Ships and the Sea

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 20, 23 July 1927, Page 28

Ships and the Sea

A BRIGHTER WEEK

Motor Shipbuilding,

NUMEROUS OVERSEAS

ARRIVALS

The overseas arrivals and departures at Wellington this week have been slightly above the average, with a corresponding increase of waterfront activity. The main feature of the week's cargoes waa the arrival of two tankers with large quantities of oil to discharge. The Tahiti arrived early on Monday morning, en route from Sydney to San Francisco, but she had only a few passengers to land, and sailed again on Tuesday afternoon for California, via Barotonga and Papeete. The Port Dunedin sailed from here on Monday, for New Plymouth, to continue loading. By the time this ■ vessel reaches London again, she will have circumnavigated the world, as she came to New Zealand via the Panama Canal, and, on leaving Auckland at the end of this month, she is to proceed to London, via Adelaide, Port Said, Genoa, and Marseilles. An early arrival on Tuesday was the tanker O. A. Knudson, motor-ship, from San Luis. This vessel, in common with most of the other overseas ships arriving from tho Pacific within the last fortnight, encountered very heavy weather off the New Zealand coast. She unloaded 11,450 tons of oil before sailing again on Thursday morning on the return i trip to California. , ■ The Maheno, from Sydney, also arrived early on Tuesday morning with 1138 tons to unload, and the Coolana later in the day with coal from Newcastle, via Lytteltou. The Mamari sailed from Wellington on Tuesday morning, Homeward bound. The Huntingdon sailed on Wednesday for Auckland to complete loading for Home XJorts. With passengers and cargo from Home, tho Kimutaka arrived at Wellington on Thursday morning, but as she had only passengers to disembark here she sailed the same afternoon for tlij South to commence unloading. The Canadian Seigneur also came in a few hours later with 1000 tons to unload from eastern Canadian ports. No. further trouble was experienced with the propeller on the way down the coast. The actual damage consisted of the loss of one blade and severe damage to another. How the accident actually occurred is a mystery. A severe jolt was felt, and the engines began to race. On arrival at Auckland tho blades were soon replaced by spares carried on. tho ship. The West Henshaw arrived here on Thursday afternoon with 454,000 feet of timber, C 538 cases of benzine, and 553 tons of general cargo from the Pacific Coast, and the tanker Pleiodon reached here on Thursday night from San Pedro. The only overseas arrival yesterday was tho Cambridge, with 4000 tons to unload from Liverpool, via Auckland. . " Canada's Immigrants. The increasing flow of immigrants to Canada is strikingly illustrated by the iigures now available. In March, 20,271 jirrived, a larger number than in any of the preceding twelve months, and bringing the total for the year to 143,991, compared with 96,064 in the previous iiscal year, a gain of 50 per cent. In the year., just closed, 40,784 came from Great Britain and Ireland, 21,025 from tho United States, and 73,182 from other countries. In addition, during tho year 50,957 Canadians who had gone to tho United States to live returned to Canada declaring their intention of now remaining in the Dominion. Asleep on Watch. A special meeting of the London Local Marino Board was called recently to hold an inquiry, at tho direction oJ! tho Board of Trade, under Section 471 of tho Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, into a charge against ;i certificated officer. Tho accused, who, at the time of tho offence, was second oflicer of a steamer, was charged with being asleep on watch, and, after hearing tho evidence, the Court, which found him guilty, severely censured him and ordered him to pay 15 guineas towards the cost of tho inquiry. It may bo mentioned that, under the section referred to, the Court had power to cancel or suspend tho certificate of tho oflicer. Sailing Barge Match. It is anno need "iat it lias been decided to hold a sailing barge race on the Thames this year, when prizes will be given to two classes of craft, namely, coasters and ordinary river topsail barges. The Corporation of Lloyd's has presented a cup to be won by tho first ' arge in the lattor class to pass tho winning post. The course of the race is from Lower Hope to The Mouse and back to Gravesend. The coasting class is litnitod to barges of not less than 70 tons net, 10 master and live othor hands only to bo carried, and the vessels to have ' een registered and in use prior to Ist January last. In tho " dinary river topsail barge class the master an" throo other hands only are to be carried Motor Troop Ships. It is a great compliment to the Bibby Lino that tho Government should have selected as Indian troopships the company's two motor vessels Dorsetshire and Somersetshire. This is the first lime that ships driven by internal combustion engines have been taken up for this work. They are sister-ships of about 7000 tons gross, with three decks, and both were built by Harland and Wolff, and fitted with Harlaiid-B. and W. engines. The work of adapting them as transports has been placed in the hands of Vickers, Limited, Bar-row-iu-Furness, who will have them ready to enter upon their new role towards the end of this year. Tho Bibby Line's experience of trooping work j goes back to Crimean days, while during tho South .African Wr tho Yorkshire, Staffordshire, and Cheshire were : employed and were among the most popular ships with the troops. During ! the Great War the whole of the Bibby ixect was engaged in the country's service and was responsible for carrying in all some 200,000 members of H.M. Forces, in addition to over 25,000 American soldiers. Especially noteworthy were the services rendered by the Oxfordshire,- which was a hospital ship for practically tho whole of the war. Her owners speak pardonable pride of her record. Slio was never out of commission, and was the whole time under th,e command of Commander G. H. Harris, K.N.E., the commodore of tho Iribby Line. As a hospital ship she made 235 passages, travelled 172,000 miles, and called at 34 different ports; she was, in fact, ilf'or out "'of port on nn average every two auda half days. Another of the company's .ships—the niaucestershiro—was commissioned as au armed cruiser, and was in continuous service as such for practically tho whole of the period of hostilities. The Somersetshire and Dorsetshire have proved highly successful in service and are admirably adapted for the work they have been called upon to perform. i iorni.

