NEW LINER AORANGI.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18947, 19 February 1925, Page 9

NEW LINER AORANGI.

START OF MAIDEN VOYAGE.

GREAT SEA-GOING QUALITIES. TRIBUTE FROM HER CAPTAIN. [raow orn OWN amwEffIPONrfISNT.T LONDON. Jan. 8. If all goes •well and according to programme, the Royal Mail motor-ship Aorangi will arrive at .Auckland on the morning of February 24. With her 300 first-class passengers and 200 in the second-class, the Aorangi left Southampton in the most severe weather. Even the hardened traveller could not have hoped for a happy time for two or three days, but as the commander, Captain R. Crawford, said at a luncheon on board given tho day prior to sailing, of the twenty-three ships he had commanded none behaved so well in heavy weather. He had never been on a better sea boat. The Aorangi had just completed her journey from Scotland in the teeth of a galo in the Irish Channel, but tho passengers who embarked at Glasgow had not beeu unduly disturbed by the passage. "We had drastic tests," said Captain Crawford, in the same speech, "before we left the Firth of Clyde on tho present voyage. Among other things we went full astern for one hour. Those on board who had not been told did not know we were going astern- Where one would have expected the greatest vibration there was no vibration at all." This was itie impression that the commander had obtained of his new charge daring the first day at sea. Although much of the journey will be done in summer seas, the passengers will, during the first few days out from Southampton, have ample opportunity of testing the vessel's capacity in the heavy weather. As to the comfort of the vessel in the calmer waters of tho tropics and the Southern Hemisphere there can be no doubt about that. The passengers who are fortunate enough to make the journey in the Aorangi will be hard to please if they do not have a very pleasant time on this beautifullyappointed floating hotaL Adoption of Two Funnels. Guests whom the company invited to inspect the new liner and to have luncheon on board, arrived at the docks at Southampton when the Aorangi was still a few hundred yards from the quay. One had an opportunity of seeing her lines from a reasonable distance. She came in stern foremost, escorted and assisted by a couple of tugs. The stern itself is the first thing of interest. It is rounded off like the stern of a naval cruiser. Seeing that there are no furnaces on board, one looked to the funnels with interest. They were there —two of them—and they were ejecting a small amount of smoke. But they are not the very solid-looking funnels of a steamer. They are oval rather than round. All the fumes from the Diesel engines and the smoke from the kitchens could very well have been led off through one funnel, but bad only one been fitted the appearance of the ship would have beqj spoiled. The Aorangi came smartly up to the quay, and a close view revealed the new launching apparatus for the lifeboats. The McLaughlin type of davits, which are for the first time fitted to a passenger liner, are capable of placing all lifeboats in the water in a few minutes, and one man can launch a lifeboat single-handed. Is the Engine Room. Some of the visitors had an opportunity of going down into the engine-room. In the past many patssengers have given a sympathetic thought to the stokers, especially in the tropics. One could never quite forget that there were men labouring under terrible conditions far down in the pit of the ship. All that is changed with the internal ccmbustion engines. There are no furnaces, no boilers, no stokers. The four Fairfield-Sulzer Diesel oil-engines take up very little space, com pared to the boilers and engines of the old reciprocating or turbine installations. Each engine, with its six cylinders, turns,a propeller. If one set were thrown out of gear the speed of the ship would not bo diminished appreciably, and even with two engines and two propellers only in motion a fair speed could be maintained. Moreover, each engine will work with one or two of it,; cylinders out of action. With this margin of safety, passengers will doubtless have plenty of confidence in the new vessel These engines do away entirely with the great heat one is accustomed to associate with an engine-room. There is, of course, a, certain noise with 24 cylinders in action, but, this is not communicated to the rest of the ship so severely as is the case with a steamer. The sound is muffled like the sound from the cylinders of a powerful motor-car. The Farewell Luncheon. At the reception on board on the day prior to departure, sonic 200 guests, brought by special train from London, were present. Speaking after the lun- ; cheon. Sir James Allen said it • was a : unique occasion. For one thing, 1926 was the jubilee year ot tho Union Steam Ship i Company. Mr. Hoidswoith, in replying, said (hey had not regarded the ship as an experiment. Before they entered into the contract they were beyond the region of experiment'. They were doing nothing new in the matter of the size of the cylinders. What they had done, however, was to utilise four engines where only two had been introduced in other vessels. Op to the present time they were justified in what they had done. No ship had been subjected" to more thorough trials than this one haul, and she had emerged from them a great success. The officers of the Aorangi are-Chief officer, Robert M. Scott; second, Robert I! Deniston: junior second, Douglas Iviilo; third, R. Bla m field ; purser, A. _F. Ncalc; surgeon, Dr. C. G. I.earovd; chief engineer, H. Lockhart: chief steward 11. I'j. Read ; wireless operator, A. Dawsbury ; assistant wireless operators, W. S. White i head and J. Bogie. 1 Mr. Scott, and Mr. Dennsston both are I from the Niagara. Mr. Hollo is new to ; the company Mr. Read is a steward woli 1 Known to travellers. lie was previously !on the Niagara. Mr. Lockhart was second i engineer on the Niagara. During the two I years which the ship has been building ! "\lr. Lockhart has been closely in touch I villi operations, so he takes over the new | machinery with a very intimate knowledge i of the mechanism.