Order For Two Container Ships

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31237, 8 December 1966, Page 3

Order For Two Container Ships

(Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.)

LONDON, December 7.

The New Zealand Shipping Company has ordered the construction of two new 11,500ton refrigerated cargo-liners specially designed to carry cargo in containers.

The company announced today that the ships were being built in Japan for delivery in May and August, 1968. Capable of carrying up to 104 loaded containers, some below deck and others on deck. The ships will sail primarily between New Zealand and the United Kingdom and the Continent. They may also be utilised for services between ports on the east coast of the United States and New Zealand. The first of the ships to be delivered will be named Mataura after a ship of the same name which in 1882 carried from New Zealand to the United Kingdom the first refrigerated cargo of mutton, beef and pork carried by any of the company’s ships. Officials of the company emphasised that the decision to have the ships built for container trade did not mean the company intended to introduce this form of transport as soon as the ships were ready for service. “The ships will carry normal refrigerated cargo, but by having them designed to carry containers, we are pre-

paring for any move which might be made toward container use,” they said. The ships, of an overall length of 540 feet, look, from an artist’s impression of the design, similar to an oil tanker. The bridge and accommodation are situated at the stern.

They will carry four electric cranes and four swinging derricks which will be capable of lifting containers of up to 22 tons. The American Farrell Lines announced recently that it would build five container ships for the trans-Paciflc trade.