FROM THE SEVEN SEAS

Greymouth Evening Star, 25 November 1927, Page 11

FROM THE SEVEN SEAS

FO’C’SLE CHAT

(By

“Dick Deadeye”)

MODERNISED LINERS. TRAVELLING DE LUKE. “De Luxe” is the most popular adjective to-day. It has an irrestible appeal to the public, but it is often woefully misapplied. However, it appears to truthfully describe the changes that have been effected in the New Zealand Shipping Company’s liner Remuera. This mail steamer, with her sister-ship Ruahine, has been extensively altered in keeping with the ideas of modern travel. In 1922, the Remuera was converted to an oil-burner, and in 1923 the Ruahine was also converted to an oil-burning vessel. Both, in conjunction with the Rotorua, which is also an oil-burn-er, maintain a direct service to and from the United Kingdom, making the voyage via Panama Canal in from 34 to 36 days. It speaks volumes for the organisation when it is stated that very large alterations have been carried out in the Remuera and Ruahine without withdrawing the ships from active service.

Passenger shipping companies now realise the demand for single-berth cabins, and also for private bathrooms. In fitting new accommodation the New Zealand Shipping Company has considered the convenience of passengers in this respect. In the first saloon the Remuera now has 34 single-berth cabins and eight suites with private bathrooms attached. On the boat deck 20 new cabins have been constructed, and these are chiefly single-bedstead rooms of an exceptional size. There are also four suites with private bathrooms on this deck. In addition to the private rooms, ample bathroom accommodation is provided for all passengers occupying cabins on the boat deck. Other improvements include a new first-class smoking-room with verandah lounge attached. The smoke-room situated on the boat deck has been luxuriously furished, and fitted with the very latest appointments for the convenience of card-players and others. A notable feature will be seen in the installation of portable reading lamps. These will appeal to all who look for a quiet pipe and a book. By an extension of the promenade deck, second saloon passengers have been allotted additional deck space. The second saloon smoking-room and lounge have been remodelled and extended. These rooms are newly furnished throughout with a view to the further comfort of second saloon passengers. The Remuera now carried 62 first saloon, 92 second saloon, 128 third-class passengers in permanent accommodation.

QUICK TRAVEL PROJECT. The feasability of some of the plans proposed by Americans for future transatlantic services is dealt with editorially in a recent number of “The Syren and Shipping.” “From America, where all sorts of weird plans for building up a profitable mercantile marine are perpetually being hatched, comes an amusing story of an American syndicate which is, it is alleged, to construct a fleet of ten 20,000-ton liners with a speed of over 31 knots, built apparently on the lines of a naval aircraft-carrier. That in itself is a sufficiently startling proposition to put before the shipowners of effete old Europe, but the Transatlantic genius does not stop there. The service is to be a daily one between Montauk Point and Plymouth and Havre, and so intense is to be the concentration on the time-saving feature that the elaborate provision for the accommodation and handling of the airplanes, which it is anticipated passengers will desire to employ while yet far distant from land, will leave no room for such frivolities as palatial lounges and other public apartments or for roomy cabins, much less suites de luxe. The passengers, in fact, will be accommodated, so we are told, in cabins no larger than the average railway sleeping compartment, while so much space will be taken up by the machinery that no cargo will be carried, even if there were time to load or discharge it. It would be a pity to damp the ardour of the enterprising Americans responsible for this wonderful project, and therefore we will make no attempt to discuss the financial aspect. All we will say is that if there are any sane individuals ready to find the necessary capital, it will not be long before they are realising the truth of the old saying, anent fools and their money.”

PILFERAGE. “The Shipping World,” in a note on the prevalence of pilferage, states: “When pillage was rampant at the Port of London a few years ago it was found that sometimes, when a thief was convicted and sentenced to pay a fine, his mates at the docks passed round the hat and the fine was paid by general subscription. The magistrate at the Thames court effectually stopped such proceeding by declaring his intention to pass sentence of imprisonment on every person found guilty of pilfering merchandise at the docks. Contrast this attitude with the following case reported from Sydney:—‘A watchman while on' duty at Sydney, discovered a man apparently attempting to break into one of the holds. He was fortunate in being able to advise the chief officer, who. obtained police assistance. As a result, the door of a special cargo lockup was found to have been forced and a man was caught in the act of forcing a case open. The man showed signs of violence, and was arrested by the police at the point of a revolver. On being brought before the court the jury found the man guilty, but the judge accepted the man’s own surety to be of good behaviour for three years, and he was released.’ Is it any wonder that pilferage of cargo continues to be rife at Australian ports?”

LARGEST MOTOR SHIP.

The Cosulich Line’s new motor-ship Saturnia, 23,500 tons, the world’s largest motor-ship, sailed from Trieste for South America on September 21. She is an Italian vessel, and is 631 ft. in length, 19ft. Gin. in breadth, and has a depth to the main deck of 45ft. 6in. She wa!s built at Monfalcone by the Cantiere Navale Triestino, and was engined by the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino. The distinction of being the largest motor-ship will not be hers for long, because another ItalI ian motor-ship, the Augusta, 33,000 [ tons, is being built.

