BY NEXT YEAR

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21901, 20 December 1945, Page 3

BY NEXT YEAR

NEW EXPRESS STEAMER

SATISFACTORY PROGRESS

SHIP NOT YET NAMED

The new inter-island express steamer for New Zealand, which is in the course of building at the shipyards of Messrs. Vickers-Armstrong’s, Barrow, is expected to be in commission by the Christmas holidays at the end of 1946. Building is reported to be making satisfactory progress. As yet the vessel has not been named, but it has been mooted that the vessel mav be named after the Maor i V.C., Second-Lieutenant Ngarimu. The suggestion has not come from the owners of the vessel, it being stated by a representative of the Union Company'in Napier that no official name had yet been agreed upon for the new steamer, which is described as a duplicate of the Rangatira but having a higher service speed. Turbo-Electric Drive The Union Company was among the pioneers in the use of turbo-electricity for work of so exacting a nature as performed by the regular service between Wellington and Lyttelton. It was in August. 1931, that they took delivery of the Rangatira, built in the same shipyard where the vessel is now assuming shape.

The new ship is described as being of 6900 tons gross registar on a length of 400 ft., beam of 58ft. and loaded draught of 17ft. The 1931 ship’s specifications were the same except that her gross tonnage was 4500 tons. The 1946 ship, in addition to having space for cargo and automobiles, will accommodate 950 one-class passengers, mainly in two-berth cabins. There are to be four Yarrow oil-fired boilers in place of six, and they will be fitted with super-heaters and air pre-heaters. A service speed of 22} knots is mentioned for the vessel. “History ?>lade”

“The Wellington-Lyttelton express service is one of the most important inter-island services in the Dominion of New Zealand,” states an overseas exchange. “Many of the ships belonging to the company have made marine engineering and shipbuilding history in the past. The service is an overnight one with all that that means in the way of fluctuating auxiliary load. It has been maintained in normal circumstances on a high standard; it calls for the running at full speed for part of the journey and at reduced speed for the rest, a duty for which turbo-electric drive is specially suited.” The article asserts that the fact of a second ship being ordered after 14 years of the delivery of the first snip is an indication of the satisfaction which the older ship has given. It also concludes that tho performance of the older ship points to the turboelectric drive increasing in scope and justifying all hopes placed in it.