NEW MOTOR SHIR

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 293, 6 September 1932, Page 10

NEW MOTOR SHIR

Intercolonial Service REPORTED PURCHASE To Replace Zealandia It is reported that Huddart, Parker Ltd. is contemplating the purchase of a new motor-liner for the intercolonial passenger service between Sydney, Wellington and Auckland. The head office of .the company will neither confirm nor deny the report, but it is understood that the company’s superintendent engineer will leave Melbourne early next month for England, where he will inspect a vessel for which the company is stated to have made an offer - . The vessel concerned is the 10,000ton motor-ship Achimota, an up-to-date and well-fitted steel twin-screw passenger liner which was completed last year by Harland and Wolff Ltd., Belfast, for the British and African Steam Navigation Co., Ltd. (Elder, Dempster and Co., Ltd., managers). The vessel has never been commissioned, and the shipping company has not, owing to the slackness of trade, taken delivery from the builders. The British and African Company was one of the Royal Mail Packet group recently acquired by a new company. Launched in 1930 and completed last year, the Achimota is 460 ft in length b.p. by 63.8 ft. in breadth by 31.3 ft in depth, with a gross tonnage of 10,000. She is propelled by two sets of eightcylinder single-acting Diesel engines of the Harland-B. and W. type, and has accommodation for 236 first-class and 64 second-class passengers, as well as a number of third-class and native passengers. In the event of her purchase by the Huddart-Parker Company it will be necessary to make extensive alterations to the third-class accommodation in view of the different type of passengers carried in this class in the intercolonial service. If Huddart, Parker Ltd. acquires the Achimota the line will have a vessel ideally suited to meet the competition of the new Matson liners Mariposa and Monterey, which are now engaged in the New Zealand-Australia service, and recently included Melbourne as a port of call in their itinerary. It. Is not yet known whether the Huddart-Par-ker Company, which now operates the Zealandia in the intercolonial service, will also run from Melbourne as well as Sydney, but it is understood that this extension is under consideration by both the Union and Huddart-Par-ker Companies. LINER AKAROA Work of Remodelling • MANY NEW FEATURES Recently it was announced that the Aberdeen triple-screw liner Euripides, 15,000 tons, well known in the. Australian trade, had been taken over by the Shaw, Savill and Albion Co., Ltd., for their New Zealand-England service via the Panama Canal, and that she would be renamed Akaroa —a name borne by a previous vessel of the line and one of historical interest to New Zealanders. A cable message just received from London indicates that the vessel will undergo a very extensive overhaul, including the conversion of her boilers to burn oil fuel, before her entry into the New Zealand trade in December. The Akaroa’s passenger accommodation, which was originally for two classes, will also undergo great changes. She is to become a one-class vessel, carrying cabin class passengers only—a class which is becoming more and more popular—and the entire accommodation will have the distinct advantage of being situated amidships. Among other important improvements being made to the ship is the supplying of running hot and cold water to all cabins. The Akaroa will be the only vessel using the Panama Canal route to have a permanent swimming pool. There are to be single-berth cabins on all three passenger decks, and several staterooms will have private bathrooms attached. The vessel’s promenade decks are being extended so that the deck spaces will be unusually liberal, providing ample room for all deck games, including space for deck tennis courts. The Akaroa is due to sail from Southampton on December 30 next, and it is anticipated that she will make a fast passage. She is scheduled to sail from New Zealand on her Homeward voyage on March 8, 1933. The regularity of arrivals and departures maintained by the Royal Mail liners Mataroa and Tamaroa in the express cabin class service pt present provided by the Shaw. Savill and Albion Company will be fully maintained by the Akaroa, which has a turn of speed equal to that of the former ships. The regular steaming performances of the Mataroa and Tamaroa at close on 15 knots per hour are noteworthy, and it is a striking fact that on the last ten voyages of each of these vessels from New Zealand to Southampton, 11.200 miles, the steaming time has not varied by more than a few hours.