THE WEEK'S SHIPPING

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 46, 1 September 1928, Page 32

THE WEEK'S SHIPPING

"WATERFRONT MORE ACTIVE 'After a somewhat slack period duo largely to a spell of bad weather, Wellington shipping livened up over tho past week and a fair amount of cargo ■was. handled. The weather held fine and loading and discharging operations were able to:proceed without interruption. 'The fino weather was general around the coast and coastal ships kept well on time. Making her first appearance in Wellington," the Parracombe arrived on Monday from Bunbury, via Auckland, with a cargo of Australian hardwoods. The Pairaeombe was built by P. W. Gray: and Co., Ltd., in the AVest Hartlcpool Docks for Eyman Bros., Ltd. She has s gross tonnage 0f.4C08 tons, and was launched in January last. For some months she was engaged in the Morocco-South American trade and then took a cargo from Morocco to Fromantle and proceeded thence to Bunbury to load, hardwoods for Auckland, and Dunedin. Having completed • discharge at Dunediu she leaves for Ocean Island to load phosphates ' for either Australian or .New ■ Zealand ports. The waterfront was particularly busy, on Tuesday, when the morning arrivals included the Corinthie from Southampton and the Marama from Sydney, while in the evening the Makura left in continuation of her voyage from San Francisco to Sydney. Tho Marama

r... • :■•■,•■•.■'■-■ : : '. : left yesterday for Sydney. A feature of;tho passenger boats was the.number of passengers carried in each case. Tho Corinthie's list was swollen by the 'presence of the crews of tho throe ships, •Tervis,Bay, Esperance Bay, and Fordsdale, which were.formerly part of .tho 'Australian .Commonwealth Line, but are no!nr owned.by the. Aberdeen-Common-wrialth Line. The crews transhipped oni to the Maramai-which carried in addition a complement of visitors to Sydney for the Eueharistic Conference. Overseas vessels in port and : tho cargoes discharged were as follow:—Parracoinbe, 1,250,000 ft of hardwoods from Bunbury; Badix, full cargo of benzine from Singapore; Corinthie, 4400 tons of general cargo from London and Southampton; Makura, 1261 tons of American cargo; Kaiwarra, full cargo of coal from Newcastle; Otokia, fuel oil from Saa Luis. , The .Northumberland and the Canadian Britisher loaded for English and American ports respectively. Demand, for Oil Tankers. The (-number of. oil-tankers on the Btocka decreased during tho past year from 111 to 67 .(writes the "Syrcii and Shippiilg"). 'A year ago motor tankers <m order aggregated about 720,000 tons gross. Now they ' total 'drily 470,000 tons. ".Of these, between SO and 90 per ■tent, are intended, -for -motor • propul«ion,""so'' that- the internal combustion engine, continues to predominate in this department of work. The point is, fiowever, that the' demand for tankers, ;|uite irrespective--of. -the typo- of- propelling-, machinery, has fallen off greatly. ..'What- may be called the rate of placing- orders' lias elm-eased by 'GO" per' cent.; a,' largo amount of new tanker '.tonnage- has b.ean put ■■ on -.service, -butfresh contracts have been very limited in numbers. This is just what shipbuilders anticipated. They knew that the boom in tanker construction iv;is bound,to cxhauts itself; that the market would become, saturated at a comparatively early date, and that llio real standby of tho industry must always ■bo tho general cargo carrier, the senr-city:of-'orders for which is having such a,'depressing-effect upon it. As the ■world's., tankers aggregate 0,500,000 tons, ordinary replacements should re- ' present a continuous programme of] ■ about .300,000 tons. It is also estimated that tho world's tanker total should increase- progressively for some time at. therate of 10 per cent., which would mean 650,000 tons per annum, making a grand total. of 000,000 tons. It is -to--be feared,' however, that these estimates aro rather too optimistic, and that' shipbuilders are not likely ever to have, a steady average, of 950,000 tons of tankers on hand. But tho avo- . rage should bo considerably higher than the present level. Pulverised Fuel Cost 3. Writing in the Liverpool "Journal of Commerce," Dr. E. G. Kitchie discusses the' relative costs of pulverised coal firing and other methods of steam raising by means of coal. Pulverised fuel plant, he says, -is, generally speaking, more costly than plant for the burning of solid coal, while a larger amount of power is absorbed in auxiliary equipment. On the other hand, tho additional capital and power costs with pulverised fuel firing are. off-sot by reduction in labour and. maintenance costs. Having studied the matter in relation to land installations he finds that, in its application to "stationary bailors, pulverised fuel firing affects tho fuel bill, firstly* by yielding a higher thermal efficiency, which enables a saving of coal (to be. effected; and, secondly, by enab--*ing a lower grade of coal to be used,

