MILES OF PAPER

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 284, 28 August 1935, Page 8

MILES OF PAPER

Willesden’s Cargo of Newsprint

VOYAGE FROM NOVA SCOTIA

One of the cleanest cargoes seen at Wellington for some time is that of the British tramp steamer Willesden, which arrived yesterday morning from Liverpool, Nova Scotia, via Auckland The ship brought a cargo of 4300 tons of newsprint paper and a quantity of kraft paper for the four main New Zealand ports. The whole of the newsprint was in the familiar large rolls, the kraft paper being packed in woodcovered bales and in small rolls. The Willesden’s cargo, which came from the Mersey Paper Company’s big mills at Liverpool, Nova Scotia, was leaded and stowed by experts in the business. The cargo of 4300 tons of newsprint was comprised in 7188 rolls, some measuring 77 inches and the others 354 inches in width. The whole of the ship’s cargo space was “squared” by spruce boards and battens, the holds being floored off level. All the rolls were stowed ou end, two 38J-inch rolls of course equalling the height of the larger rolls. Ample dunnage and paper packing was used to protect the rolls against chafing or other damage and each tier of rolls was floored with spruce boards. The cargo carried very well, the excellent stowage and good order of the rolls being the subject of much favourable comment from those who had to do with the discharging operations.

Taking each roll of newsprint as averaging five miles of paper, the Willesden’s cargo represented a total length of nearly 36,000 miles of paper, sufficient to go one and a half times round the world.

The Willesden is no stranger to Wellington, having visited this port about two years ago to discharge a cargo of bitumen from Tampico, Mexico. She was then known as the Antinous and vvas owned by the New Egypt and Levant Shipping Company of London. At the end of 1033 she was purchased by her present owners, Watts, Watts and Company, Ltd., of London, who renamed her Willesden. This Ann owns a fleet of ten ships named after various suburbs and districts of London. The former Willesden, which had also visited Wellington several times, was sold some years ago by Watts, Watts and Company and now forms part of a breakwater at Vizagapatam on the coast of India. She and, another steamer were there dismantled, filled with CQncrete and sunk to make a breakwater. The present Willesden, like most ships of her class, goes anywhere about the world where a freight is- offering. She recently made a voyage from Vladivostok in Siberia to Hamburg, with a cargo of soya beans, and also made several voyages to the Black Sea. After discharging her cargo of newsprint she will proceed from New Zealand to Fiji to load sugar and copra for a port not yet disclosed.