STOP PRESS NEWS

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 141, 18 June 1927, Page 28

STOP PRESS NEWS

a survey of the coastal waters in the effort to locate port and:navigation possibilities. It is part ;of, the Philippine survey programme for improvement of the navigation facilities in the waters of these islands. • Tees-side 120-ton Crane. . The Furness Shipbuilding Company, Ltd., Haverton Hill-on-Tees, has installed a large: crane with a maximum lift of 120 tons; Though. the firm has installed the crane;primarily for its own | use, to lift .ai\d" place in position in vessels, under vcpnstruction in the yard engines made elsewhere, - the crane will be at the disposal of shippers gonerally. It has a working radius.of JOOft, i at which the maximum load is 70 tons. I At 85ft radius, however, the crane is capable of dealing with loads up to 120 tons. '. ' .. " ■ •■:..:.. ■:■;■: Singapore Dock. : The. Admiralty, floating dock which is being built by Messrs. Swan, Hunter, and Wigham Bichardson at Walls-end-on-Tyne: is making good progress, and three of the-seven sections should be completed within about three months. The dock, which is designed for service at the new naval base ar Singapore, was ordered in'" November of last year—only about seven months ago. The seven sections will represent over 20,000 tons of steel. Of this total between 8000 and 10,000 tous have been delivered and-about .4000 tons are worked into the structure. Some four million rivets will be required before the dock is ready for taking out to the East. As all the steel is being obtained on the Tyne and the Tees, the | contract represents a very large amount of employment in that area.

Steamers Renamed. The two oil-burning: , Australian steamers, Fezara and Famaka, are -to bo renamed the Orungal and Ormiston respectively. The two vessels were recently purchased by the Australian United S.N. Co., for the inter-State trade. They had been previously engaged on the Mediterranean run, and were replaced by .the, Atua and' Navua, bought by the Khedivial Mail Line, from the Union S.S. Co. When the Fezara and Famaka first came here, the new names.selected were the Oxley and the Olinda,> but these names have again been changed to Orungal and Ormiston. . ... > ...;-. .••....--.

Rnisian Ships Sotting Away. The Moscow Soviet. Government has a manner of its own of presenting official figures. Recently it had to send Geneva a list of warships constituting the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Theso figures were to be taken as officially correct for the purpose of calculating Russian naval: strength in the Black Sea. From a French Foreign Office paper, however, it is. shown that of the number of warships claimed by the Soviet as representing their Black Sea Fleet, one. battleship,, one cruiser, sis sea-going destroyers, ; and -four submarines were in the great naval port of Bizurta, Tuniß. They were taken there by General Wrangel,. and left as a guarantee for the repayment of sums advanced to the Wrangel • Government. These sums have never been paid back, and this portion of the Black Sea Fleet is rotting at anchor in Bizerta Harbour, and is now in such a condition that it can never take/the sea again.

The Empress of Australia. When the" Fairfieia> Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, of Govan, are done with the.Canadian Pacific liner Empress of Australia, "that"' vessel will bear very little'resemblance' to the Tirpitz, which the Vulcan Company, of Stettin, built in 1914 for the HamburgAmerican. Line. The shell will be the sauiti, but not very/much .else.' As reconditioned the; vessel will have accommodation of flic latest British type for 400 first-class, 144 tourists, and 632 third-class passengers; all in- cabins and public rooms of an exceedingly comfortable, and finely,■.decorated' character. The biggest.-transformation is, however, in the propelling-, machinery. The German turbines and JTottinger transmission gear have been replaced by mechanically-geared Fairfield turbines of the latest; Parsons type. .The designed service speed of the. vessel is 18 knots,.and- her first sailing will be on 25th June, from.Southampton, via Cherbourg, to the St.''Lawrence.

Launching the Port Oiaborne. A' ship's launch was broadcast for the first time: in -England, • when the Port .iJisborne, a. new Commonwealth and Dominion liner,'was'placed in the water from : the- Wallsend - yard of Messrs. Swan, Hunter, and Wigham Richardson, Ltd. The Port Gisborne is a twin-screw meat-carrying motorship with a capacity of about 10,000 tons d.w. She has a cruiser stern and top gallant forecastle, with upper, second, and third decks of steel. Cargo will be carriea-in five holds and 'tween decks, three of which, together with the lower 'tween decks,' will be insulated for: the- carriage .of vfrozen meat and other perishable 'colonial produce, the remaining cargo capacity; being occupied, by general cargo. For handling the cargo 14 electric winchesj together with accompanying derricks, and gear including one 50 : ton derrick, are provided. All auxiliaries-are electrically driven. : Accommodation for a limited number of p«ssenger» js PISLTJ2Led> •'•

New Australian Oo»st«r,

Tho now cargo steamer Noora, of the Adelaide S.S. Co.'s Hoc, recently mudo her first trip to Sydney. The Noora is under the command of Captain W. Scott-Kcmbttll, formerly in charge of tho Orama. He brought her from Blyth to Adelaide, leaving the flrstnamed yort on 6th February, and taking 08 days to Adelaide, by way of the Suez Canal. From there she went to rhovenard, which port wag left on 21st May. This is tho vessel's first trip in tho inter-Stato trade. A steamer of 1078 tons gross register, tho Noora is a very trim looking craft, and, although without passenger accommodation, looks liko a small passenger steamer. She was bought by the Adelaide S.S. Co. from French owners, being formerly known as tho Ornais, but was built in British yards, having been launched in 1924 by the Blyth Shipbuilding and Dry-Docking Company, Ltd. The Noora has a sea speed of nine or ten knots, and will be engaged in tho general inter-State cargo traffic.

