TASMAN TRIP

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22818, 27 August 1937, Page 12

TASMAN TRIP

MARIPOSA AND AWATEA SHIPS TO SAIL TOGETHER MATSON LINER DELAYED Interest in the duplicated sailings from Auckland for Sydney next Friday of the Awatea and Mariposa should be quickened by a decision reached yesterday by the Matson Line to delay the departure of the Mariposa by five hours, until 10 o'clock that night. Heavy cargo tonnage previously resulted in tho Awatea's sailing time being delayed from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. and both ships will now leave port at the same time. The Matson Line's Auckland agents explained yesterday that heavy cargo will bo handled at the port. It is nevertheless very unusual for tho company's ships to be held back to such a late hour. Stormy "Testing-ground" The ships will meet on even terms and as they will arrive at Sydney some hours after the normal arrival time it is probable that the way is prepared for fast crossings. Given fine weather tho passage of the two liners will be one of interest to both sides of the Tasman. The Tasman Sea, since the earliest daj's of shipping, has been a stormy "testing-ground" for fast ships. In the days of sail in tho intercolonial trade, the races between little ships, barques, brigs and schooners of the timber fleet aroused keen excitement in New Zealand and Australia. The Sailing Ships In 1859 the record was. six and a-half days, but three years later the barque Alice Cameron made the run in 5 days 22 hours, a record which stood until 1876 when the collier barque Adela lowered it by 22 hours on a run from Newcastle to Auckland. It was not until the 'nineties that tho existing sailing-ship record of 4 days 6 hours was made by tho topsail schooner Huia, which is still engaged in the intercolonial trado. There is a sharp jump to the speed of modern liners. The Monterey holds the present record, having made tho trip in January last year'in 57 hours 53 minutes, at an average speed of 22.06 knots. On that occasion she used only 10 of her 12 boilers.