TANKER VOYAGES

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 33, 3 November 1937, Page 11

TANKER VOYAGES

Sixteen Cargoes In Two Years THORHILD’S RECORD A (Notable Performance Nearing the close of a two years’ time charter in carrying fuel-oil for the Union Steam Ship Company of N.Z., Ltd., the Norwegian tanker Thorhild yesterday completed the discharge of her sixteenth cargo at Wellington. The ship will depart at 7 o’clock this morning for San Pedro, California, where she will be delivered to her owners. The Thorhild, it is understood, has been taken up .on a four years’ time charter to carry cargoes of fuel-oil from San Pedro to Japan. The Thorhild made her first visit to Wellington on November IS, 1935, when she arrived with a cargo of 14,000 tons of fuel-oil from San Pedro, after a smart passage of 22 days. This was the second cargo carried by the ship, which was then “brand new.” Built at Gothenburg, Sweden, for her Norwegian owners, O. T. Tonnevoid and Co., of Grimstad, the Thorhild at that time had the distinction of being the largest tanker built in Sweden and owned in Norway. The Thorhild left Gothenburg for Batum in the Black Sea, where she loaded a cargo of benzine for Vladivostok. Thence she crossed the Pacific to San Pedro to take up her charter to the Union Steam Ship Company. Since her first arrival here in November, 1935, the Thorhild has delivered 16 cargoes of fuel-oil, totalling approximately 224.000 tons, of which six have come from San Pedro and 10 from Oeban, Sumatra. In her voyagings to Wellington the Thorhild has travelled more than 175,000 sea miles. In the 12 months from August 1, 1936, to August 31 of this year, the Thorhild travelled 83,253 miles and delivered approximately 116,000 tons of feul-oil at Wellington, making eight voyages to Oeban and one to San Pedro. During that 12 months, the ship spent only 38 days 16 hours in port, and was at sea 326 days 8 hours. The distance from Wellington to San Pedro is approximately 5900 miles and from Wellington to Oeban about 5200 miles.

The Thorhild is a motor-tanker of 10,316 tons gross register, with a total deadweight carrying capacity of 15,600 tons, of which her actual cargo represents about 14,000 tons. She is propelled by twin screws driven by two sots, of Burmeister and Wain six-cylin-der, single-acting, four-stroke cycle oil engines, giving her a loaded speed of 11} knots on a daily fuel consumption of 13} tons. During her two years of trading to Wellington, the master of the Tborhild, Captain Tellefsen, has made many friends, a number of whom met him on Monday and presented him with a statuette ,of a Maori warrior carved from a piece of New Zealand wood. Yesterday Captain Tellefsen entertained a party of friends on board the Thorhild at a farewell gathering.