A FAST PASSAGE

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 226, 20 June 1936, Page 11

A FAST PASSAGE

Durham’s Twenty-nine Days To London

A fast passage of 29 days from M 61lington to London was completed on Wednesday afternoon by the Federal Steam Navigation Company’s motorliner Durham. Details of the ship’s passage have not been received locally, but allowing for the time of transit of the Panama Canal, the Durham’s actual “steaming" time from Wellington to Balboa and from Colon to Loudon would be about 28} days. Ttre Durham left Wellington at 1 p.m. on May 19. The Durham and her sister ship Dorset were built by Workman, Clark (1928) Limited at Belfast in 1934, and were the last big ships built at that company’s yard before it was closed down. The Durham, which was named and launched by Mrs. C. M. Turrell, of Wellington, is specially fitted out as a training ship for cadets. The Durham and Dorset, which rank among the finest ships of their type in the New Zealand trade, are propelled by Sulzer oil engines. Each ship has two sets of eight-cylinder, single-acting two-stroke cycle engines totalling 11.000 brake horse-power, giving a service speed in excess of 16 knots. Both the Durham and the Dorset have made fast passages between Australia and London.