NEW ORIENT LINER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 31, 6 February 1937, Page 10

NEW ORIENT LINER.

ORCADES NEARS COMPLETIOIi Tliq new Orient, liner Orcadea, o! 2:5,3!)Q gross register tons, recentlr launched from tile Barrow-in-Furness yard of Messrs. Vickers-Armstrong, Limited, is to set out, on her maiden voyage on August 21.

J n general design (says "Engineering") the Orcades is similar to tho Orion, but, although the hull dimension! of both are the same, the new ship will carry rather fewer passengers than tho Orion, while the first-class public rooms have been somewhat rearranged and those of the tourist class enlarged Actually the Orcades will carry °4«5 first-class passengers and 005 touristclass passengers, as compared with 4SC first-class and <Js:i tourist-class passv.gers carried by the Orion. The mail dimensions of the Orcades are as. follows: Length between perpendiculars, 030 ft; length overall, Gosft; moulded breadth, S2it; moulded to "E" deck, 47ft Oin; and draught. 30ft. Tho vessel has eight decks, including the promenade decks, all of which are intended for passengers' use. She has a straight stem and a cruiser stern, and lias one funnel and one mast; the funnel, it mav be noted, is 9ft higher than that of tho Orion, a feature which will enable tho two vessels to be readily distinguished

She will be pro])clicd by geared turbines of the Parsons type, developing •24.000 shaft horsepower and driving twin screws through single-reduetioa gearing. The designed speed is 21 knots. .Steam will be supplied by six Babcoek and Wilcox type high-pressure marina boilers, constructed by the builders, anil fitted with superheaters and tubular air heaters. The boilers are arranged to burn oil only under forced draught on the closed airduct .system with open stokeholds, air being supplied by five electrically-driven fans. The auxiliary machinery includes three turbo-genera-tors, each of ojOkw capacity generating direct current at -220 volts, and 0110 Diesel-engine driven generator of 90kw capacity.

The maiden voyage of the Orcades. which is intended for the carriage of passengers, mails and cargo between tho United Kingdom and Australia, will take the form of a cruise of the Western -Mediterranean. She will leave London on her first voyage to Australia on October l>.