Considerable activity is recorded in the motor shipbuilding industry, according to tho "Motor Ship." During April orders were placed for 25 tankers and cargo vessels, totalling 200,000 tons deadweight, all to be equipped with internal-combustion machinery, in addition to two 16J-knot trans-Atlantic liners for the Hamburg-Amerika Line which thus follows the White Star Line and the Swedish-Amerika Lino in adopting oil-engine drive for passenger ships trading to America. In several Swedish and Danish yards which have concentrated solely upon the construction of motor v^jsels, there is work in hand for between eighteen months and two years. Three prominent shipbuilding concerns in Sweden, for instance, between them, have 13 berths, and contracts on hand for 24 motor-ships. Kiverina's Salvage. The new company, Riverina Salvage, Ltd., which has taken over the work of attempting the salvage of the stranded passenger steamer Eiverina, purposes leaving Sydney shortly with gear on board the steamer Kurrara. Powerful sand pumps, engines, and haulage gear have been assembled, together with a large wooden pontoon. As some time will be necessary to assemble the gear prior to pumping the sand which forms the vessel's bed, an effort will be made at the high tide following the present moon to haul the vessel into deep water. This is in the nature of a chance, and the company is not banking on this method with unbounded confidence. The principal work of sand pumping, will take place during August, and the company will then have a further try during the August full moon,; after the sand pumps have been in operation. . The company has arranged to have moving pictures taken of the work of salvage. New Type of Lifeboat. An innovation in the construction of ships' boats that may be of importance has been exhibited in recent weeks in German harbours, namely, a new type of so-called raft, which consists merely of a textile fabric and can be entirely folded up when not used. The fabric is blown up by air, and consists of a large number of watertight compartments, so that it is of no importance if one or some of them are damaged. Not only the sides, but also the bottom of the boat are of the air compartment construction. A boat may be filled with, air in about one to two minutes. An interesting trial was made with one of the boats in which there wore 30 persons; it was taken out of the wateby a crane, which picked it'up at its two ends, when it underwent scarcely any change in form. An advantage' of such a boat is that it cannot be damaged when being lowered from deck and bumped against the ship's sides. The hulls of such boats can be stowed under deck without requiring much space, and the weight is small. Turbines Removed. Reconditioning of the Canadian-Paci-fies hner Empress of Australia, by the Fan-field Shipbuilding Company, Glasgow, has included removal of the original German turbines, which operated through tho Fottinger system of hydraulic transformers, and the installation of Parsons turbines. The Empress of Australia was built in Germany, and was intended to be one of the units of the Hamburg-Amerika Line, under the ~ o? Tirpitz. She was launched at Stettin m 1913, and was there when the war began. As a result she was not completed until 1921, when she was" handed over to the British Government as part of the reparation tonnage. Later she was taken over by tho C.P.B and renamed Empress of Australia, and f Or the past four years has been running on the company's Pacific service. Last year the directors decided on the extensive alterations alluded to. Back to Coal. CimlVT"™ K?