WOMEN AT SEA. INFLUENCE ON TRAVEL

Not many years have passed since the day when an ocean voyage for pleasure was impossible for a woman; when only the woman who had no alternative would face the discomforts of travel at sea.

What a change to-day! Compassion has turned to envy. The modern girl in the great ships which ply the ocean is no longer a sufferer to be pitied. On the contrary, the designers of to-day have her in mind even when they are planning new ships. Big ships, so built that motion is reduced to a minimum, their rolling checked by bilge keels and other contrivances, silent turbines to drive the vessel on its way, and oil fuel instead of the dusty, smoky coal of yore, are some of the changes which have been made.

These are changes indeed. But it is in the internal fittings of the ocean liner of to-day that one finds the most convincing proof that woman, as an ocean travellers, has come to stay; that, in fact, she is now in the majority among the passengers across the seas and, as such, has to be catered for.

Soft silken hangings, lights that can be brilliant or shaded at will, beds of silver and satin brass, furniture of beautiful woods, soft carpets, palms and flowers, are the lot of the woman voyager to-day. Her home at sea is as cosy as her home ashore. See how the woman’s comfort is studied in the great ships of to-day. Her cabin is now a lavishly fitted bedroom, with a big hanging and fitted wardrobe for her clothes, a real dress ing table with triple mirrors and a perfect lighting system, an electric stove for dull, cold days, electric heaters for hair-irons, a three-fold fulllength mirror that shuts flat against the wall when not required, a writing table and cosy chair—everything, in fact, for her personal comfort. Her bathroom is fitted with all possible requirements, and there is constant hot and cold water, salt or fresh, to her hand.

Electric lifts convey her from the lower deck to the beautiful public rooms above. Here are social hall, dance floor, drawing-room, writing and music room, and the rest, all on one level, leading one from the other, and all sheltered from the strong winds that sweep the outer decks. They are spacious, magnificent. Their colourings and furnishings are so arranged as to form the perfect background to a beautiful gown. Be it the wonderful hand-carved walnut panels and pillars of the Mauretania, the reds and creams of the Berengaria, the creams and gold of the Majestic, the “baronial hall” of the Almanzora, the pale apple green of the Empress of Australia, or the more' gorgeous decorations of the South American ships, it will be found that the cunning designer has pleased the eye and made quite sure that he will not clash with milady’s colour scheme. Woman may be seen at her best at night in the social hall of a great ocean liner. As to the dining-rooms of modern liners, they are much the same as the restaurants of the great international hotels. Woman, then, is travelling the oceans in increasing numbers. The fashion of the ocean holiday and the long cruises is growing fast, and the steamship companies are providing more and more attractions. Not only are the first class cabins filled. The new tourist third-class in the Atlantic ships has created new bodies of women travellers—women who make up parties of friends and for not much more than a month at a sea-side hotel would cost them, cross the ocean to see the wonders of the United States and Canada. The- revolution accomplished in first-class travel is remarkable. The change in the third-class is positively amazing, and it reveals the swift recognition by the steamship companies of the fact that it is the women who supply the bulk of the new traffic. Think of the third-class, or steerage, of a few years ago, and then contrast it, say, with the third-class tourist accommodation in the Empress of Australia, which carried the Prince of Wales and the Prime Minister to Canada recently. Here are a large drawing-room, and social hall, with silk-hung walls, carpets, and luxurious armchairs and settees, sheltered, roomy decks, a handsome dining-room with tables seating eight or twelve, furnished with beautiful linen and china, sleeping cabins for two or four which are so comfortable in appearance as to invite rest, and bathrooms such as cannot be found in the average modern house. It is more than comfort; it is luxury. There is even a woman’s hairdresser for the third-clas straveller. Woman having made up her mind to travel the seas, the shipping companies are catering for this new demand to the limit of their powers. In fact, there is a woman’s note—a note of comfort, restfulness and brightness —in every new ship that is built. Britannia, in short, more than ever rules the waves.

SHIPS’ GRAVEYARD. About half-way between the West Indies and West Africa lies a vast, stagnant sheet of water known as the Sargasso Sea. Round it circulate two mighty currents, which, for untold centuries, have been bringing and leaving in it huge masses of the seaweed called sargassium, driftwood and other flotsam and jetsam. In time, this concentration of weed, etc., became so thick that sailing vessels were often caught fast in it and their crews doomed to die of thirst and starvation. Various animals, such as rats, and particularly bloodthirsty crams, have adapted themselves to living in it, and abound in large numbers. Even nowadays slow steamers sometimes have difficulty in getting clear, as their propellers are liable to be clogged by the gigantic tangles of weed. The colour of the sea, is perhaps, the purest of all the ocean blues.