NEW MATSON LINERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20930, 21 July 1931, Page 11

NEW MATSON LINERS.

LAUNCHING OF MARIPOSA.

AMERICA-AUSTRALIA SERVICE.

TWO OTHERS TO FOLLOW. , Cabled advice received yesterday by Henderson and Macfarlane, Limited, stated that the new steamer Mariposa, which is being built for the Matson Navigation Company, was launched at Quincy, Massachusetts, on Saturday.

The news is of interest to New Zealand because the Mariposa is being specially built for the company's San FranciscoSydney service, which will include Auckland as a port of call. She is the first of the three fast liners to bo constructed for the service. The other vessels will be named Monterey and Lurline. The keel of the Mariposa was laid down on May 17, 1930, at the Fore River plant of the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Company. An interesting feature of the vessel is that the first rivet put into the hull was made from iron taken from the famous steamer Constitution, generally known as Old Ironsides.

The three vessels will be sister-ships, each of 18,500 tons. They will be capable of a speed of 20.5 knots. Each vessel will have accommodation for 620 passengers in the first-class, and 217 in the tourist class. The construction programme is arranged for the completion of the Mariposa in 1931, the Monterey in 1932 and the Lux-line in 1933. The Monterey is expected to be ready for launching next November. Each vessel will cost about £1,600,000.

The Matson Line's new Pacific passenger service, with Auckland included as a port of call, commenced this month. The steamers to run on the service will be the Sonoma, Ventura and Sierra, each'belng about 6000 tons gross. They will eventually be replaced by the new vessels, which are three times as large. The service will be a three-weekly one, and tho vessels will be despatched from San Francisco and Los Angeles to Honolulu, Pago Pago, Suva, Auckland and Sydney. From Sydney they will return to San Francisco, via Auckland, Suva, Pago Pago and Honolulu. The first vessel in the service will be the Sonoma, which left Suva yesterday. She is due at Auckland on Friday morning and is to sail for Sydney the 6ame day. She is to be followed by the Ventura, which is to leave Los Angeles on July 24, and the Sierra, leaving on August 14.