THE MATSON LINE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21197, 1 December 1930, Page 13

THE MATSON LINE.

SYDNEY-SAN FRANCISCO SERVICE. NEW STEAMERS BUILDING. (Special to Dailt Times.) WELLINGTON, November 29. Among the engine room staff of the Matson liner Malolo, which arrived at Wellington yesterday from Sydney, is Mr Claude A. Knudsen, who was chief engineer on the company’s liner Ventura when she went to the rescue of the Tahiti’s passengers and crew. Mr Knudsen, although he has been in the employ of the. company for many years, is travelling on the Malolo on her present cruise to gain experience in a big ship preparatory to being transferred to one of the two large steamers which are at present being built at Massachusetts for the Matson Line’s Australian service.

The Matson Line at present has three steamers engaged in the San FranciscoSydney service—the Ventura (5986 tons), the Sierra (6023 tons), and the Sonoma (5985 tons) —all of which were built in 1900, and it is intended to replace these three ships with the two steamers now being built. It is expected that they will be completed in 1932, and they will each have a length of 632 feet and a breadth of 79 feet, with a displacement of 20,000 tons. They will be about 80 feet longer than the Malolo, but over four feet less in width. Their speed will be between 18 and 20 knots, compared with the Malolo’s sea speed of over 21 knots. It is understood that a third vessel lias also been ordered.