HUGE PROPELLER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22344, 15 February 1936, Page 25

HUGE PROPELLER

LINER QUEEN MARY difficult transport work [froh our own correspondent] ' LONDON, Jan. 18 The first of the four huge spare proPliers which are to be kept at Southam Pton for the liner Queen Mary reached its destination recently after a n adventurous journey by road from toe foundry at Milhvall. Thirty-five tons in weight and 20ft. wide, the propeller was loaded on to an eightwheeled tractoi; of 80 horse-power for ransport to the Cunard depot. All went well until the tractor reached a stretch of gravel road near terne, a mile or so outside Southinpton. The fond surface had been . tened by heavy rain, and the trac°r wheels churned up the gravel, but ernsed to grip. There was a hold-up about an hour while the crew worked anticallv. A hew move was made, u t half a mile further along tho ursledon-Botley road the;? came to ninp Ce ' S a y rac^'e it ono ' n tractor slowl y began to tli i riso roa< l subsided and o wheels sank inches deep. For three urs the crew, assisted by mobile il lce a,1( l motorists, struggled with nnri ons t°r. The road is a busy one, hill factor and its load blocked the "HI completely. hanU? t l 'L a " y tuo steam waggons 'ton i tractor over the steep hillti?i n hence it made its own way to ore 't; halted until c*ho»- , nil l ni y }lb ' to free the road for ion™ a ,® c - Then the last mile of the Urney to the docks began.