A MODERN TRAMP

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 153, 25 March 1938, Page 13

A MODERN TRAMP

Steamer Loch Don From Antwerp BIG CARGO OF BASIC SLAG An interesting example, of the latest type of British tramp steamer is the Loch Don, which arrived at Wellington on Monday with a cargo of 8500 tons of basic slag from Antwerp. 1 The Loch Don is the latest of five I steamers built in recent years for the I old-established firm of Maclay and ‘ Maclntyre, Ltd., Glasgow. The senior partner in this company is Lord Maclay, who held the onerous position of shipping controller during the latter part of the Great War. The Loch Don. and her sister ship Loch Dee, were built last year by Joseph L. Thompson and Sons, Ltd., at Sunderland. The vessel measures 437 feet in length by 58 feet 9 inches in breadth and carries a full deadweight of 9450 tons on a light draught. The ship is exceptionally well equipped for cargo working. ikccommodation for the master, officers and engineers is arranged in a large deckhouse forward of amidships and for the crew a deckhouse in way of the engine-room casings and in the ’tween decks amidships. An interesting feature of the Loch Don is her triple-expansion steam engine of the superheated type which has cylinders of 23'inches, 38 inches and ,6,5 j inches diameter respectively,, with a: piston-stroke, of 45 Inches'/, Cani-' operated poppet valves are fitted to -the' high-pressure and ■ intermediate-pres- ’■ sure, cylinders. Steam is supplied-by ! three ’ boilers working under forced; draught and fitted- with air-heaters ; and smoke-tube superheaters, ’■ /“ , The-Loch Don made her maiden voyage last year to New Orleans and thence via the Suez Canal to the, Mala-; bar coast and back to Europe. On her present voyage, she left Antwerp'' on January 30 and experienced three weeks of heavy weather in the Atlantic. She coaled at the Azores, where 1 three Portuguese lads‘stowed Away in her coal bunkers, and -also at Balboa ■ in the,,Paifhma Canal. ■ '•\ : Tlie'Lo'ch t)on will leave' tOrnight for ; Auckland to complete discharging and will proceed thence to Australia where she may load wheat.