THREE NEW SHIPS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 235, 4 October 1937, Page 13

THREE NEW SHIPS.

RUN FROM MONTREAL. NEW ZEALAND-AUSTRALIA. FIRST VOYAGE THIS MONTH. (From Our Own Correspondent.) MONTREAL, September 2. Complete details have now been received here concerning the new Port Line motor ship Port Montreal and her sister ships, Port Halifax and Port Saint John, which are to enter the local service of the Montreal, Australia, New Zealand Line to the Antipodes. Port Montreal will make her maiden voyage from England to this port early in October and is scheduled to take her first Australia-New Zealand sailing on October 29.

Port of Montreal was launched on 1 August 10 at Sunderland, England. She was built by William Foxford and Sons, Limited. The motor ship—first vessel of the Port Line to bear the name Montreal —is an open shelter-decker with three complete decks, a raked stem and conical stern. She has a dead-weight carrying capacity of 9800 tons. The length of the ship overall is 438 ft 6in, with a breadth of 59ft and a moulded depth of 29ft Sin. She has five main hatchways on the shelter, upper and lower decks, with 12 steam winches and steel derricks which will serve cargo spaces. Port Montreal has an insulated space for meat and vegetables arranged amidships, and the No. 4 'tween deck space is insulated to carry refrigerated cargo. Considerable use of electric welding has been made in construction of the cargo liner, on tank tops, decks, bulkheads, and deckhouses. Welding is being used more and more in building of modern ships. Tu the Port of Montreal the deck officers and engineers are berthed in a steel house amidships. The main saloon is panelled in oak. The master's quarters, said to be large and comfortable, are on the .boat deck. The ship is powered by a four-cylinder Doxford opposed-piston oil engine, developing 5250 h.p. at 108 revolutions. Port Saint John, a sister ship, which will go into the Canadian service at a later date, is almost identical to Port Montreal with the exception that she has a greater length, measuring 405 ft overall. Both ships were constructed at the Sunderland yards in surprisingly short time, considering that a shortage of steel proved difficult for a while. The vessels are expected to make good time on the run from Montreal to Australia and New Zealand. The owners are the Commonwealth and Dominion Line (Port Line) and these are the first vessels of the company to bear other than antipodean names.