thereby reducing the cost of fuel per ton. The resultant advantage under the first head, as far as the laud type boiler is concerned, ho places at 5 per cent. As regards marine- installations, ho thinks that the gain would be no more than 3 per cent, when compared with mechanical stoking. As regards the use of lower grade coal and the saving to be effected thereby, Dr. Bitchie does not commit himself, writes the "Shipping World." He remarks, however, that the pulverised coal fired boiled for land purposes is not yet fully developed, and that there are many problems hero which require solution. This remark surely ignores the fact that in the United States land installations consuming about 50,000,000 tons of pulverised coal per annum are in actual operation. Naturally, perfection cannot be claimed for the newly-invented marine installations, but it is sufficient to know that even in their initial stages they do secure a certain economy, and it may be anticipated that, as the result of experience, further economies may be effected. Rivalry of German Lines. Since the reconstruction of tho German mercantile fleet a rivalry has provailed between the North German Lloyd and Hamburg-Amerika lines. In 1925, it is stated, negotiations for a pooling of interests of the two companies were well under way, but operation of tho plan was postponed pending the working out of a method for complying with the requirements of the anti-trust laws of tho United States. Then came the of the controlling intei-est in tho German-Australian and Kosmos lines by the Hamburg-Amerika ckang-

ing tho ratio of strength of the two companies. .This purchase was regarded .by the''North. German Lloyd as a brca'ch<'of an agreement entered into at tin time of the sale of the Stinnes fleet. Ensuing differences of opinion resulted in the .dissolution,of all existing common, services,.,■with,the exception of thoso relating to .flic West Coast of South America,, where the fixed contractual ' •engagements extended over several years; As the North German Lloyd was unable to effect amalgamations with other companies so as to bring the fleet it controlled to an equality with that of the Hapag, the direcors resolved to build new tonnage. The leaders of the big Bremen concern were not content with ordering a numerically corresponding series of ordinary ships, but were determined to use thoii new vessels for competition with the Hapag where the latter was most vul nerable, namely, in,the passenger traffic to North America. The Lloyd management ordered two ocean giants of 46,000 tons each, the Europa and Bremen, with a speed of 26 knots. They also dceided to equip the, steamer Columbus (30,000 tons) with new engines to give her a speed similar to that of the Europa and Bremen. The passage of the Bill for the releases of seized enemy property in the United States has, however, considerably strengthened the position of tho Hapag. As tho Hapag's building programme was dependent to a far less extent than tho Lloyd's upon the receipt of compensation' nio'n'e'y, the former now has a much greater freedom of movement. • The Hapag is now seriously considering the building of large ships similar to those of ■. the Lloyd. There are, however, indications that this programme of rival building will not go much further. It is stated that negotiations arc oii foot to bring about a peaceful understanding and working arrangement between the two concerns. Depth-finding Apparatus. The use of the plummet lino for taliing tho depth of. the channels and other parts of the river within tho area of tho Port of London Authority has lately been abandoned in favour of an echo sounding apparatus which has been patented by the Admiralty, writes the "Syreii and Shipping." Tiro attention of the authority was drawn to it by Commander Shankland, tho river superintendent, and in view of tho decided advantages of the new method over tho old in saving of time and in accuracy of measurements, the authority had no hesitation in deciding to install the instrument in their surveying yacht St. Katharine. . The apparatus had been tested by the Admiralty in different parts of tho world, including tho Thames estuary, with satisfactory rcsnltp. It may not be generally known that tho needs of navigation in the Thames demand an examination :it regular intervals of tho. bed of tho river. Soundings are taken at least every six months in Barking Keaeh, where special dredging takes placo in order that the channel shall permit of tho approach of tho big liners to King Goorgo V. Dock. It may be added that although a- device on similar lines is in use by France, America and oilier countries, the British patent has been found to bo the best, and lias now been installed in upwards of 100 vessels of various sizes—British, Japanese; Dutch, Chilean, Eussian, Finnish, South African, and Australian —in survey vessels, cablo ships, and largo passenger liners, whore- its principal use is to enable the ship to ascertain her position. i