NEW CARGO LINER

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30794, 5 July 1965, Page 5

NEW CARGO LINER

Laurentic At Lyttelton

Shaw Savill’s newest cargo liner, the single-screw, motorvessel Laurentic, built by Vickers-Armstrong at Walkeron Typne, arrived at Lyttelton on Saturday on her maiden voyage from London. Originally expected from Lautoka on Friday, she was delayed by rough weather. The Laurentic has already discharged at Nukualofa, Suva, and Lautoka. and will discharge 2700 tons at Lyttelton, She is expected to spend approximately a week at Lyttelton and will complete discharge of the balance of her cargo at Timaru and Nelson.

On completion of discharge, the Laurentic will load for London at Nelson and Bluff and, if all goes well, should be barely a month on the New Zealand coast. To facilitate cargo handling, she is equipped with a Stuloken mast, ordinary cargo derricks and deck cranes.

Commanded by Captain D. E. Hammerton. the new Laurentic is a refrigerated cargo liner with a cruising speed of 18 knots. She is 481 ft long with a beam of 65ft 6in and has a load draft of 29ft 2in. Her dead-weight capacity is 9150 tons and her cargo is carried in four holds. She has 370,000 cubic feet of insulated capacity, including 30,000 cubic feet of chilled space, and non-refrig-erated general cargo space of 30,000 cubic feet. Edible oil tanks with a capacity of 250 tons have been fitted in No. 4 ’tween decks.

She is powered by an eightcylinder Sulzer diesel engine. It is capable of an output of 13,100 b.h.p. at approximately 122 r.p.m. The engine is suitable for operation on heavy fuel oil. Mr J. B. Hopper is her chief engineer. Two earlier vessels of the same name were owned by the White Star Line. The first Laurentic was mined off the coast of Ireland in 1917 and took £sm of bullion to the bottom. Salvage work, which occupied seven years, recovered the bulk of this bullion.