N.Z. SHIPPING COMPANY.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20083, 12 November 1930, Page 18

N.Z. SHIPPING COMPANY.

TRADITIONAL NAMES. INTERESTING REMINISCENCES OUK OWN COBBESrOMDIKT.; LONDON, October 3. The "Journal of Commerce," in i leading artic'%, draws attention to tli fact tliat the New Zealand Shippinj Company has long worked on the defin its policy of repeating traditional name, for new ships when it is possible, anc in this policy the company is full] justified on two solid grounds. One 11 that the tradition built up is well wortl perpetuating, and the other is that th< history of shipping means much more to the New Zealander than it does tc the average Briton, and every shij which comes out bearing a traditiona. name recalls interesting reminiscences of her predecessors. For the three magnificent new motoi liners which are now under construction for the express cargo service (the writer goes on to say) the names Otaio, Orari, and Opawa have been chosen, names which in two cases are strongly .reminiscent of a famous class of nearly a quarter of a century ago. In those days the three names selected were Orari, Opawa, and Otaki, but the lastnamed, sunk during the war in a particularly gallant encounter with a German raider, has already been perpetuated on ,the company's list in a ship built some ten years ago, and Otaio. the first of the class to be launched, has been selected in her place. The Old Steamers. The new motor-ships have a gross tonnage of roughly 9000, a dead-weight capacity of 12,300 on 31ft 6in draft, and a speed of 15* knots in all circumstances. The older steamers were smaller, round about 7200 tons gross, with an original speed of knots, and a deadweight capacity of 11,282. They were propelled by twin-screw triple-expansion engines, but the Otaki, of course, was a triple-screw ship, and was the first to be given combination machinery, with two reciprocating engines exhausting into_ a low-pressure turbine. The old Orari had a veiy placid career on the New Zealand trade until she was diverted according to the will of the Shipping Controller, under the Liner Requisition Scheme at the end of the war, while during the great coal '..strike of 1926 she was taken off her J regular run in order to collect coal from Ihe United States. After that service ' she was laid up at Falmouth, and remained there until January, 1927, when was sold to scrappers at Troon for and made her way up under her own steam. The Opawa. The Opawa had rather more incident in her career, for in 1911 she was diverted to St. Helena to pick up and take on to Australia the 368 emigrants of her former consort, the Papanui, which had landed them there when she caught fire. Like her sister, she was -taken, up under thet Liner Requisition Scheme, but was employed very largely on the River Plate itrade. After the war she. sailed frequently from the Bristol Channel, and in, the summer of 1923 inaugurated the new direct serfrom Manchester. She also was -laid tip in Falmouth, but in January, ".1936, was sold to a Norwegian concern for rather less than £20,000, and contorted into the floating whale factory Antarctic, as which she is still doing excellent Service.