SHIPPING NOTES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18736, 14 December 1922, Page 8

SHIPPING NOTES

NEW LUXURY SHIPS. UNION COMPANY’S MOTOR VESSEL ; (From Oub Own Correspondent.) LONDON, October 24. Glowing comment is made by the Daily Telegraph on the action of the Union Steam Ship Company in becoming the pioneers in the development of powerful vessels fitted with internal combustion engines. "For some time past,” says the sloping correspondent, “vessels of the new order have been seen at sea, bub in the main they are cargo boats, and not passenger ships. But now the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand has placed on order with the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company for a passenger liner which will put to a supreme test all that the advocates of the new motive power have claimed. For this new liner will be 600 ft long over all, with a beam of 72ft, and she will have a displacement of about 22,000 tons. “The order for this vessel may be regarded as the most daring advance at a single step which has been undertaken since men first began to talk of the coming of the motor ship. This vessel is not only to have the relatively high speed i of 13 knots, but she is to be employed on the long sea passage between New Zealand and Vancouver. Ten years ago the idea, of installing anv bind of motor generator in so large a vessel intended for so long a route, and with a designed speed of 13 knots, would have been regarded r.s madness. It may be safely said no shipowner would have entertained the proposal. It speaks well for the enterprise of all concerned that an agreement should have been made for laying down this great ship, with triple screws, in the confident expectation that she will develop from 12,000 to 13,000 h.p.” A NEW CUNARDER. A new Cunarder, the Franconia, was successfully launched at Clydebank this week. The vessel is the ninth of the 14 ships belonging to the Canard’s post-war building programme, and with a length of 624 ft and a beam of 74ft will be of 20,000 tons gross. Her original design has been extensively modified in order to adapt her for ocean touring and the long voyages entailed in world cruises. To this end an area of some 6000 square feet, extending the full width of the shin through two of her lower decks, is being devoted to a great sw’iniming pool, bigger than that of the Aquitauia, and slightly longer than the Pompeian pooI ( of the Berengaria, both of which vessels, it will lie remembered, are more than double her tonnage; while on one side of the pool is to be a squash rackets court, with an upper gallery for spectators, and on the other side a gymnasium, fitted with all kinds of appliances, mechanical and electrical, for physical recreation and development. The designed sea-speed is 16 knots, and the propelling machinery is to consist of two sets of Brown-Curtis turbines driving two screws through doublereduction gearing. The boilers will be fired with oil. ACME OF COMFORT. The s.s. Volendam, the latest addition to the fleet of the Holland-America Line, has completed her trials, and will start on her maiden voyage from P.otierdam to New York on November 4, calling at Boulogne and Plymouth en route. The company now have over 40 liners and cargo steamers in commission, the largest being the Rotterdam, of 24,170 tons gross register. The Veedam, a sister ship to the Volendam, will be launched on Nobember 18, and should be ready for use next sprirng. There is also now being built the Statendam, of 33,000 tons gross register. The Volendam, which was built by Messrs Harland and Wolff, Belfast, has a tonnage of 15,200 tons gross, and can accommodate 296 first-class, 396 secondclass, and 1292 third-class passengers. Electric control —from the radiators and fans in the state rooms to the refrigerating and cocking machines in the kitchen —is one of the features of this luxury ship. Built primarily for comfort rather than for speed, the Volendam is specially suited for the Anglo-American service. Practically all the known devices for the safety and ease of the .passengers have been adopted, and, in many cases, improved upon. The decorations throughout are extremely artistic. The* firstclass smoking room, for instance, is a reproduction cf an old baronial hall in the early Tudor style, with open fireplace and oak walls and ceiling, panelled and carved, the work of Messrs Waring and Gillow. Teh first-class library, social hall, and dining saloon are. also luxuriously and artistically designed and furnished. Individual control of the heating and ventilating arrangements is another feature which will appeal to all passengers, as well as the constant supply of running water, both hot and cold, to the double sets of marble washbasins in the firstclass state rooms and cabins.