MODERN OIL TANKER

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27408, 22 July 1954, Page 13

MODERN OIL TANKER

FIRST VISIT TO LYTTELTON

975,000 GALLONS OF FUEL IN CARGO With a cargo of 975,000 gallons of motor spirit and gas oil weighing approximately 3500 tons, the Shell Oil Company’s tanker Hemidonax will arrive at Lyttelton from Auckland this afternoon. Only seven months old. the Hemidonax is making her first visit to New Zealand. In tonnage the Hemidonax is the largest tanker to visit Lyttelton, but she is not the longest. The Hyalina, which visited the port in August, 1951, is 584 ft long; the Hemidonax is 550 ft long. Although the Hemidonax has a cargo of nearly 1,000,000 gallons of fuel she will not take long to discharge it. Her pumping rate is approximately 700 tons an hour, and it is expected that she will have completed discharge of her cargo in five hours. Like all ' Shell tankers, the Hemidonax is named after a sea shell, and carries one mounted in a glass case. She was formerly under the register of the Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Company, but is now one of the fleet of Shell Tankers, Ltd., which has 7,000,000 tons of tankers. As she is only seven months old the Hemidonax is the last word in comfort and efficiency. Every man on board has his own cabin—the crew’s cabins having an over-all finish of a fireproof plastic material, while the officers’ quarters are panelled with maple. At sea no helmsman is required. In rough weather the watch officer merely adjusts the automatic steering, so that the rudder will not be strained.

Equipped with radar capable of picking up objects at 40 miles, and an echo sound which can “see” the sea bed to a depth of 720 fathoms, the ship is never likely to run into danger. All accommodation, galleys, public rooms and engine * rooms are pressurised. A gas searches all these compartments continuously while the ship is in port. If any trace of gas is found red lights flash, alarm bells ring and fires in the boilers automatically die down. Other crew facilities include a swimming pool, smoke rooms, recreation rooms, a ship’s laundry, and a washing machine in every toilet. Carrying 18,600 tons deadweight, the Hemidonax is driven by turbines, developing 7500 shaft horsepower, giving her a service speed of 14| knots. Her master, Captain E. K. Goldsworthy, has been with the company for 21 years, 15 years of which he has been master. He is the sixth senior captain in the group. Earlier he served with the New Zealand Shipping Company. During the war he was on convoys in the Western Approaches, carrying aviation spirit from Curacao and the United States to Britain.