RECORD CROSSING

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 21, 26 January 1931, Page 10

RECORD CROSSING

MONOWAI'S FAST TRIP

SYDNEY TO WELLINGTON

After losing for two months a record previously held for 25 years, the Union Steam Ship Company has regained the "Blue Kiband" of the Gasman, as the result of the fast trip which tho Monowai concluded yesterday. The Monowai arrived off the Wellington heads at 1.47 p.m., making the run from Sydney heads in 2 days 18 hours 43 minutes, at an average speed of 18.34 knots, and beating the time set up by tho Matson liner Malolo in November by 1 hour S minutes.

Captain A. T. Toten was advised from the head office of the Union Company to make a fast trip to Wellington, provided that the conditions were favourable, to tost the Bauer-Wach exhaust turbines <vhicli were fitted shortly before the Monowai left England. The performance of the Monowai, with five of her six boilers steaming, is regarded as very satisfactory, the more so as the company has regained a record held by one of its vessels, the Maheno, for a quarter of a century. The Mahcuo's time was 2 days' 23 hours. This the Malolo reduced" by about three hours, steaming across the Tasman in 2 days 19 hours 51 minutes, at an average speed of 18.07 knots per hour. On her first day out from Sydney the Monowaj ran into strong northerly winds, with a heavy swell and a strong westerly set, and the conditions' in Cook Strait were unfavourable for fast steaming. The passengers did not until yesterday morning know that the Monowai was put to set up fast time, let alone record time.