NEW CARGO STEAMER

Evening Star, Issue 18503, 10 December 1923, Page 3

NEW CARGO STEAMER

FOR THE AUSTRALIAN TRADE TURAKINA AT DUNEDIN. A new steamer for the Australasian cargo trade, the New Zealand Shipping Company’s 9,700-ton liner Turakina, arrived at Dunedin yesterday afternoon . from Liverpool via Panama, Auckland, Wellington, and Lyttelton. The vessel, which is on her maiden voyage, attracted I considerable attention, being visited by large numbers after berthing at the Victoria wharf. The Turakina was built to replace the vessel bearing that name which was torpedoed by a German submarine on the English coast during the war. The steamer now in port loaded about 12,000 tons of general merchandise at Glasgow, Avoninmuh, and Liverpool. She sailed from the last named port on October 10, and had an uneventful voyage to Auckland. The Turakina was launched from the yards of Messrs William Hamilton and Company, Ltd., at Poll Glasgow, in May last, and was handed over to (he owners on September 1. Some exceptionally fast passages between Great Britain and New Zealand are to “ha expected from the new vessel. On her trials she steamed 16.28 knots, and throughout her recent voyage maintained an average speed of 12.75 knots, from Avonmouth to Glasgow (363 injies) during loading the steamer averaged 15.41 knots. The Turakina is a single-screw steamer of the following dimensions :—Length, 480 ft; breadth, 62ft bin; depth to shelter deck, 37ft bin. She is of the close shelter-deck type, with a cruiser stern, long bridge, and top-gallant forecastle; and is fitted with the latest appliances for the rapid handling of cargo, including twelve large winches. The cargo is carried in six hatches, Nos. 1,2, 3,4, and the ’tween decks of No. 5 being insulated for the carriage of frozen produce. The vessel is well equipped with winches and derricks for the efficient handling of all kinds of general merchandise. Her crew number fifty-eight all told, which is considerably less than she would" carry if she had been a coal burner. The Turakina is an oil-burner. She has large fuel bunkers titled in the cellular double bottom and in the large cross bunkers. The, engines consist of single reduction geared turbines and five single-ended oil-burning marine boilers, 17ft Sin in diameter by 12ft in length, having a working pressure of 1801 b, with Ilowden’s forced draught. The maximum output is 5,C00 shaft horse power, and under normal ocean-going conditions 5,200 h.p. All the auxiliaries are of the latesttype, the oil-burning machinery having been supplied by .Messrs Todd, of London. In the. engine room and throughout the officers’ find mews’ quarters the steamer oilers a particularly well-kept appearance. The naming ceremony was performed by Mrs Hokisworth, wife ot Mr J. P. lloldsworth, Loudon, assistant manager of the New Zealand .Shipping Go., Ltd., and daughter of Lord inverforth. The new steamer, which is under the command of Captain H. L. Upton, is the first vessel of the type, to bo built, for the United Kingdom-New Zealand cargo service. The New Zealand Shipping Company has two oil-burning liners, the R.umucra and tiic Rotorua, but they were 1 originally coal burners, and were recently converted.