact a tramp, going from port to port picking up odd cargoes. The modern tramp, the motor vessel, on the other hand, does not do this, but drops into port looking for a' long-term charter. By this method they avoid disappointments and are able to make a much higher rate than by picking up cargoes at "snap" rates. The newest motor vessel, the Furness liner Bermuda, has just started her career, leaving the other recently for New York, from which port she will operate to the West Indies. She is the flrdt of a number of iships: which this company will build for the West indies run. The growing popularity of the islands has made shipowners realise the prospects in the trade, and nearly steamship ,line is making provision for the run. The Bermuda motor ship is of 20,000 tons gross, and is palatial in. its appointments.