SHIPPING NOTES

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 133, 2 December 1922, Page 7

SHIPPING NOTES

NEW LUXURY SHIPS

-UNION COMPANY'S MOTOR

VESSEL.

(PROM OUR NO\TN CORRESPONDEKT.)

LONDON, 24th October. Glowing comment is made by the "Daily Telegraph" on the action of th« Union Steam Ship Company in becoming the pioneers in the development of powerful vessels fitted with internal combustion engines. "For some time past," says the Shipping correspondent, "vessels of the new order have been seen at sea, but in the main they are cargo boate and not passenger ships. But now the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand has placed an,order with the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company for a passenger liner which will put. to a supreme test all that the advocates of the new motive power have- claimed. For this new liner will be 600 feet long over aJI, with a beam of .72 feet, and she will have- a displacement of about 22,000 tons.

"The order for this vessel may be regarded as the most daring advance at a single step which has been undertaken since men first began to talk of the coming of the motor ship. This vessel is not only to have the relatively high speed of 18 knots, but she is to be employed on the long sea passage be.tween New Zealand and Vancouver. Ten years ago the idea of installing any kind of motor generator in so large a vessel intended for so 4fing a route, and with a designed speed of 18 knots, would have been regarded as madness. It may be safely said no shipowner would have entertained the proposal. It speaks well for the enterprise of all concerned that an agreement should have been made for laying down this great ship, with triple screws, in the cQnPdfcnt expectation that she will develop from 12,000 to 13,000 h.h.p." A NEW OUNARDER. A new Cunarder, the Franconia, was successfully launched at Clydebank this week. The vessel is the ninth of the fourteen ships belonging to the Cunard's post-war building programme, and with a length of 624 ft and a beam of 74ft, will be of 20,000 tons -gross. Her oritinal design has been extensively modied in older to adapt her for ocean touring and the long voyages entailed in world cruises. To this end an area of some 6000 square feet, extending the full, width of the ship through two of her lower decks, is being devoted to a great swinrmmg pool, bigger than that of the Aquitania and slightly longer than the Pompeian pool of the Berengaria, both of which vessels, it will be remembered, are more than double her tonnage; while on one side of the pool is to be a squash rackets court, with an upper gallery for spectators, and on the other side a gymnasium, fitted with all kinds of appliances, mechanical and electrical, for physical recreation and development. The designed sea-speed is 16 knots, and the propelling machinery is to consist of two sets of Brown-Curtis turbines driving two screws through double-reduction gearing. The boilers will be. fired with ACME OF COMFORT. ■ The 6.5. Volendam, the latest addi- v tion to the fleet of the Holland-America line, has completed her trials a.nd will start on her maiden voyage from Rotterdam to New York on 4th November, calling at Boulogne and Plymouth en route. The company now have over forty liners and cargo steamers in commission, the. largest being the Rotterdam, of 24,170 tons gross register. The Veedam, a eister ship to the VolShdam, will be launched on 18th November, and should be ready for use next spring. There is also now being built the Statendam, of 33,000 tons gross register.

The Volendam, which was built by Messrs. Harland and Wolff, Belfast, has a tonnage of 15,200 tons gross, and can accommodate 296 first-class, 395 secondclass, and 1292 third-class passengers. Electric control—from the radiators and fans in the state rooms to the refrigerating and cooking machines in the kit-" chen—is one of the^ features of this luxury ship.

Built primarily for * comfort rather than for speed, the Volendam is specially suited for the Anglo-American service. Practically all the known devices for the safety and ease of the passengers have been adopted, and in many cases improved upon. The decorations throughout are extremely artistic. The first-class smoking room, for instance, is a reproduction of sm old baronial hall in the early Tudor .style, with open fireplace and oak walls and ceiling, panelled and carved, the Avork of Messrs. Waring and Gillow. The first-class library, social hall, and dining saloon are also luxuriously and artistically designed and furnished. Individual control of the heating and ventilating' arrangements is another feature which will appeal to all passengers, as well as the constant supply of running water, both hot and cold, to the double sets of marble wash-basins in the first-class state Tooms and cabins.