PERFECT LAUNCHING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 255, 28 October 1930, Page 5

PERFECT LAUNCHING.

NEW AUXILIARY SCHOONER. YET TO BE NAMED. BUILT FOR COASTAL TRADE. Without ceremony or fuss, a sturdilybuilt new auxiliary schooner was launched from Mr. George Niccol's yards thie morning. The schooner has not yet been named, so no bottle of good cheer was broken across her bows. Only a handful of people saw the schooner, with the New Zealand red ensign floating from her stern, slide down the wellgreased ways into the water. It was a perfect morning and a perfect launching. The hardwood ways on which the schooner was perched led into a tide that was as smooth as the proverbial mill pond. The ensign at the stern suggested that something was likely to happen, and a small group of men gathered on the Nelson Street wharf. One by one the chocks were knocked out, and when the last one went the vessel started to move. Even the few persons who had been invited to the yard to eee the schooner take the water got a surprise at the way she suddenly came to life. Unlike some other vessels that have been put into the Waitemata, the schooner needed no coaxing; her momentum increased as she slid, and when her stern reached the water she created a big wave that set the fishing launches rocking. Once in the water the vessel rode,perfectly, and in less than five minutes of the time that the last chocks were knocked out she was following a tow launch in the direction of the Prince's wharf, where her masts—one kauri and one pitch pine —were stepped early this afternoon. Specially strengthened to fit her for trade in all weathers around the coast, the schooner, which hae yet to find an owner other than her builder, is 142 tons net, with an overall length of 13Iff, a beam of 26ft 6in, and a loaded draught of 7ft. She is built of picked kauri from Whangaroa and is sheathed with totara. Her decks are kauri and her wooden fittings mostly of teak. There is one long hold with two hatches. A new departure in the construction of thie type of vessel is the building of the officers' quarters, which are excellently fitted out, under the cover of a poop deck, on which is situated the bridge and wheel. The crew's quarters are for'ard in the raised fo'c'sle head. The vessel's propelling machinery consists of two 140 horsepower Diesel engines, each of which were installed by R. A. Campbell. The schooner is coneidered to have finer lines and to be better built and fitted up than any other vessel of the type that has left the yards. When she took the water this morning the schooner was as nearly complete as possible. But for the fact that her bow was touching the roof of the yard her masts could have been stepped as she was still on the ways, and she would then have been ready for immediate service. There is an old superstition among sailormen that a ehip that sticks on the ways or takes unkindly to the water is doomed to an unfortunate career, but whoever is destined to become the owner of the new schooner, need have no worries on this count. The vessel made for the water as if she was anxious to feel it beneath her.