- Vllon. --.hairnian of tho h>, t) C) Baid at tho ann»*l moot")g ot the company thst if the price of oil continued to advance it might be necessary to revert to ,oal burnin ft for a part, if not all, its fleet. I'ucl oil at Liverpool is now Sos a ton, as afriiust 72s Gd on Ist January, 1926. Coal costs about half of the former figure The report showed that for J.o2ti the com puny made a net profit of £510 32!) i not increase of £183,543 over 192;-; inaknig a total disposable sum of iIiOSU ! rlt: iT n' hich iloo.°oo was ir« n «. •i t oi° -the rt'sorvc fuild > i to ±.1 300,000; £130,000 was paid U, the holders of preferred stock, while a b per cent, dividend was declared to tlie common stockholders. Ocean Greyhounds. The two new ships of the North Gorman Lloyd Li,,e—the Bremen and tho Europe—are to bo the fastest ships in the North Atlantic passenger trade, the ■Lloyd Line states. The builders of the ships must guarantee an average speed of 27.5 knots for the entire crossiimor nearly one knot more than the present record. With this speed it will bo possible to cross the Atlantic from New York to London or Paris, including tho land journey from port of call, in five days and to Bremen in six days. Tho ships are to bo of 46,000 gross tons, ami will be built by two Gorman shipbuilding concerns. The North German Lloyd hold the rocoi-d i.or trans-Atlantic crossings in 110.), with, the Kaiser William 11., |, llt this was exceeded by the Mnurot.-nm which, in l!) 08, made" an Hvera K e speed of 2(5.6 knots, ami later bettered this when she made her New York-Quecns-town record in four days 10 hours and 4u minutes, in 1910. Endeavour Relics. Particular interest attached to the recent cruise of H.M.A.S. Sydney, owing to the fact that a one-day search for relics of Captain Cook's Endeavour was to have been made at tiie mouth of |.hi> Endeavour-River, on the Queensland coast. ■ ... : Several cannon were jettisoned there by Captain Cook during a storm encountered by his ship, and if was hoped to recover them for the nation. : Weather conditions woro unfavour- j able, however. The trade winds were i driving up a choppy sea when tho Sydney arrived at the scene on 23rd June, and as only one day in her itinerary was allowed for the search, it was impossible to await more moderate conditions. Sailors' Plight. Thirty British sailors were rescued from a wreck on the Moroccan coast after a destroyer and a seaplane had been sent to their assistance. Their vessel, the Collingwood,.commanded by Captain Frank, of Liverpool, was driven on the rocks in a terrific gale. Many rescue attmints failed owing t<j the high seas, and the gravest fear-; were entertained for the crow, who were believed to he. without food. Tho Noi-weginn steamer Balto sent out the following message:—"Canno! you ask Navy to send help to save ;>0 cii the crew of «.s. Colliugwooil ? I.'i'tv to lose 30 lives thus. We will try at dawn with our own lifeboat." After several attempts to roach Mumen had failed, the actual rescue was due to the heroic conduct of the owner of a small boat, the A^icente Martinez. AVith a crow of eight men, the owner of tho Vicento Martinez set out for the wreck, and succeeded, after a terrific battle with the waves, in reaching the British vessel and saving all hands!?