HUGE NEW LINER FOR NEW ZEALAND TRADE

Northern Advocate, 29 December 1937, Page 4

HUGE NEW LINER FOR NEW ZEALAND TRADE

Messrs Swan,-Hunter, Wigham and Richardson, Ltd., Wallsend-on-Tyrie, are constructing for the Shaw, Savill and Albion Company, Ltd., a passenger vessel of 27,000 tons gross, this tonnage making the vessel concerned the largest employed in the South Africa-Australia-New Zealand Passenger Service. The ship has been named “Dominion Monarch.” ; ,

The liner will be approximately 650 feet between perpendiculars with a breadth of 84 feet 6 inches. She will be a motor vessel fitted with four sets of the Doxford type of opposed piston oil engines, driving quadruple screws, and her speed will be such that the voyage to New Zealand will take about 34 days. Proposed Ports of Call, t

The proposed ports of call on this new route will be Capetown, Durban, Fremantle, Melbourne, Sydney, and thence to either Wellington or Auckland.

It is anticipated that the new vessel will be completed early in 1939 and the tentative sailing date from England is February 16, and the first sailing from New Zealand will be the end of April. The vessel will be fitted with luxurious accommodation, unexcelled by any of the present vessels at present serving the Southern Dominions.

Accommodation.

The accommodation is limited to approximately 525 passengers and of the total number of berths mentioned there will be 167 single-berth cabins, and 63 two-berth cabins which are convertible to single berths; the remainder represent two-berth cabins except for 30 three-berth cabins, which are also convertible.

In addition to the carriage of passengers the vessel will have, apart from ample wool and general cargo space, a refrigerated cargo capacity of approximately 500,000 cubic feet for the New Zealand trade, including specially built chambers for the carriage of chilled beef.

It is anticipated that the vessel when completed, will be one of the finest vessels of her type afloat, and credit must be given to the Shaw, Savill and Albion Company in pioneering a new route with such optimism in constructing such a vessel for the service.