ON THE WATERFRONT

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 56, 15 September 1928, Page 32

ON THE WATERFRONT

.;; ■;; THE WEEK'S ACTIVITY 'jin^u'ess about tlio wliarvt-s lias been TcV^V.b'ri.sk durii'ig the Week. Over 9200 tons"o f.general cargo were discharged iu"'aaiUtion to. two shipments of bulk oil.''';" The oil tankers Andri-a iiud Spin-, anger ..were 'both .Norwegian owiieil, aii'il .we've nnil'ji- ehavtev to the Shell and itlantic.' Unipn Oil Companies, respeejtl^eiy: ■■.Originally ' built mm a cargo sliip■■'for tiie. British Aduiiraity and later converted into a tanker,, the Andrea retains the general features of an oil-burning . cargo steamer, tho only change being the absence of derricks and cargo hatches. The arrival of the Spiiianger was of interest owing to the iact'that she took about 10,000 tons of '■wliale'oil. from the damaged whaling tf'tbamer C. A. Larson to America. "' -Although there was plenty of activity oirthc ivaterfroii': there Were fewini 5Ju'on.ts of'general''interest. ■Thrco1' of ■•th'o-' Union Company's p.'isefeiiger Steamcis;"tlio'Manuka', Mnkura, Whd viraheno, arrived1 early in tho week, but,'- owing' to the Eucharistio Congress nt: Sydney,' the passenger lists of all threeiships were small. The tlliniaioa, tvfii'eh-'arrives on Tuesday, however, will probaijly' bi'iiig a record number of pasieni»ers. ;. ■' '' '• ■'■ ' City "of Batavia, which arrived OH.-JMonday from Auckland, landed 5250 ton 3' of general' cargo from New York, aild'sailcd again yesterday for Lytteltbn;andL)unedin to complete discharge. ;-iA- shipment' of bitumen from Tarnpico,;amouhting to 1500 tons, was.dis-

ieharged by the Antinous, which arrived ©n Wednesday niglit from Now Plymonth. 'An arrival on Thursday morning was the phosphate steamer Comliefoank from Bluff. Aftex replenishing her'-bunkers she sailed-again the same «la;r-'for TtnM'ul:' -.The CanhcHnn Trans-pOi-tdr;! «h'ich"! arrived 'yesterday.'-from Montreal'via ■Auckland, had' 3000 tons for-discharge at Wellington. ' Only two overseas steamers lifted cargo at' Wellington this week. The Gallic, from Wanganui, arrived on "Wednesday to continue loading, and sailed yesterday- for Napier, Gisborne, au.d Auckland to till up, for the United States ..and^ Great. Britain.•", The only others arrival',.,was'.: .f ne ■'Gor-intl'iic, oil Thursday...nibi-aiing from -Timaru. She is timed to sail on 26th September for Southampton and London, via Panama. Changing of Ships' Names. The student of Lloyd's Register canKot fail to' be interested in the section containing.the list of vessels that have changed their names (writes the. "Syren and Shipping"). The number of these is jbetween seventeen and eighteen thousand, which is more than 50 per cent. olVtlien-essels .listed^ It is some what rci.iiai'ka'blo' that so many vessels should,Jie.tvoikiiig. .under names other than those With- which they wove, originally .designated, though ships, like other commodities, are bought and sold and it is natural that a new owner should give his property a fresh appellation. .An examination of the list, however, will establish two facts; one is that. the majority of ships which have altered their names are units of thei older brigade of merchant shipping, while ihany of them during'the earlier, part of their career enjoyed^ British cognomens. The inference is that many of our owners adhere to the practice o"f disposing of their old tonnage when they .deeiir it advisable to reinforce their fleets .by more efficient and economical units. There is strong evidence of this, and: though the money produced for a " has-been may be useful in paying for a new. ship, the fact remains that the older vessel is still a competitor; in. the freight markets and that her new owners'may by :reason of a lessgenerous! manning scale and lower ■wages and operating expenses, run her at1 a'profit which was impossible of achievement' under the British flag. This ia a'point of criticism'an examination of the list mentioned forces upon tne'attenfcion. In connection with this aspect of the question it may be mentioned that during the past live years the tonnage- of the' Vessels registered in ■ Great Britain and, Ireland iirokeu tipwasonly 946,000' tons, against 3,045,----000' in other countries. The explanation' lies,'of ■ course, in the vogue of selling old ships foreign, While our percentage of1 18' per cent, of vessels of 20 year's of "ago and upwards as-compared with :ithc percentage of 29 obtaining in othei'r countries is al3o v factor in thr question.' Sea Versus Air. T.hero...are two noyel but permanent factors which have, or rather will have, p.. vital bearing on the question of norjnaiity (writes "Fairplay"), and for which the .war was in little or no way responsible—-aerial transport and what Lord Melch.ett referred to. recently as the. practical annihilation of time and space due to the advance in electric communication. 'As to aircraft, it is obviously, too .early in the' day to attempt, to dogmatise on- their commercial possibilities .'and to what extent waterborne traffic will be affected by them. AH that can be safely said is that so far as the present generation is concerned, most merchahdise and the bulk of the passengers will still go by sea, and.that the end of the century in every probability '. will .'see them doing the same,....As_rega_rds moils of the lighter •variety, however, and'people who are in a,hurry to-got from point to point and. can afford to do yo, th? air boat jp undoubtedly coming into its own, and it will at 'least ,:be" of interest to'see Ji'.owi those concerned will meet the situation. Take, for instance, the case- of dny 'of^Qur-liuer...companies ..with. mail, ijputracts which call for a given speed —if: "tifey were 'no longer "required" to perform.tUat-seryice,..would it b,o essential for them, for the sake either or the bulk of their passengers or of their ether1 "customers, to have a fleet capable «fsteaming the same number of knots?

