MAORI III SCHEDULED TO START IN NOVEMBER

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27151, 22 September 1953, Page 8

MAORI III SCHEDULED TO START IN NOVEMBER

INTER-ISLAND STEAMER EXPRESS

[Written for "The Press" by R. B. O’NEILL]

One of the most important highways in New Zealand is not a road but a 200-mile sea route between Lyttelton and Wellington. This route is traversed six nights a week by two fast cargo-passenger liners.-which maintain then- timetable with clock-like regularity. Each year they travel more than 125,000 miles; and since the daily service was established 47 years ago, millions of passengers have been carrl<A for the service is expected to begin her trials at the end of this month, and is scheduled to take up the inter-island run on November 27, exactly a year after she was launched on the Tyne by Princess Margaret. She is the fifth vessel built by the Union Steam Ship Company for the ferry. Her name. Maori, perpetuates the name of the little steamer which since 1875 has been Number One in the company’s fleet list; it is .also the name of the first steamer specially designed and built for the service. The tiny iron steamer of 174 tons which was the first Maori was built in 1867 by Blackswood and Gordon, of Glasgow. She measured 144 feet m length, slightly more than half, the length of the submarine which visited Lyttelton earlier this month, and was only 26 feet in breadth. She was built to carry 300 passengers. The Maoris line of trade was a regular circumnavigation of the South Island. After leaving Dunedin (then the headquarters of the company), she called at Bluff Preservation Inlet. Dusky Sound. Martin’s Bay, Big Bay Jackson's Bay, Hokitika. Greymouth. Westnprt. Nelson Lyttelton and Timaru. The round trip took about two weeks.

The Service Begun Though by present-day standards the Rotomahana. another of the company’s early vessels and the first of the regular inter-island steamers, was a very small passenger ship, m 187» a Glasgow newspaper described her as the ' finest specimen of the shipbuilder’s and engineer’s skill ever turned out by W. Denny and Brothers at Dumbarton.” On her steaming trials the Rotomahana (2425 tons) attained an average speed of more than 15$ knots. The vessel quickly established a reputation in New Zealand and Australia as a reliable passenger ship; and for many years she was a popular vessel in the inter-colonial service, which she carried on until 1898. In that year the Rotomahana entered the service between the North and South Islands. In 1901 the Rotomahana. which had then seen 22 years of service, was rejuvenated by an extensive survey ana overhaul and fitted with new boilers. She marked her return to the interisland service by making the passage from Lyttelton to Wellington in 10 hours 18 minutes. She was transferred in 1908 to the mail and passenger service between Melbourne and Tasmania, in which she ran for 13 years. She had completed more than 40 years of active service when she was withdrawn in 1921, to go to the shipbreakers four years later. The famous Mararoa, of 2598 tons gross register, was the first of the company’s ships to exceed 300 feet in length. She arrived in New Zealand in 1885 for service between the Dominion and Australia. She was the first steamer in the Pacific to be fitted with triple-expansion engines and to have a speed of 16 knots. Her passenger accommodation for 370 was excellent and her first-class appointments left little to be desired. The Mararoa entered the inter-island service in 1903, and for the next three years ran in conjunction with the Rotomahana. Daily Service Established The growth of population and the general improvements of communications in New Zealand called for a daily service throughout the year on a fixed timetable; and this was established by the Rotomahana and the Mararoa in 1906 k The co-operation of the Railways Department and the Lyttelton Harbour Board was obtained; thereafter, through trains took passengers, baggage and mails directly to dr from the wharf at which the steamers berthed. Once the service was firmly established, a fast steamer designed to meet the requirements of the growing traffic was ordered from Denny Brothers. The vessel was the Maori 11, a triple-screw turbine steamer of 3399 tons gross, with a speed of 19 knots and modem accommodation for about 600 first and second-class passengers. Like all ships built for this service, the Maori was fitted with a bow rudder to facilitate

rapid berthing. She began runnin. 1907 and ran with the RotomahaS, six months, until the latter wastri ferred and replaced by the MaS?* ■x The Maori’s H-hour schedule wa great success; another steamer S 1 similar type, but even larger L 1 called for. The Wahine (44M gross), with improved accommodati 1 for some 650 first and second clwi sengers, was delivered from Brothers’ yard in 1913 and replacedSi Mararoa. Her speed of 20$ knots her one of the fastest steamers in i? world at that time. The Wahine was withdrawn after career of 38 years and lay in gZ. I retirement until July, 1951, whenS was chartered by the New ZealS Government and fitted to carry 570? Force reinforcements to Japan, sailed from Wellington on August? and she did not return. Early morning of August 15 the Wanin. m aground on a coral reef off Island about 280 miles north of S? win, and was abandoned. During her service, the Wahine Ui carried more than 3,000.000 passeni2 in safety up to the time of her 12 voyage and had steamed nesX 1,500,000 miles. It is not idle to jn that the loss of a ship known bl New Zealanders for so long was felt personally by many. This attitude was summed up by one shipping?? respondent, whose heading for * obituary on the ship read: “Tk Wahine Was A Lady.” When the 6152-tons Rangatira took up her service with the Wahine? 1931, the Maori became the reUeviM ship, and the Mararoa, which hJ been used as the relief up to tha time, was dismantled. Scuttled, the Mararoa now lies at the bottom d Cook Strait. The Rangatira’s fra speed of 22 knots and acconunodatin for about 800 passengers made heri notable addition to the company fleet. Post-war Reconstruction The first order given by the Unia Company after the war was for i turbo-electric steamer to replace the Wahine. Plans for such a vessel had long been prepared by the companyg naval architects and, but for the war the ship would have been under cwb struction in 1940. Hinemoa was the name given to the ship, which wp built at Barrow-in-Furness by Vickm Armstrongs, who had previously baQt the Rangatira. The Hinemoa had the distinction of being the first post-war passenger th# built in the United Kingdom and wp delivered in December, 1946, the ytr the Maori was sold to the United Corporation of China. The Hinemoi began duties in February, 1947. He principal dimensions—length, 419 tat; beam. 58 feet; moulded depth, 29 fertare identical with those of the Itaaft* tira, but because of differences Ja superstructure, she measures 6911 tom gross, or 759 tons greater than ths older vessel. The Hinemoa i« fitted with turbo-electric engines of 13,009 horse-power, sufficient to supply th electrical needs of Napier and New Plymouth combined, and her twh screws are driven by electric motor* giving a top speed of 22 knots. Stem is supplied by four large high-praann water-tube boilers, compared with dx in the Rangatira. The Hinemoa ta cabin accommodation for 914 paaogers. In April, 1951, the company Placed an order, once more with victei Armstrongs, for the building-<rf a new passenger ship, the Maori 111, which measures about 7740 tons gross. Her length is 454 feet, her beam ® feet, and she has a moulded depth a 29 feet. She will be 35 feet loDtftf and five feet wider than either ta Rangatira or the Hinemoa. She w be a one-class ship with accommodfr tion for 966 berthed passengers, sm will have deck stowage for 72 mote cars. The Maori is propelled by two turbine-driven electric alternators a 13,000 horse-power transmitting current to two large friotors driving twh screws, steam being supplied by highpressure water-tube boilers. when uhe goes into service, the nw Maori, the company claims, will« the largest and finest ship world engaged on a short sea, express, passenger run. She witt.cro* tinue a tradition and service of wtg not only her owners, but also tn travelling public of New ZealaamH be justly proud.