FIRST ELECTRIC P. & O. LINER

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 52, 24 November 1928, Page 27

FIRST ELECTRIC P. & O. LINER

What is described as “the ship of the year,” the new P. and O. liner Viceroy of India, was. launched from the Linthouse yard of Messrs. Alexander Stephen and Sons, at Glasgow, by Lady Irwin, wife of the Viceroy of India, on September 16.

The new liner, which is of 19,000 tons burden, will be propelled by twin electric motors of 18,000-horse power, and turbo-electric generators taking high pressure steam from water tube boilers burning oil fuel. She will be lighted by Diesel motor* generators, and will be electrically he.* ted. ability was made the subject of a •pi-ciul clause in the balloting contract (says a repqrt in the London “Daily Telegraph”), and it is expected that the vessel will be very steady in a seaway. The electric system of propulsion should make her free from the vibration and noise usually associated with reciprocating engines or with gearing. She is 610 ft. long, and has a breadth of 80ft. and a depth of 82ft. Her lines are the outcome of model experiments in the National Experimental Tank at Teddington, carried out under the personal supervision®! Viscount Inchcape. chairman of the P. and O. Company. There are 415 single berth cabins for saloon passengers, and the state rooms each have a private bathroom. In addition to the public rooms there is a children's room and a 24ft. swimming bath. Two hundred and fifty-eight passengers in the second class can be carried, most of the cabins being fitted for two persons. Sep-

arate quarters are provided for ayahs, the Indian nurses who often accompany European mistresses on voyages between India and Britain. Presiding at luncheon after the launching ceremony, Mr. F. J. Stephen, chairman of the builders’ company, proposed the health and prosperity of the new ship, which, he said, was the first passenger liner built in Europe with the system of turbo-electric machinery. By adopting the electric drive and the principle of single-berth rooms; Lord Inchcape and the P. and O. Company had shown their progressive spirit, and he was sure their enterprise would be rewarded, for the vessel should be the most comfortable passenger ship of her size afloat. When they saw what had been done in this ease for the comfort of passengers they were led to think of the wonderful advance made in that direction within living memory. The public, he thought, had accepted all the improvements in recent years, all the elaborateness of n modern passenger liner, without reflecting upon the immense amount of detail work which was expended.

Lord Inchcape, who replied, said he expected the ship would be in commission on the London-Bombay service in the early spring, in making the passenger accommodation arrangements they had in view that, 'barring accident, the vessel would be on the service for the next 25 years, and that even after that she would not be considered out of date.