MORE LUXURY LINERS

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 48, Issue 2887, 31 March 1939, Page 6

MORE LUXURY LINERS

THE ADVANCE IN BUILDING NEW PASSENGER GARRIERS Despite international complications ships designed to increase the lure of foreign travel have figured with increasing prominence in the news lately (says John Markland, in the New York Times). The French Line has just announced plans for the construction of a new super liner-.-faster and more luxurious than the Normandie—which is expected to cut down the running time between Europe and the United States to less than four days. Cunard officials say that, when it enters the North Atlantic service in 1940, the Queen Elizabeth will be the world’s largest passenger carrier.

Of all new passenger carriers now under construction, Cunard White Star’s Queen Elizabeth is by all odds the most imposing as to specifications. Though designed as a running mate and sister ship to the Queen Mary, it will have both greater length and greater gross tonnage. It will measure 10'3'0 feet from stem to stern— IQi feet more than the Queen Mary. Its approximate gross tonnage will be 85,000, as against 81,235 for the present flagship of the line. Instead of 12 decks,, as in the case of the Queen Mary, the new super liner will have 14—four of them set aside for third-class passengers. A striking luxury feature of the ship will be a 742-foot glass-enclosed promenade deck. Cabin class passengers will also enjoy such innovations as a specially-equipped theatre, a garden terrace and a verandah grill. Passengers travelling tourist class will be provided with a drawing rocm, smoke room, cocktail bar, library, children’s playroom and many othei* luxury accommodations. 'State rooms in third class, according to preliminary announcements, will be equipped with both hot and cold running water and the most modern lighting and ventilation; third class passengers, furthermore, will have access to a variety of public rooms, including a sun lounge, a “winter garden,” a smoking room and a motion picture theatre. The proposed French Line super liner will be about the same size as the Normandie, which is of 83,423 gross tons. However, because of more modern methods of design, the ship will have space for 1900 passengers—--500 more than the Normandie. Most of the increased capacity will be in tourist and third class. The advance in the design of marine boilers has been so rapid, according to Henri Morin de Linclays, resident directoi' of the French Line, that the new liner, with fewer .boilers than the Normandie, will be able to develop 250,000 horse-power—9o,ooo more than the Normandie, and 50,000 more than the Cunard White Star Queen Mary. The new boat is expected to cut six or eight hours from the running time of the Normandie, and to offer strong competition in the matter of speed to the new Queen Elizabeth.

Luxury is the keynote of practically all of shipbuilding news —luxury not only in cabin class accommodation, but in accommodation for the passenger of moderate means as well.