A GREAT SHIP

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 72, 18 December 1937, Page 11

A GREAT SHIP

Shaw, Savill Liner Building

TO PIONEER NEW ROUTE Largest In New Zealand Trade There is at present under construction on the Tyne for the Shaw, Savin and Albion Company, Ltd., a passenger motor-liner which, when completed, will be easily the largest ship ever built for the London-South Afriea y -Australia-New Zealand service. Good progress is being made with the construction of this great ship, which will make her maiden voyage early in 1939.

The contract for the building of the vessel was given by the Shaw, Savill and Albion Company, Ltd., to Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson, Ltd., of Wallsend-on-Tyne, the famous firm which built the Wellington floating dock. The new liner, which is being built on the berth from which the Mauretania was launched 30 years ago, ■is the largest merchant vessel built on the Tyne since the famous Cunarder. The new liner, which will be of about 27,000 tons gross register, will measure 650 feet in length (between perpendiculars) and 84 feet 6 inches in breadth. She will be propelled by quadruple screws driven by diesel oil engines aggregating about 33,000 brake horse-pow-er, making her one of the highest powered motor-ships in the world. Her speed will be such that the passage from London to New Zealand will be made with ease in about 34 days, the proposed ports of call on the new route chosen for the ship being Cape Town, Durban, Fremantle, Melbourne, Sydney, and thence to Wellington or Auckland. It is expected that the new vessel will be completed early in 1939 and her tentative sailing date from England is February 16, the first sailing from New Zealand being at the end of April. Luxurious Accommodation. The vessel will be fitted wtih luxurious accommodation, unexcelled by any of the present vessels at present serving the xsouthern Dominions. The accommodation is limited to approximately 525 passengers, and of the total number of berths there will be 167 single berth cabins and 63 two-berth cabins which are convertible to single berths; the remainder represents two-berth cabins except for 30 three-berth cabins, which are also convertible. In addition to the curraige of passengers. the vessel will have, apart from amide wool and general cargo space, a refrigerated cargo capacity of approximately 500,000 cubic feet for the New Zealand trade, including specially-built chambers for the carriage of chilled beef. The new liner, when completed, will be one of the finest ships of her type in the world. It is, thus, fitting, that she should pioneer a new sea route to the Dominion for the Shaw, Savill and Albion Company, Ltd., the senior firm in the New Zealand trade with which they have been associated for fully three-quarters of a century.

So far the new ship has not been named, but an announcement will be made shortly.