LINER’S SMART TRIPS

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 138, 7 March 1929, Page 10

LINER’S SMART TRIPS

RECORDS BY THE MATAROA Dominion Special Service. Auckland, March 6. Steaming records between New Zealand and Southampton on both the homeward and outward voyages have been broken by the Shaw-Savill Company’s liner Mataroa, which arrived at Auckland from Southampton on Tuesday evening and berthed this morning. Formerly the Aberdeen Line’s steamer Diogenes, the Mataroa is a sister ship to the Tamaroa, which previously held the record between the Dominion and Southampton. Maintaining an average speed of 15.2 knots an hour, and an average daily mileage of 364.6 miles, the Mataroa’s actual steaming time from Southampton to Auckland was 30 days 17 hours and 28 minutes, which is four minutes better than the steaming time of the Tamaroa between Southampton and Wellington, when that vessel beat all previous records on her voyage last December. The Tamaroa’s average speed then was 15.04 knots per hour. The performance of the Mataroa is all the more creditable when it is taken into account that her course between Southampton and Auckland was approximately 100 miles longer than the course taken by the Tamaroa between Southampton and Wellington. This is accounted for by the fact that the Tamaroa took the summer track, while the Mataroa was obliged to follow what Is known as the winter track, which means that she went further south in the Atlantic to avoid bad weather. Delay was experienced during the passage through the Panama Canal, owing to repair work on the locks, and on arrival at Balboa tlqe Mataroa took aboard 3500 tons of fuel oil.