A MAMMOTH STEAMER

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1514, 7 March 1901, Page 19

A MAMMOTH STEAMER

The White Star liner Runic, the latest and largest of the fleet, which comprises the Oceanic-, Majestic, Teutonic, Germanic, Britannic, Cymric, Georgia, Ceric, Bovic, Taurie, Nomadic, and Cubic in the American service, the Afric, Medic, Persic, Runic, Suevic, Gothic, and Delphic in the colonial and the Doric, Coptic and Gaelic in the Pacific service, has arrived in Australia. The Runic is a fine type of the fleet, with great improvements. 1 She measures 5C5 feet in length, 64 feet in breadth, whileher gross tonnage is. 12,482, constituting her one of the largest passenger steamers afloat . In dimensions and most other respects she is similar to the Afric, Medic and Persic. The accommodation is all that could possibly be desired for comfort and easy travelling, comprising dining, reading, and smpking rooms-, with ample bath and lavatory arrangements. One general statement will suffice to give an idea of the plan of the ship, and that is that she has three complete decks —the upper, middle and low-er—-with the bridge, poop, and forecastle above the upper deck. On the Runic many improvements have been made for the general comfort and convenience of passengers, there being n» * reading and writing roomy added, as •compared with the other ships, and tne* dining saloon is a deck above that of the Afric, Medic and Persic. The poop-has been connected with the bridgehouse, and f promenhde feet long. The upper deck aft can in the tropics be covered with an awning, a provision which will be greatly appreciated. The main * engines are quadruple with patent balancing gear, and altogether there are located in the en~ ginerooni about thirty engines of different types, with quite as many again in different part of the ship. Among the first-named lot is one for pumping •out the ship’s tanks, which has a capacity of 120 tons an hour; a condenser: for making fresh water for drinking) purposes—an operation successfully carried out at the rate of 3000 gallons per day; a condenser which turns steam into fresh, water for use in the boiler again; a pump solely for distributing the water supply throughout the ship for sanitary purposes; and the refrigerating engines. In the stokehole are five boilers —four double and one single ended—making twenty-seven furnaces, which, when the s-liip is travelling at full speed, require ■some eighty-five tons of South Wales coal to feed them each day. In fact, the consumption will run up to some 9000 tons in a round voyage, so that there is bunker space for fully 4500 tons. Between the engine-room and the stokebolft^there are seven water-tight cterrs, which can be closed almost instantly in case of accident. The refrigerating machinery is another especially interesting section, for by means thereof brine is pumped through approximately seventeen miles of pipes affixed in the holds, which are large enough for the carriage of no fewer than 100,000 carcases of mutton, in addition to which there is space for 20,000 bales of wool.