LONDON’S LARGE LINER

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11650, 15 October 1923, Page 2

LONDON’S LARGE LINER

A SHIP ON NOVEL LINES EXTENSIVE CARGO SPACE'. ' ) LUXURIOUS ACCOMMODATION. \ Plying the house flag of the Atlantic Transport Line, the Minnewaska, the largest and finest ship which has made London her home port, steamed up the Thames recently, and entered King George V. dock. Her arrival straight from the builders’ yard was not accompanied by any great demonstration on the waterway, but as she progressed over the flood tide there were greetings from all sorts and conditions of craft, and approving eyes told that she wa6 installed by right of size and dignity as Queen of London’s river. Marvelling at her bulk and at the apparent ease with which she Tva« navigated, watermen saw the Minnewaska pass Tilbury dock, the entrances of which are not wide enough to admit her, and watched her pass on to nearer the heart of the port, where the venturers of centuries ago set out to establish our world-wide trade. In skilful hands the huge liner rounded the bends of the river without the slightest difficulty, and she was berthed in London’s latest dock with remarkable smoothness, to begin a career which should be useful to the vast community served by London’s trade.

There is no ship like the Minnewaska She will carry first-class passengers only, and 369 of them can be accommodated in quarters which have been arranged to give # at least as much comfort as that provided in the great passenger liners of more than twice her size. The state rooms are spacious and lofty, and they the other departments are decorated with fine taste and dignity. The ship does not cater for the voyager who wants to cross the Atlantic at record-breaking speed, but she will maintain something about 18 knots, and a traveller leaving London in her on a Saturday afternoon will be put ashore in New York in time to do business in that city on the following Monday week. But it is in the provision of cargo epace rather than in the arrangement of passenger accommodation that the designers of the ship have made a noteworthy advance in naval achitecture The Minnewaska can oarry 17,000 terns of deadweight of cargo and this is more thun the capacity of any other ship afloat. Although her length of 625 ft is far short of 6ome of the giant liners which make Southampton their home port, the Minnewaeka’s beam of 80ft is only 3ft less than that of the Homeric, ana if this extraordinary breadth in relation to length enables the vbs6el to carry enormous cargoes passengers also benefit not merely in the steadiness of the ship, but in deck space, the amount of which is infinitely greater than in any other vessel of the same tonnage. In these days when dock and port dues are necessarily heavy, it is essential for the economical running of a ship to have a quick "turn round.” The owners of the Atlantic Transport Lino have seen to it that the Minnewaska should be equipped to land and take in cargo with expedition. There are thirty-six winches to deal with cargo in her many holds, all the winches being electrically worked on a system which is cleaner and far more efficient than with winches worked by steam. Eleotricity is installed in almost every branch of the interior workjiig of the ship. In the kitchen baking of bread and much of the oooldng is done in electric ovens, and the electric service machinery in the galley includes a dough mixer, potato peelers, dish washers, and knife cleaners. A-H the principal en-gine-room auxiliaries are electrically driven, including the main circulating pumps, there i a an electric lift tp enable the engine-room staff to move from the engine-room to the boat deck, and the water-tight doors are of Harland and Wolff’s electric power-operated, type, and are oapable of all being controlled simultaneously from the bridge. In addition to an elaborate loud-speak-ing telephone installed from the bridge to various parts, of the ship for navigation purposes, there is an ordinary telephone system in connection with the engineers' and stewards’ rooms. The Minnewaska is an oil-burning ship.