BOND STREET AT SEA

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XX, Issue 239, 27 September 1930, Page 6

BOND STREET AT SEA

GIANT CUNARD LINERS ALL THE WORLD TO HELP. EMPIRE’S PART IN A ROMANCE Rugby, Sept. 25. Sir Percy Bates, chairman of the company, has issued a statement regarding the two giant Cunard liners which are to be built. He described the possible capture of the so-called “Blue Riband of the Atlantic” as merely incidental to the far bigger fact that for the first time in the history of naval architecture it is a practical proposition to run a weekly service from Southampton via Cherbourg to New York with two steamers which can pay. Hitherto such a service has required three steamers. Tho conditions which govern the constraction of such a pair of steamers are speed and size. Speed is dictated by the time necessary to perform the journey in all seasons of the year and in both directions plus consideration of the numbe.i* of hours required in port on each side of the Atlantic. Size is dictated by the necessity to make money by providing sufficient saleable passenger accommodation to pay for the speed. Sir Percy Bates expresses thanks to the Government for its help over the insurance of the vessels, and recalls that even before the war a problem existed with regard to insurance of the largest class of steamer. He hopes, however, that when the question arises the expansion of the ordinary marine insurance market may render the Government agreement redundant. The President of the Board of Trade has appointed a committee to consider the economic features involved in the disposal of old ships and their replacement by new, and to report whether in the national interests this process should be encouraged. FLOATING CITIES. WORK FOB THOUSANDS. “The Cunard Co. will shortly commission a new £6,000,000 liner to be built on the Clyde. An order for a second liner may follow immediately.” Who realises the full significance of that bald announcement? (states a London exchange of recent date). How many trades are affected by that decision of the board of directors of a shipping company? The building of one of these 60,000-ton floating cities will have an immediate effect on more than 300,000 workmen in every trade < f tho world and in most corners of the globe. Every part of the British Empire will send a quota of material, raw or manufactured, to the building of this great vessel. Almost every industry in this country will be able to employ more men during the two or three years that will be occupied in the building and furnishing of tho largest ship in the world. RARE TIMBER. Let us take some of the trades. Timber, for instance. More than 40 different kinds of wood will be used. Pines and maples will come from Canada. Teak will be imported from India. Mahogany, elm, oak, and deal will be used in large quantities. Unusual kinds of timber for decoration purposes will be brought from the tropics. Scores of joiners will be employed to work the timber. There will be ordinary carpenters to put up joists, specialists to carve the exotic woods and panels on the walls of the public rooms, expert polishers using six or seven different kinds of intricate polish, and painters Marble will bo imported from Italy and Norway to be shaped into decorative pillars, floors, swimming baths, ordinary baths, and (amp fittings. Sculptors will be employed to chisel it. Bricks will he made in England for imitation fireplaces, and expert bricklayers will be needed to lav them. 4000 MATTRESSES. The linen trade will have enormous benefit from the new liner. Aloro than 150,000 pieces of linen will be required in the form o£ tableolotns, sheets, pillow-cases, and table napkins. Special needleworkers will oe required to inscribe these with the company’s arms and other decorations. There will be 4000 mattresses. There will be something like 30,000 pieces of silver ware and 60,000 pieces of cutlery. There will be more than 200.000 pieces of earthenware, china glass and other vessels for cooking and drinking. The electricity industry will receive large orders. Few people suspect the intricacy of wires and cables in a large ship, but when it is stated that 200 miles of cables will be threaded through various parts of the ship they will understand something of the huge power station that is worked in the bowels of the vessel. Between 700 and 800 miles of wire will convey the current from tho main cables to the cabins and dining tables. FILTERED AIR. Approximately 15,000 electric lamps will be used in the berths, on the bridge and in the public rooms, and a vast staff of electrical engineers will be employed for weeks at the intricate task of wiring the ship. There will be 250 electric motois hidden behind the beautiful exterior of the ship—motors that will be used for every thinkable purpose, from peeling potatoes to lowering the lifeboats. Everything will be done by electricity.

Every cabin, first, second, and third, will have its ventilation system run by electric power, so that filtered air. warm, medium, or iced, can be turned on in a second. Enormous refrigerating plants for meat, vegetables, eggs and a hundred other commodities will also be run by that power.

Then there are lifts. Special engineers will be required to fit the ship with as many lifts as the gigantic Oxford street or Kensington High street store, lifts for passengers, food and luggage. Decorators and famous artists will reap their reward from the decision of that board of directors.. Special rooms will be decorated in every possible style of furnishing. There will lie rooms in the Adam style, Chippendale, Sheraton, Louis

XVI., Renaissance, Caroline, Jacobean, and Georgian. The furniture will be as far as possible original, and if not original carefully copied. Artists will “nint the mural decorations of the public rooms.

Then there is tha carpet industry It is impossible to calculate how many carpets will he used, but there will lie acres and acres of them, specially designed and woven. Even more acres of linoleum will be used in every room and on staircases.

Stockbroking clerks will be employed in the special business branch on board which will enable business men to keep in touch with the markets on either side of the Atlantic and do business wdiile on board.

About 20 wireless operators using a separate wireless installation will be needed to deal with their messages.

The floating Bond street on the promenade deck will be stored with every commodity that is required in any ordinary five days, hosiery, clothing, shaving brushes, cigarettes —anything. In a word, at least £3,000,000 will be distributed during the building of that ship among the traders of the world.

The other three million will be wanted for the building of the hull - for the coal industry, steel, paint, workmanship, bolts, wood, engines, Iron, and a hundred other commodities.