FAST CARGO SHIP

Evening Star, Issue 22719, 5 August 1937, Page 3

FAST CARGO SHIP

NEW TYPE OF MOTOR VESSEL On her first visit to Wanganui, the motor ship Statira, under charter to the British Phosphate Commission, berthed at tho Castlecliff wharf recently to discharge a cargo of Nauru phosphate. Of 17 new Doxford motor ships constructed recently, the Statira ■is the first to visit Now'Zealand. These ships are built for economy without sacrificing the speed and efficiency necessary for the modern cargo steamer. The Statira cannot, however, bo placed in the same category as tho vessel previously known as a tramp steamer, which idled from port to port all round the world, picking up trade here and there with, time of little importance. Leaving the builders’ yards at Sunderland in January, the Statira has touched on four of the five continents in the intervening seven months, and it is hoped that she will visit the sixth, Africa, on her return voyage to England. The vessel went first to the west coast of Spain for a cargo of iron ore for the east coast of tho United States; from there through the Panama Canal with a cargo of scrapped motor cars to tho west coast for oil bunkers, then to Japan to unload the cars; from Japan to Ocean Island for phosphates for discharge at three Australian ports, and thence to Nauru to load phosphates for New Zealand. The Statira is of 9,852 gross tonnage, has a speed of 10J to 11 knots, uses six to seven tons of crude oil per day, has new opposed piston Diesel engines of three cylinders. Considered a typical example of modern freighter, the Statira lias high sweeping bows, flat, unbroken decks, and a cruiser stern which give the impression of the turn of speed of which she is capable..