SHIPS & THE SEA

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 103, 2 May 1914, Page 12

SHIPS & THE SEA

m< THE MEAT-CARRYING TRADE. In Londonvshipping circles a huge expansion of the meat-carrying trade is expected, especially between Australasia a.nd tho Pacific Coast of North America and between Argentina and the United States. Ono of the British companies, Lamport and Holt, whose vessels run on the River Plate-New Ifcrk route, have obtained a contract from a firm of South American exporters for the whole of their cold storage capacity until the end of this year. They havo a contract with Harland and Wolff for the construction of four refrigerator steamers, while Archibald M'Millan and Son, of Dumbarton, and Rueeell and Co., of Port Glasgow, are also reported to have received orders for three vessels of the same typo. Ships with the necessary accommodation are at present unobtainable. So far tho lack of' transport facilities hue been a disadvantage to packing concerns in the River Plate district who have wished to avail themselves of the new United States tariff, but the building of the new ships will enable them to develop that branch of the business. "WIRELESS" LIFEBOATS. Three Clyde-built liners are to be in the forefront in still another development in the direction of safety of life at soa. Not only have the Allan boats Alsatian and balganan to have their own systems or wireless, but each is to carry a motor life-boat having an installation with a range of 100 miles. Ono of these little veseels was tested on the Clyde recently (says Fan-play), and it was found that her paraffin motor gave her a speed of 7£ knots. It is estimated that even in a somewhat rough sea thU boat can. tow eight or ton ordinary lifeboats, so that, with tho ability to communicate orer an area 200 miles in diameter, there should not be much danger to the lives over whom she might have charge, except in weather in which no lifeboat could live. The Alsatian ha« sailed from Liverpool on her second voyage She was built at Dalmuir, and her sister ship, Calgarian, is being completed at' Fairfield. Then the big Cunard liner Aquitania, how being completed at Clydebank. is to carry two motor lifeboats, each equipped with wireless, so that tho Clyde is leadihg easily in this matter. Of course there is always the old difficulty that the bouts, no matter how seaworthy and how well equipped, have to be "launched," and the experience of the Volturno showed— what all shipping people knew— that this is tho crux of the whole pioblem of safety at sea. "MISTRESS OF THE SEAS." Some idoa of Great Bntain's naval power, as compared with that of other great Maritime Powers, is shown by a recently-issued British Admiralty return. In the figures given below battleships, battle-cruisers, and cruisers more than 20 years old horn the dato of launching aie not reckoned. The following particulars as to the strength of the fleets of the eight gieat Naval Powers are derived from this return. Vessels built and building are shown divided by a line : — ,

The relative strength in smaller craft is : — Britain. — Light cruisers 65/2 C, torpedo vessels 25/1, destroyers 201/36, torpedo boats 70, submarines b9/29. Germany. — Light cruisers 43/6, torpedo vessels — , destroyers 133/12, torpedo boats 80, submarines 24/14. In addition to the ships enumerated above. Groat Britain possesses 36 new type torpedo boats, completed between 1906 and 1909. The number of submarines given in the foregoing as building for Germany is 14, but it is s&ted that further vessels, the number of which is uncertain, are being built. THE FIRST ATLANTIC STEAMER. It is seventy-six years ago since the first steamer set out to cross the Atlantic, the Sirius leaving Cork on 3rd April, 1838, and _ arriving in New York on the 22nd April. The immediate cause of sending this vessel, the pioneer of trans-Atlantic Bteam traffic, on her initial and epoohmaking_ voyage was ,a lecture on steam navigation. At a meeting of the British Association, Dr. Lardner had said, "as to the project of establishing steam intercourse with the United States,, which has been announced in the newspapers, of making the voyage direct from New York to Liverpool, it was, he had no hesitation in saying, perfectly ohimerical, and they might as well talk of/ making a voyage from New York or Liverpool to the moon." A steamship owner in Cdrk challenged this opinion, *,nd guaranteed to coal and send out a steamer whioh was already built. Within two years of Dr. Lardner's rash speech the New York Herald was able to say, "nothing is talked in New York but about the Sirius. She is the first steam vessel that has arrived here from England, and a glorious boat she is. ' Every merchant went on board her yesterday." The Sirius cost £27,000. The total amount of coal consumed on the voyage was 450 tons, the average speed being 161 knots per day. There are several relics of the famous vessel still in existence. She was wrecked in 1847 while on a Voyage from Glasgow to Cork, being, smashed to pieces on a reof. Among 1 other objects recovered from the wreck was i the- pump rod. This was cut into sections of about half an inch in thickness, and the discs, polished and suitably inscribed, were presented as souvenirs. One was sent to the King and another to Mr. Whitelaw Reid, the late American Ambassador m London, who forwarded it to the President of the United States for his acceptance. Admiral Lord Ckarlea Beresford acknowledged a disc in very suitable terms : "the history of the British Navy is bound up in the age of steam, and I am delighted to receive so hand* some & present." A SENSATIONAL PASSAGE. The American four-ma*ted barquentin© Hawaii, laden with 1,078,000 feet of redwood, arrived at Sydney on 2nd April from Eureka, via San Francisco. The vessel left her loading port as far baok as 11th January last, and so auspicious were the weather conditions at t the beginning that a smart run was anticipated. Howover, it was not to be, for a week after the trip bogan the vessel ran into a terrific hurricane. She was buffeted about for some time, during which her deck load, at any rate the greater portion of it, was carried away, two lifeboats, the fo'castle and galley were smashed, and tho royal yard and other gear aloft were carried away. Then tho weather moderated, and the captain decided to make for San Francicco, where repairs could be effected. The Golden Gate was, reached on 29th January, and oven whilst in harbour there tho misfortune followed her, ior she came into contact with the steamer Stanley Dollar and received furthei damage, which occasioned additional delay. However, on 11th February the trip wag resumed and completed without further incident. REGULAR LINER POSTED AS MISSING. It is seldom that a steamer belonging to a regular line is posted as missing (says an exchange), but this happened on 7th January in the case of the Acilia, of th« Hamburg-American Line. The steamer was built in 1900. wa-s of 5693 tons, and valued by the owners for tho purpose of insurance at £5 per ten, or £28 465. The steamer loft Coronel for Hamburg on 27th October, and never got through the Straits of Magellan. It was reported that ono of her boats containing tho doad bodies of tho second mate and two sailors wa3 found off Tierra del Fuego. The cargo of nitrate and general goods is worth about £100,000, so that tho loss is a heavy one for underwriters. It may be recalled that tho Hamburg-American Lino had the misfortune to havo their steamer Castilia removed from tho resistor as a missing vessel in 1905. The Ca&tilia disappeared when on a passage from Antworp to Vera. Cruz, and it was supposed that she had foundered as a result of the heavy weather she encountered in the North Atlantic. Tho Oastilin. wa» a Gor-piwi-built iteamqr of 187fl ftei ionj.

Battloships. Sreat Britain ... 58/14 Franco 21/10 Russia ... 8/7 jrormany ... 35/6 Etaly 9/5 A. -Hungary ... 14/2 D. States ... 30/6 Tapan 17/2 Battlecruisers. Cruisers. 9/1 47 i - 24 -/* 12 4/3 9 — 9 -- x 2 — 17 1/3 15