THE OIL AGE

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11693, 4 December 1923, Page 3

THE OIL AGE

ITS GREAT BENEFITS PERSONIFICATION. OF SPEED AND EFFICIENCY. „SOME RECENT CHANGE-OVERS. The oil burner has come to stay. Its success is now not a matter of speculation, and now that a permanent and regular supply of oil is available ship owners are rapidly realising the phenomenal efficiency of this new fuel. Every day one hears of another well-known liner being converted, and soon after its conversion one learns of the success of the enterprise. In the Atlantic passenger and mail trade coal burners are now the rare exception, while in the colonial trade tney are rapidly becoming a type of the past. In the Orient line one of the latest con. versions has been that magnificent vessel the Ormonde. The Ruaihine (New Zealand Shipping Company) visited Wellington on Sunday on her first trip as an oil burner, and those who accompanied her cangpt speak too highly of the change-over. Sinoe her conversion the ferry steamer Maori 'has become the model of efficiency, and 'her average time of arrival in Wellington during the past month and a half has not varied more than five minutes.

On her last trip from Wellington to San Francisco the Tahiti, another of the Union Company’s boats to change over, did the trip in sixteen days, which included the usual 6tays at Rarotonga and Papeete, en route. The average speed maintained was just on seventeen knots record for the vessel. Another instanoe of speed is the Makura, which Is employed on the Vancouver run. On a recent trip she left Sydney two days late, and although she was Tunnipg to a fast time-table, the lost time was made ujj before Suva was reached. The performances of the Tahiti and the Maknra are by no means Isolated, hut shojr as example of proof conclusive that oil is vastly superior to coal as a means of propulsion. The same has happened to other vessels the world over, and- the greater speed is given at a cost which is. if anything, cheaper than eoal. In other ways oil for ships is a profitable venture. On a ship of about 4000 tons, between ten and twelve men can be dispensed with, while on the oil burner the burner space is less. On the Maori the water ballast tanks have been substituted for oil tanks. Oil too is much cleaner than coal, and the hygienic factor cannot be over-estimated. It is little wonder that we are entering the oil age!