It may be that the rate at which their vessels now run is the economic one. and that no change of ..any sort would be advisable. On the other hand, if it were merely a question of the convenience- of-the average passenger, it is doubtful if a knot or so an hour means anvthiiig to him even on the longest voyage, and, accordingly, it may quite well be that, wheii . the world has shaken itself ; together and has settled down to.an accepted level of economic and social, stability, the speed factor, which is so prominent a feature of our existence to-day, will be.found to have undergone an interesting change. . Turbo-Electric Propulsion. As turbo-electric propulsion has been referred to as being likely to be adopted for' the new ' super-Olympic White Star liner recently ordered from Messrs. Harland.and Wolff, Ltd. (states the "Shipping World"), it is interesting to note t)ie;success which has attended' the final steam trials of the United. States aircraft carrier Lexington, which is equipped with turbo-elec-tric plant .having. a. total output cf 180,00(£.5.1i.p. • Her final trials were delayed in order ,that some alterations could be. made to her turbine blading. but on. her full power trial runs a speed of 33.04 knots was attained. Aecord'".g to the , "Scientific1. American," when the. Lexington set out to join the United States Fleet at Honolulu in June . last, she, broke the world's distance record, by steaming 700 miles.in the first twenty-four hours. This, it is stated,-is. ten miles better than the previous naval record gained by the American, cruiser Omaha in 1923, and 2-1 miles better than the mercantile.- mar-

me record of the Mauretania in 1911. In the second 24 hours the Lexington made 742 miles, while the remaining distance of 786 miles was covered in 2-1 hours and 34 minutes, the distance corresponding to thr third 24-hour per-iod-being 770" miles. There seems to be little doubt .that turbo-electric propulsion is capable of meeting the power demands imposed by the fastest and largest ships it may prove economical to build. Loss of the Tanker Chuky. The "Bulletin," of the Standard 'Shipping. Company, of New York, contains..graphic particulars of the loss of the American tanker "Chuky," of 6921 tons gross, built in this country ia 1922, which left San Pedro on i9th January with a cargo of Californian light crude oil for Tsurumi, Japan, and "broke in two parts and became a total loss,, involving the sacrifice of 15 lives, including all the deck officers, when abput 200 miles cast of Yokoha-, ma." According to the account the vessel, which had nine main cargo tanks,;,and was .provided with summer tanks, 'cumiuenced-.to leak and gave other signs-.of disintegration a -.- few days : previous,. ,tovvtbc . disaster. At 6,19 : a.m. on the 15th February^; tiio ■■ engines were- put full ahead,';.,aftcr.' running at about half speed during'the night, and shortly afterwards "the fire room bulkhead at the cofferdam began to leak badly and showed signs of distortion." Various members of the crew observed that the ship was buckled in the galley and on 'deck;■oyfef •'■ tlj'eiXpumpropni and adjacent Humme'^: tajikXHvfi^ch'.'is' Ideated just forward 6&: the machinery space, and also cracked on one,'side above the water line further forward with the oil cargo running into the sea. Evidently, it is stated, the vessel had broken in two below the water line in way of No. 5 tank, and this, occurrence was immediately .followed1 by a violent explosion, flames, water, and burning oil shooting about 100"feefinto the air, some of which oil spreading aft about 150 feet, set on fire the. clothes of the men on the poop deck,'which was also clouded with dense • volumes of acrid fumes, smoke and oil vapour. The main well deck, did not break until about ten minutes after the explosion, and the forward portion was swung around by the seas until it drifted, plunging and rolling, and seemed as though it would plunge upon or collide with the stern portion, and imminent horrors of another explosion were threatened.. With the exception of one man, who escaped by,.fighting his way aft through the seas of oil and water on the well deck after the,first fracture, all officers and men on the forward portion werp lost. A Canadian Shipyard. Although Canadian shipbuilders cannot prevent their home orders for Lake grain carriers from coining to Great Britain. some of them arc doing quite a large variety of work of specialised types (writes the "Syren and Shipping.). The shipyards of Collingwood, Ontario, completed jecently a twin-screw motor-propelled scow designed for river services in Quebec, a pontoon, lock-gato lifter for service, on the Welland Canal of the Dominion Department of Railways and Canals, and an arm for a,dipper dredge for the Department, of Public Works, for service at Sandwich, Ontario. The motor scow is.soft in length, and has twin propellers working in tunnels so as to save draught; the lock-gate lifter is 30ft by 30ft, and.loft in depth, and has steam machinery for dealing with weights up to 50 tons; while, the dredge arm is-64ft 4in in length. The firm have on hand a hopper barge 187 ft in length, to be propelled by triple expansion engines obtaining steam from two Scotch boilers. This vessel, which is designed for the service in Hudson's Bay of the Department of Railway's find Canals,lias a hopper compartment divided transversely .into, five spaces, with 10 hinged doors for discharging the spoil,.all operated with mechanical gear. The firm are also providing two new'boilcrs for the Government steamer Lady. Laurier. Their work may not measure out to very much in Board of Trade tons gross, but it is varied and interesting, and, wo hope, profitable also,