NEW UNION LINER.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume L, Issue 16458, 17 June 1924, Page 9

NEW UNION LINER.

AORANGI TO BE LAUNCHED TO-DAY. LARGEST .MOTOR-SHIP IN WORLD. (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) (Received June 17, 1 p.m.) LONDON, June 16. The largest steamer in the New Zealand service, the Aorangi, of 17,580 tons, six.hundred feet long, with a. speed of 17£ knots, built to the order of the Union Steamship Company to ply between Auckland and Vancouver, will be launched at Govan on June 17. , She is essentially a passenger ship, luxuriously fitted up, with engines of the Diesel type, and is claimed to be the largest vessel afloat with this kind of power.

M.S'-. Aorangi, the new passenger liner will he the greatest motorship in-the world. Possessing tremendous power, the ship will have a displacement almost equal to that of, the liner Empress of Canada, now the greatest ship on the Pacific Ocean. The ship has 2.3,000 tons displacement, is 600 feet long, 72 feet beam, 46,6 feet deep, and will have six decks. She is constructed on the lines of an enormous yacht and has commodious and luxurious accommodation for 440 first, 300 second and 230 third-class passengers. The design and furnishings of many of the public rooms and cabins are on lines of the dignified historical period decorations of Louis XVI. The first lounge is a magnificent chamber 64 feet, long, 43 feet wide, of great height, and surrounded by a, handsome gallery. A great oil painting of Aorangi (Mount Cook) is placed at the half landing of the grand staircase. The first-class smokeroom is done in tli a Elizabethan period, with boldly carved roof trusses and heraldic shields, and a great stone fireplace in harmony with the period. There nra two firstclass varandah cafes; the music or ladies’ room is in Louis XVI style, decorated with historical French prints and completing, with marble, mantlepiece, the effect of a salon of the period. There are auxiliary dining-rooms for private parties, nurseries, gymnasium, writing-rooms, and other accommodation. The second-class saloons, smoke, lounge and music rooms are of very beautiful finish and are commodious and extremely attractive. There is fine space and accommodation in the third class, which has lounge, smoke and dining-rooms. There are eight special cabins, an Empire suite, an Adam suite, Louis XVI., Elizabethan, Jacobean, Queen Anne, Regency and Sheraton. Elevators, enquiry and telephone desks, a vast promenade very suitablo for openair dancing, a movie theatre, barber shops, loud-speaking telephones, bakeries, laundries, hospital with consulting room, waiting room, dispensary and wards, are part of the features. There is refrigeration machinery, steam heat and the freshwater tanks carry 1800 tons. There is cargo space for 225,000 cubic feet of general freight and 90,000 feet refrigerated. New and very effective launching devices and appliances are installed for handling the lifeboats and rafts, with auxiliary power plants on the upper decks to supply light should the enginerooms ever become flooded through injury. These auxiliaries can also handle the lifeboats. The great hull is divided into numerous watertight compartments. The ship will hnva a speed of 17.5 knots, guaranteed to an overload of 10 per cent. She has four motor engines of 13,000 blip On test they have already done 15,000 blip.