Recalling passengers at sea

Press, 7 August 1982, Page 16

Recalling passengers at sea

Passenger Ships of Australia and New Zealand, Volume 11, 1913-1980. By Peter Plowman. Collins, 1982. 220 pp. Illustrations. $23.95. (Reviewed by John Leslie)

Volume Two of “Passenger Ships of Australia and New Zealand,” by Peter Plowman, is a worthy successor to Volume One. The first volume covered the period 1876 to 1912; this equally impressive volume covers the period from 1913 to 1980.

Like its predecessor, this book' meticulously records many of the wellknown passenger liners of that period. The book arouses nostalgic memories for those of us who once travelled by sea between Australia and New Zealand, to the Far East, Pacific Islands, Honolulu, California, and to Europe., Volume Two is also copiously illustrated with pictures of ships whose. names were once familiar to everyone. •

Great shipping lines parade through the pages: names such as the Adelaide Steam Ship Company, Huddart Parker, Union Steam Ship Company, Burns Philp, the Australian Commonwealth Line (remember the “Bay Boats” as they were called in their popular heyday?), Howard Smith, . Mcllwraith and McEacharn;

Australian National Line, Australasian United Steam Navigation Company (AUSN) and many more. Many notable passenger liners are recalled. Here are a few — Moreton Bay, Tahiti,' Manunda, Orungal, Katoomba, Manoora, Makura, Princess of Tasmania, Dimboola, Duntroon, Manama, Niagara, Aorangi, Kanimbla. Karoola, Westrailia, and Wanganella. British liners too, are featured; among these are the Rangitata, Rimutaka, Rotorua and Rangitiki. However, the book deals basically with New Zealand and Australian-owned vessels.

Space alone would prevent every passenger vessel of that period being fully recorded but one name suggests another vessel, so that the reader’s memory ig stimulated along with nostalgia. Travel by sea was a different mode of living and today is dying out fast, except for ferries and cruise liners.

Consider one faimous and popular liner of yesterday, namely the Union Steam Ship Company’s Tasman “greyhound” Awatea. Built in 1936 by Vickers Armstrong in Barrow-in-Furness, the Awatea had a life of only six years. Designed for a cruising speed of 22 knots, the twin-funnelled and handsome Awatea

(13,483 tons gross) could actually do much more than that. When built, the Awatea was the third-fastest British merchant vessel afloat.

She was a favourite with all travellers, notably between Australia and New Zealand, although she did other trips relieving on the Pacific route to North America.

This beautiful vessel, with luxurious passenger accommodation, was propelled by twin screws driven by two sets of geared turbines supplied with high pressure superheated steam from six water-tube boilers.

Her trooping service in wartime was far and wide, but on November 11, 1942, she was bombed and sunk by enemy aircraft off North Africa. In this action she was commanded by Captain G. B. Morgan of Christchurch and formerly Lyttelton, one of New Zealand’s most distinguished master mariners. The Awatea was probably one of the finest vessels the. Union Company ever owned. During the peacetime summer months, this splendid liner was seldom in port at Wellington, Auckland, or Sydney for more than nine hours at a time, while on the Tasman run.

For weeks at a time she did not spend one night in port. In early October, 1937, this Tasman flyer made a record intercolonial crossing from Auckland to Sydney of 55 hours and 28 minutes, averaging 22.89 knots. She was faster than her ; two fine American rivals, the Monterey and Mariposa; The Awatea’s best day’s run at sea was 576 miles at an average speed of 23.35 knots, then the fastest steaming ever done by a merchant vessel in- the southern hemisphere. During her. rather brief career she steamed a total of 576,132 miles. One problem- encountered by the Awatea, in her earliest days, was caused by the nuisance of funnel smuts falling on her. aft deck. . Her. funnels were both lengthened during a brief refit in Sydney in July, 1937.

Following this refit, the Awatea (“eye of the dawn”) ran trials off Sydney Heads to test the effect of the lengthened funnels.'lt is'interesting to read in this volume that; the liner, on that, occasion, actually reached a record, speed, of 26 knots.