PRIDE OF ATLANTIC

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 3308, 31 March 1926, Page 15

PRIDE OF ATLANTIC

THE REMODELLED AQUTTANIA. “TRIUMPH OF CRAFTSMANSHIP.” “A magnificent advertisement for British craftsmanship,’’ is the description given by the ‘‘Morning Boat” of the Cunard Company’s fine steamer Aquitanla as she emerged from her recent overhaul from stem to stm. Britain has always been proud of the Aquiltania. With a gross tonnage of 45,647, she is the largest ship built to date on British shores. But now Britain has another source of prid 0 in this beautiful liner; the Incomparable artistry of |the decorative schemes in the suites and cn suite rooms on “B’’ dock. To enlarge these twenty-foUr suites, the former raised deck-chair dock 7ft wide, situated beltween the artiste’ suites and the main promenade has been swept away. But it is not the new spaciousness of the suites that makes the vivid apeal. It is the sheer beauty of ithe decorative colour schemes. The Cunard Company’s designer has drawn on the artistic lore of the ages and has woven and Interwoven his own conceptions so delicately .embellished the chosen style with so many individual (touches, that he has created a series Of distinctive designs reminiscent here Of the Queen Anne period, there of the ShefatOn influence, elsewhere of the art of the Pharaonic era, but all essentially British. He has, in brief, cast the master-designs of the past in a British mould. British Designs and 'Materials

Take but one Instance.. For one suite ho has chosen (the soft grey that one will find on the walls of some of- (the Royal mortuary chapels in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings of Luxor. The mural decoration is based on the vivid lines that line the rock around the sarcophagus. But instead of ithe stiff, angular figures, he has woven his simple chaplet, > With oxidised silver bedsteads, mahogany, dressing tables with largo wing mirrors, a series of shaded globes diluting a soft glow from the celling, and bed-head lamps flooding a rosy radiance through beautiful alabaster bowls of crystal pine-cono design, th e designer has cultivated the flower of Pharaonic art In nn atmosphere as deliciously in tune as Ithe Parisian boudoir. There is surely matter for just pride ,in the reflection that the new designs and the materials used on these new suites are British products. For five weeks 1500 men have been working on the Aqultama day anc night. The army of upholsterers, painlters, joiners, polishers, electricians, plumbers, shipwrights, fitters, drillers, caulkers .burners, riggers, coppersmiths, marble masons,, platers—even bricklayers— swarmec from the tops of those mammoth funnels to the depths of the lowest engine-rooms. Over 3000 gallons of paint were used to restore to the ship the glimmer of polished brightness. Curtains and hangings were replaced new linoleum substituted for old, and half an acr e of carpet cut and laid. A Ship of Power and Beauty.

Extra promenade space was secured on the promenade deck by a rearrangement of il:o lifeboalts. All cargo gear was thoroughly overhauled. The great turbine engines were lifted and cleansed. The machines which depend the,facilities for ventilation .sanitation, cold storage, ana pumping were adjusted and repaired. Even 'the giant 100-ton ■ rudder has been unshipped and overhauled. And all done right to time —another tribute to British industry. When, right on the stroke of noon on January 20, the Aquitana swung

oujt In the brilliant sunshine for Cherbourg and New York, with her company of distinguished passengers almost garlanded in the wealth of Bouquets, she seemed conscious of tier power and her beauty. And, as If her pride were Infectious, the crowd massed upon the dock raised a cheer that grew and rang again.