LAUNCHING OF AORANGI.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume L, Issue 16498, 2 August 1924, Page 11

LAUNCHING OF AORANGI.

UNION COMPANY’S NOW LI NET!

DEVELOPMENT OP OIL ENG INT

LONDON, June 19.—Every thin# went off according to programme at the launching of the new steamer Aorangi this week. The vessel answered readily to the machinery which started Letdown the incline, and she took the water gracefully. Mrs. Charles Holdsworth performed the naming ceremony, and a large number of visitors were present at Go van, near Glasgow, as the .guests of the Fairfield Shipbuilding Company. Tho Aorangi, which was laid down for the Union Steam Ship Company, by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company' in 1922. will he the largest, most powerful, and fastest ocean-going vessel yet built for propulsion by internal combustion engines. She is the first vessel to be fitted with quadruple screw Sulzer engines, and while the complete installation is the largest-vet constructed the power on each of the four shafts is greater than that which has up till now been developed on a single shaft in any vessel.

The vessel is 60011. in length, 72f1. in beam, 46ft. 6iu. in depth to the lowest weather deck, and of about 23,000 tons displacement. She will have accommodation for 440 first-class, 300 second-class, and 230 third-class passengers, and will carry officers and crew numbering 230, despite the elimination of practically all firemen and trimmer ratings.

Practically no expense has been spared in UuMlesign and furnishings of the firstclass public rooms. The dining saloon will he a. spacious apartment, designed after the style of the Louis XVI. period. The first-class lounge hall, 64ft. by 43ft. 6in., will be in the Georgian style of decoration, in varying shades of green and gilded relief; the smoke room in the Jacobean style, with a. central well skylight, with boldly-carved roof trusses and heraldic shields.' There will be two verandah cafes open to the principal promenade deck, a- music-room in the Louis XVI. style, an auxiliary dining room for private parties, a. large nursery for children, a. writing room, a ladies’ rooms, and a. gymnasium. There will also he eight- special cabins de luxe,. with bathrooms attached, on f the principal promenade deck, and furbished in different styles. The bunkers will carry sufficient fuel oil for the whole of the round voyage from Vancouver to Sydney and back, a. total distance of 15,C00 nautical miles, or about, as far as five trips across the' Atlantic. After the launching- ceremony’' a luncheon was held, when Sir Alexander M. Kennedy (chairman of the Fairfield Company) presided. THE ODD AORANGI. r ln proposing the toast of “Success to the Aorangi and her Owners,’’ Sir Alexander Kennedy said they had witnessed not. only the launch of a. large quad-ruple-screw mail and passenger vessel which, when completed, would rank as one of the best ships ever turned out from any shipyard, but of the first highclass ocean-going passenger liner to be propelled bv internal combustion engines. Tho Aorangi bore the Maori name of Mount Cook—a name very appropriate, for just as Mount Cook was the highest and grandest mountain in New Zealand, possessing outstanding features, so the Aorangi was the largest, the most beautiful, and, with her new system of propulsion, the most remarkable vessel in the fleet of the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand. The name, the'sneaker said, recalled a steamer built at Fairfield 41 years ago. The old Aorangi, of 1883. was one of five vessels—all built there—with, which the New Zealand Shipping Company—a. company distinct from the Union Steam Ship Company, and of la.te origin—commenced business. In after years this vessel came into the possession of the the Union Company, and ultimately was sacrificed for the Empire’s good when sunk at Sea Da Flow during war to block one of v thc entrances to that important na.val base. While, the Aorangi of 1883 was a large and fast, steamer for her day. the new Aorangi helped them to visualise the advance which had taken place in naval architecture and marine engineering l since that* time. The new vessel was 200 ft. longer. 26ft. wider, and 13ft. deeper than the. old ship. She carried about. 700 more passengers. Sir James Mills and Mr. C. Holdswortli replied.