2250 Passengers For 45,000-Ton Canberra

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29060, 24 November 1959, Page 20

2250 Passengers For 45,000-Ton Canberra

(From the London Correspondent of "The Press")

LONDON, November 13. Ninety per cent, of the plating on the shell of the new P. and O. vessel, Canberra, building at Belfast, has been completed and the launching date for this 45,000-ton passenger liner which will appear in the Pacific in 1961 is fixed for March 1 next year. Harland and Wolff are the builders. The combined spending by P. and O. and Orient Line on the Canberra and the 40,000-ton Oriana which was launched at Barrow-in-Furness on November 3, amounts to £3O million. The Canberra is destined for the United Kingdom-Australia run and also for the trans-Pacific run from Australia by way of New Zealand probably Auckland Suva and Honolulu to the West Coast of North America. The Canberra may be used on the triangular Orient and Pacific Lines route linking the West Coast of America, the Far East and Australia. P. and O. describe the Canberra as a ship designed around the passenger. It has much the same specification as the Orihna though it is different in machinery, layout and appearance. It is a turboelectric ship. The over-all length will be 820 ft; beam, 102 ft; speed, 27i knots. It will accommodate 2250 passengers, 600 of .them first class, and there will be a crew of 1000. Passenger Comfort The line aims to capture the American public for the South Pacific through Vancouver, San Francisco and Los Angeles. So far, support for the AustraliaAmerica runs has come largely from Australia. Sir Hugh Casson is working on the interior decor in conjunction with P. and O.’s naval architect, Mr J. West. The accommodation promises to be very advanced. The machinery space will be at the after end of the ship and passengers will have the centre and more comfortable section to themselves. As in the Oriana, fullywelded aluminium superstructure will reduce top-weight and make possible an extra deck. The crew will have cabin space on the higher decks forward of the passengers and the cargo hold, with newly developed side-load-ing machinery, will be below them.

There have been wind tunnel experiments to solve the shelter problems of a fast ship with large sports decks. A sound proofed bulkhead has been produced to reduce the transmission of noise. With a fully air-conditioned ship and with the machinery placed aft, there was the prospect that while the more usual ship noises would become less, the irregular noises of auxiliary machinery, lifts, and of conversations, light switches and wash basins in neighbouring cabins would become more apparent and disturbing. Walls and ceilings through the ship will have plastic surfaces; there will be no painting in the cabins. Plastic decks and flooring

will be used. The lifeboats will be glass-reinforced polyester resin. There will be a two-programme radio in each cabin and hot, cold and ice water at the wash basins. The tourist dining room to seat 800 will be one of the largest afloat.

There are many refinements in the plans for the machinery. The docking propeller, mounted in an open transverse tunnel near the bows, will have an oil-operated reversing gear for crisper handling. The ship’s laundry, which will need more fresh water than the main boilers, will have an elaborate filtering and steriling plant for re-using 70 per cent, of the water. The boilers (Foster Wheeler E.S.D. type and probably the largest fitted in a British ship) will develop 80,000 horsepower. Bolted flanges have been eliminated from the external piping in the steam installation. This is the result of borrowings from thermal and nuclear power station practice.