ON MEDITERRANEAN SHORES

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 99, 28 April 1928, Page 30

ON MEDITERRANEAN SHORES

day -for Lyttelton to fill up for Montevideo and London. A large quantity of general cargo for Wellington was brought by tho i Port Auckland, which arrived on Thursday morning after an uneventful voy*ge from London. South African cargo amounting to 660 tons is arriving by tho Maimoa, ■which is duo here to-night from Cape- ' town, via Gladstone (Queensland). Advantageous Contract. The Cunard Company appeals to have made extremely advantageous terms for its oil fuel, states the "Shipping World." The circular letter of a firm of stockbrokers states, that annual consumption is approximately 5,000,000 barrels per annum. For 1927 this oil fuel cost the company about 1.70 dollars ppr barxel, while tho new contract for tho present and three succeeding years is at 1 dollar per barrel. Assuming these figures to be generally correct, the com- ' pany will save about £070,000 over tho four years as compared with 1927. Tho contract contains a clause that "if during the period a reputable seller of oil of similar quality offers oil below tho contract price of 1 dollar thu price is to be reduced accordingly.' In February oil was delivered at 95 cents per barrel. Aquitania's New Rudder. A new rudder for tho Aquitania has recently been completed by the Darlington Forge, Ltd. The rudder is of immense size, weighing 54 tons and having a width of 23ft 6in with a height of 21ft 4in. The diameter of the rudder post is 26in. The structure was shipped by the steamer Bordorforth from Haverton Hill-on-Tccs .to Southampton, where the Aquitania was undergoing overhaul. Kew Australian Service. The United States Shipping Board have inaugurated a regular steamship service.between Now Orleans and Australia, via the Panama Canal. Eegular sailings are said to be contemplated. Ports for which cargo is being accepted are Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Fremantle. A new direct eervice from Calcutta to New Orleans is also to be established by the Shipping Board in May. A Large Tanker. The first of two 16,000-ton tankers which Alexander Stephen and Sons are building for the Imperial Oil Co., Ltd. has been launched and christened " Victolito." She is 510 ft long, with a boam of 68ft and a depth of 38ft., the gross tonnage being>l2,ooo and the deadweight capacity on a draught of 28ft about 16,000 tons. Two singleacting two-cycle Krupp engines will be installed. Dock, for Sourabaya. A floating dock of 3000 tons lifting capacity,, which has been built to tUe order of the Dutch Colonial Government, is at* present on her way under tow from Rotterdam to Sourabaya, East Indies- The length of the structure is 310 ft and the inside width 63ft 4in. The main centrifugal pumps nre driven by electric motors, taking current from a shore station, and the valves in the suction, piping are controlled by. pneumatic power, supplied by-two electric-ally-driven rotary air pumps. Dutch Orders. Orders for the building of two passenger and mail motor liners, each of which will be of 24,800 tons displacement, 600 ft in length, 74ft in beam, and 55ft 3in in depth, have been placed with the Netherland Shipbuilding Company by an Amsterdam shipping company. They will be driven at a speed of 18 knots by twin sets of 10-cylinder, ' two-cycle, single-acting Sulzcr cnginos :

of life must be attributed in some degree to laxity on board. The inability to close tho doors of tlio watertight compartments was obviously a serious defect. Atlantic Whaling Bights. The Secretary or State for the Colonies announces that Messrs. Joiitm Hasmussen and Co., of Sandefjord, Norway, nre being granted an exclusive licence to occupy certain islands belonging 1o His Majesty named Bouvet Island and Thompson Island, states tho "Shipping World." Tho islands in question are uninhabited, and situated in the South Atlantic Ocean in or about latitude 54 dog 26 mm. South, longitude 3 dog. 24 mm. East. Tho "license permits the company to take and treat whale in the territorial waters of the islands and to remove guano, subject, inter alia, to the payment of a yearly rent for the islands and of royalties on whiilo oil and guano expor ted. The license is for a term of\ten years. Bouvet Island and Thompson Island (which is of volcanic origin), together with Xiridsay Island, lio some 2000 miles B.S.W. "of Cape Town, and about an equal distance S.S.E. of Tristan da Cunha. Statue of Samuel Plimsoll. Permission is being sought from the Office of "Works to set up, at tho Westminster end of the Thames Embankment, a statute of Samuel I'limsoll, known as "tho Sailor's Friend," and tho originator of the load line for British shipping. The statue, which weighs three tons, is of bronze on a 'granite base, and is the work of Blr. 11.I 1. A r. Blundstone,. of Kensington. ' Tho Seamen's Union decided, instead of endeavouring to raise money for tho memorial by public subscription, to defray tho cost themselves. Mr. J. Havclock Wilson, the preseident of the National Union of Seamen, said that tho idea of a memorial to Plimsoll had been in tho minds of those associated with the seamen's'movement for some time. Seafarers from all parts, of tho world would attend tho ceremony. j America's "Big Navy" Plans. The plan for providing the United States with a navy "second to none" has received a set back from two quarters. In the first place, the immensity of the scheme and its enormous cost failed to impress the dwellers in the Middle West in the way intended, states the "Shipping World." In fact, they were more impressed with what they considered the wastefulness of such a vast expenditure on armaments and the menace to peace which it involved than with the magnificence of the scheme or with the patriotic sen, r timents which, its promoters expressed. The result was an agitation against the scheme, reaching no mean dimensions. President Coolidge has notified the House of Representatives Naval Affairs Committee that .ho will agree to the building of 25 cruisers only, at a total cost of d 71,000,000 only. This is a considerable reduction from the original programme, which provided for an expenditure o2 £140,000,000. The President's intimation has -'ividently disconcerted tho "Big Navy" party. With the movements of American politics Britishers have no coiicern; but we have n'evor yet fully understood for what purpose the "Big Navy" is desired. The original plan was obviously part of a game of bluff. It failed to interest the American people, who are beginning to fear that they are not as rich as they once thought! and it failed to cause any excitement, much less irritation, in this country. Though Congress may authorise the laying down of tho 15 cruisers, it will probably mako no financial provision for laying the keel of .a sjnglo one (if tlioni before the Presidential. Kleclinn, ami what, happens afterwards is in Iho lap