20,000-Ton Freighters

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVI, Issue 96, 10 April 1926, Page 4

20,000-Ton Freighters

CAN THE BREAKWATKA ACCOMMODATE THEM. DRAUGHT DREDGING AND SHELTER. Inlormation]Jias been received that the Shaw SaviU and Albion Line contemplate budding two 20,000-ton oilburning vessels expressly foe the New Zealand trade. It ,is also likely that another welLknown shipping company will also build.a similar sired vessel for the trade. In view of the battle ot harbours that has been going on in Napier lor some time and the anxiety - shown bv a section of the Napier people for the immediate construction of the Breakwater harbour the position with the possibility ©f these large vessels visiting the pert at no very distant date becomes interesting. Furthermore it js only a matter of time, when a number of cast-offs in the Atlantic trade will be visiting NewZealand waters in search of trade. Some years ago a scheme was mooted to put another Breakwater outsjde the present one to prevent the present structure from being washed, awpy. According to current prices such a construction would be a very costly undertaking. If the present scheme for a Breakwater harbour is gone on with tne question is whether such vessels as above mentioned would be able to enter with safety. At the Breakwater there is a difference of about six feet between high water and low- water, w-hile the difference at the Inner Harbour is considerably less. With the draught these vessels would have they would be on the bottom at the Breakwater during low tide. Would any shipping company stand for that kind of thing? Vessels of -that type would require a lot. of clearance and the dredging of such a substantial layer-of soft papa which*-is stated by the results of the recent borings to exist there, would be another most interesting feature. Those who have any knowledge of road constructing and excavations ot cuttings where the formation is of soft papa state that it is a most difficult / substance to handle because ,\of itsf doughv and tough nature. The quei*tion of the Breakwater will not be settled entirely by the vote of the people, that is if they should favour it. nor by engineers, but bv the size of the liners visiting the port and the safety afforded them. What kind of moorings will be required to secure such vessels when mountainous seas are breaking over the Breakwater. The fate of such a vessel inside when the Pacific is in an angry, mooci is not difficult for any reasonable person to imagine r