UNION COMPANY’S NEW STEAMERS

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 184, 6 May 1925, Page 9

UNION COMPANY’S NEW STEAMERS

FIVE VESSELS DUE SHORTLY ALL FOR COASTAL TRADE A batcli of new steamers for the coastal trade will shortly be delivered to the Union Steam Ship Company. The twin-screw steamer which the company has he'd especially built for the AVellington-l'icton service has been given the name of Tamaliine, a Maori word meaning “girl,” and the name is the more appropriate in view of the new boat’s relationship to the AVa'hine and Maori, as another member of tlie family group of ferry steamers. She is designed to carry between 700 and 800 passengers, and steam seventeen knots, and will do tlie run between Picton and Wellington in a trifle over three hours. Like the Maori and AValiine, the Tamaliine will have two funnels, but she will be fitted with recipiocating engines, whereas the AVahine and Maori are both turbine steamers; and her boilers will be.served wi •■! fuel. The builders of the. Tama .e are Swan, Hunter, AVirham and Richardson, of AVallsend-on-Tyiie. The Union Company expect the Tamaliine to arrive in time for next summer. Another of the new steamers being completed for the company is the AVaipahi, of 2000 tops. She has been specially designed and fitted for the quick carriage of refrigerated export cargo between coastal ports, and her speed will be 10| knots. Her builders are the Northumberland Shipbuilding Company, of Howden-on-Tync. Three collitrs, sister ships, are nlso nearing completion. They are the Kartigi, Kiwitea,, and Kaponga, and their tonnage 2-500 tons deadweight, with a speed of ten knots. The engines will be aft in each case, and among their modern features in construction will be longitudinal girders -an the top of the decks, one on «rfch side. This will have the effect of giving the maximum stability, anid at the same time doing away with the necessity for columns, pillars, or other obstructions, in the holds. 'The hatch covers will be corrugated, and in one piece, lifting off and swinging back in the one operation. Ballast will be carried in topside tanks, as well as in tanks on the bottom of the ships. The boats will aiso be fitted with flying derricks, and the latest pattern appliances for the quick working of coal cargoes. They have been specially built to tne maximum size for working the Greymouth ba-r. Longitudinal girde.s and corrugated hatches have also been provided for the Waipahi. The Kartigi is due to arrve tn August, and the other steamers will follow in succession, the last of them arriving before the end of the year