Salvage On The Tees. An unusual occurrence took place in the Tees recently. Loaded with plates, tho small coasting steamer Smaragd was proceeding down the river to the sea when there was a roar from the stokehold and the ship was .enveloped in steam. The crew, fearing an explosion, abandoned the ship, it is reported, and tho vessel, still with some way on, was heading for a wharf with a vessel alongside, and. both were threatened with damage. Somo six or seven foy-boat-men, however, boarded the vessel, and while the departed crew looked on, still "waiting for the boilers to explode, the foyboatmen successfully .-.. berthed the steamer to await survey. • The vessel is of 458 tons, built, in 1889, and is owned by Messrs. Hanneviz Brothers Ltd., of Llanelly. / .

The Berwick. The light cruiser Berwick, which the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Govan, has recently completed for the Admiralty, has been on the hands of her builders for almost exactly three years. The comparatively long time is explained mainly by the fact that the Admiralty we're not pressing for delivery, and in consequence 'progress was slow, in the early stages. The Berwick is one of the new County class of cruisers, and is in general designs a sister-ship to.four other vessels now under construction "on the Clyde the Norfolk, at Fairfield; the Shropshire, at Dalmuif; and the Australian cruisers Australia and .Canberra, at CJydcbank—as well as to several others in English yards. .: Port of Bristol. That Bristol is desirous of participating to a greater extent in the handling of the products of British possessions abroad is shown, in this port's recent publicity work. The port; is duly recognised as an important receiving and distributing centre for grain. To the existing facilities at Avoninouth extensive additions are now in progress. The former, in addition to the storage accommodation and handling equipment already available, include one of the largest fleet of floating mechanical discharging craft operating in any English port—far exceeding any other available m the Bristol Channel. Additional facilities and equipment are being provided m connection with the extension of the Royal Edward Dock, the new arm of which, to be. completed this year, will afford six additional deep water berths Modern transit sheds with granary grain-handling appliances,: and electric cranes will be provided, and a grain conveying gallery will permit of discharge from ships at. any berth direct to a transit granary of 12,000 tons capacity, the lattei being equipped with up-to-date weighing and distributing apparatus, with through connection to silo storage and delivery granaries of 50,000 tons capacxty The port's total capacity for storage of imported grain is 150,000 tons. For the export section of Aus-tralia.-and New Zealand business a special berthjs set apart, while a second quay is used almost exclusively for dealing with this traffic. .-. The Old Manner.

Owners and skippers understood one another pretty well in the old days and ElrT? th. at C°lHer bri* CBPtains P^ferred to choose their own officers, the c^H™ in^ cted a «an of his selection If he did so the. nominee had a rough Is h time. "Here is a story that I frequently heard told during m/early seafaring life, where a s kipper was given a new mate of whom he disap proved, 'writes Sir. Walter Runciman, «fWn 1-k"own tl Tynesido shipowner Coming do,vn the coast he encountered bad weather. The mate, climbhur hi, way on to the poop of the saUingVe and I"mc"cc. d stuttering something, make a poem about it and comeback sel wa°s aTth *? F** mc The ™ no u r tL \me going tea knota an hour. The mato came back to him as ordered, and this i Swh at he sang--"'Should auld acquaintance be forgot .And never brought- to mind. g *La wT Cook fell overboard, And he's twenty miles behind "'

Conway's New Commander. Lieut-Commander F A v; i. j to Captain H.V ZllbZ^ZZ*™ tirement was recently announ^d. The year was the King's Gold Medallist He wYJi th," f°A U- T- eari ""a deck offlS? with the Asiatic Steam Navigation Company, and after, training^ * ™ Royal Naval Reserve. wa 3 transferred o general service with the Navy i 191G for meritorious service. Since then ho has had ten and, a half years' coi, tinuous command -of His Maiestv"s ships, During the war he^vat twice mentioned in. dispatches, and Was awarded the D.S.C. Ccinmercial Flying-Boats. '

In the course of a paper read before thefloyal Aeronautical Society recently nffiT"" *?' **""?' a .technical officer of the Air Ministry,: made somo interesting suggestions regardiiiff tho development commercially of the seaplane and flying boat, states the "Shipring World.'? For commercial work, he said, these craft had qualities to I *L OT air transport greater than that of the corresponding land machine when once it was proved to the public that travel by' air over the sea was not a.-,s?, nded ' except as-a very remote possibility, by the chance.of forced alight ing and shipwreck. The'aeroplane had to compete with railway services and speeds of anything up to 60 m.p.h. whereas the seaplane had rarely to contend with anything more than 15 to 37 knots. In England the development o± the seaplane was of paramount im portance. There.were not British aerc dromes or alighting harbours nearer th an Gibraltar and Malta, but these provided good facilities for flying boats, while all along our present trade routes, where coaling stations existed for the Navy, seaplane bases had been or could be formed. This Empire had, therefore, with little expense, all tho harbour organisation available for thf> development of seaplane or flying boat routes, and these lay at points already familiar to the traveller by sea, and were available at little cost to this country.