NEW SHIPS FOR N.Z. TRADE

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25273, 27 August 1947, Page 7

NEW SHIPS FOR N.Z. TRADE

PASSENGER AND CARGO LINERS (Rec. 9 p.m.) LONDON. August 26. The third of a group of four passenger and cargo liners, each of 15,000 tons, has been contracted for by the Shaw Savill Line, and is now being built at Wallsend-on-Tyne. The ship will be named the Gothic. Two ships of the same name have been associated in former years with the Shaw Savill Line’s Uni Jed King-dom-New Zealand service. It is expected that the new Gothic will be ready for launching late in September or early in October. The fourth ship, now being built at Birkenhead, will be called Ceramic after the 18,700-ton liner which the enemy sank. The new Ceramic is expected to be ready to join the Corinthic and the Athenic, the other two ships of her class, in the first half of 1948. Each of the four ships, which will be usetjl on the New Zealand and Australian routes, wilj carry 85 first-class passengers. The hulls and machinery will be similar, but the decorations and furnishing of each will be distinctive.

The owners, although they are concentrating on providing for first-class passengers in these ships, are arranging immediately to increase the accommodation in their cabin class liners. Mataroa and Tamaroa to carry 450 passengers each, compared with 140 previously.