Wahine Replacement Announced

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31994, 22 May 1969, Page 22

Wahine Replacement Announced

(New Zealand Press Associations WELLINGTON, May 21. The new Union Steam Ship Company vessel to replace the wrecked Wahine will be named Rangatira; contract date for delivery is November-December, 1971, the managing director of the company (Mr F. K. MacFarlane) announced this morning.

The Rangatira will be built by the Newcastle-on-Tyne firm of Swan Hunter, which built the famous old Tamahine in 1925.

She will have cabin accommodation for 844 passengers and cany more than 200 passenger motor-cars, or an equivalent combination of seafreighter units and motor vehicles. Turbo - electric machinery with 22,000 shaft horsepower will give the vessel a maximum speed of 22 knots. The Rangatira will be similar in appearance to the Wahine and about 9100 tons gross—a few hundred tons larger. The bow will be less flared, making her about 10ft longer on the waterline, but the same length over all. She will cany 84 fewer passengers than the Wahine. Shaft Horsepower Her shaft horsepower will be almost a quarter again more than the Wahine, the machinery of which had a rating of 18,000. Although the number of passengers will be less, there Is an increase from 61 to 77 in cabins with private facili-' ties. These will have showers or toilets. The layout of A deck will!

be much the same with a television lounge on the stern and officers’ accommodation over the remainder.

Seating accommodation in the cafeteria on the port side of B deck will be 61 compared with the Wahine’s 109 but the capacity of the grill room on the starboard side has been increased from 50 to 112.

Smoke Room The layout of the smoke room is more or less the same. The crew will be quartered in single and two-berth cabins, all with washbasins and carpets. The Rangatira will have a partially enclosed bridge, dual radar, automatic steering and a beam of 71 feet—the same as the Wahine. The Rangatira is designed to carry the maximum car deadweight in unitised form on seafreighters. She will also be able to carry 180 containers. v

The object will be to unload and load the ship at each terminal in an hour and a half. The headroom of the vehicle deck is to be a continuous 14ft from the stem

to bow, whereas the Wahine’s was reduced a few feet in the forward section beyond tiie ramps leading up to the upper vehicle deck. This upper deck is retained in the Rangatira but its headroom will be less to compensate for the Increase in the height of the deck belbw.