MODERN LINER

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 36, 12 February 1938, Page 14

MODERN LINER

THE PORT JACKSON FIRST WELLINGTON VISIT On her first visit to Wellington, the handsome new Port Line motor-ship Port Jackson arrived here yesterday from Auckland to complete her Homeward loading. A splendid example of modern ship-building, she was specially constructed for the carriage of refrigerated and general cargo. The ship has been much admired wherever she has called. She was built by Swan, Hunter, and Wigham Richardson, Ltd., at Walls.end-on-Tj'ne, to the order of the Port Line. The1 Pert Jackson is 500 feet in length overall, and her other dimensions are: Length (between perpendiculars), 495 ft 6in; breadth, moulded, 68ft; depth, moulded, to upper deck, 41ft 6in; load draught, 28ft s£in; gross register, 9687 tons; net register, 5826 tons; load deadweight, 10,905 tons. She has three decks extending her full length. The hull is subdivided by eight main transverse bulkheads and there are three hold? forward of and three aloft the engine-room, which is situated amidships. The holds are insulated to a capacity of about 495,000 cubic feet for refrigerated cargo, and there is 234,000 cubic feet for general cargo. A number of the 'tween decks, of gas-tight construction to retain the carbondioxide gas, are specially fitted for the carriage of chilled meat. POWERFUL ENGINES. Two four-cylinder oil-engines of the Barclay Curle-Doxford opposed-piston balance type, which develop a total of 10,200 brake horse-power at 115 revolutions a minute, provide the Port Jackson's power. These engines drive twin screws, and are the highestpowered four-cylinder units in any ship afloat. They give the ship a service speed of 16 knots. The auxiliary machinery is electrically driven. Three large horizontal twin-compres-sor carbon-dioxide machines, each driven by an electric motor, comprise the refrigeratipn plant, which is complete with condensers, evaporators, and electrically-driven pumps for brine circulation at varying temperatures. The Port Jackson, although primarily a cargo ship, has up-to-date accommodation for twelve passengers. Port Jackson was the name of the original steamer of the Port Line, and it was for a long time the wish of the company to call one of their vessels after her. The possession of the name by a trawler made this impossible, however, until the small ship disappeared from the Register. The original Port Jackson was built on the Tyne in 1883 by Messrs. Andrew Leslie and Company, and was an iron steamer with a single screw. Her dimensions were 314 ft 6in by 37ft 9in by 29ft 6in, and her gross tonnage was 2644. Her engines developed 350 h.p. There were, of course, other Port Jacksons, the most notable of which was the fine sailing vessel used as a training ship by Messrs. Devitt and Moore.