THE "PORT GISBORNE"

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16375, 24 June 1927, Page 9

THE "PORT GISBORNE"

ROMANCE OF SHIP BUILDING. i ' L'KUUIIESS SINCE- 1840. 1 .Much prominence is given in English papers to the Jirst broadcast of a launch, 111 which the s.s. Port Gisborne slid from the skids at Wallsend, while the world listened-iii to t-iie ceremony. I V ery interesting speeches were delivered detailing the great, .strides the shipbuilding industry hat. made since IU4O, when the Britannic, the Cunard Cu.'s, first vessel, was considered an euisvmous ship. ! This is what Lloyd's List and Ship'pmg Gazette of May 2 records:— 'Hie ceremony ot launching the new 'motor vessel Port (iisbonie was success- • inlly broadcast from Messrs. Swan, i Hunter, and Wigham Richardson's yard ! at. Wallsend to-day, it being the first [occasion that sue-u an experiment has j been made. J The second of two vessels being built. by tho firm for the Gomruomvealth and I Dominion Line, the I'ort Gisborne has | a cruiser stern and topgallant, fore- | castle with upper, second, and third I decks of steel. .She will have a capa- | city of IU,OOO tons of cargo in her five ! holds and 'tween decks, three of which, I together with the lower 'tween decks, will bo insulated for tlie carriage of frozen meat, and other perishable colonial produce, the remaining cargo capacity being occupied by the general cargo. Accommodation for a limited number ot passengers is provided. The vessel has a length of 476 ft. 6in., and is 63ft. in breadth. Her propelling ; machinery consists of two four-cylinder | Doxford oil engines, which i are, being installed by the. Neptune works of Swan, Hunter and Wigham ! Richardson, Ltd. | Presiding at a luncheon which fellowled the launch. Sir G. B. Hunter proposed the toast, "Success to the Vessel and Her Owners." After referring to . the 'unavoidable absence of Sir Thomas Hoyden, chairman of the Cunard Co., and the High Commissioners of Australia and .New Zealand, lie described the wonders of launching a huge ship, and remarked that a serious accident during the operation was practically unknown. Touching upon the remarkable development in shipbuilding, Sir George contrasted the Britannia, built in 1840. the first vessel of the Cunard Co., with the Tort Gisborne. The dimensions of the Britannia were: Length 217 ft., depth 24tt., paddle steam engines 700-h.p., giving a speed of 8:, knots, cargo-carrying capacity 225 tons'! The I'ort Gisborne approached 500 ft, in length, had a depth of 43ft., and her twin-screw oil engines were of nearly 7000-h.p., to give a speed of knots, while her carrying eapacitv was I.O,CXJO tons.

Yet they were told, added Sir George, that the Britannia, on account of her immense size, was unable to embark her passengers in dock at Liverpool, and had to be hauled out-to midstream. The Commonwealth and Dominion Line, Sir George went on to say, was an amalgamation of four lines engaged in the Australian and .New Zealand trade with America, Great Britain, and Europe, which trade was being maintained by an ever-increasing fleet of vessels. The company was associated with the Cunard Co., for which his firm had built, many ships, and now had a fleet of about"oO line vessels, mostly built .since the war.

lteplymg to the toast, , .Mr. J. R. iiooper, referred to the pleasant voyage he made 17 years ago to Australia in a vessel built at Wallsend, which it was explained by the captain "had found herself" before sho left the yard; and tho Port Gisborne, he said, would be just such another ship. The vessel was really the conception of MV.-H. G. Deardon, their'superintendent, and would carry frozen meat, butter, cheese, apples and eggs, etc.. m different and suitable temperatures. With the exception of her motor engines, tho I'ort Gisborne was an electric ship. Sue also had a 50-ton derrick on hoard. They were sometimes asked why they retained the funnel on motor slops, and one reason was that they were proud to cany the well-known red and black, tho Cunard colors, and another reason that the funnel acted as a ventilator to the engineroom, and contained the silencers. The crew accommodation, Mr Rooper added, was entirely new, and not more than two members were placed in one cabin. They desired to make their men as comfortable as possible, and their efforts in that direction seemed to be appreciated, for in the I'ort Uobart, built at that yard two years ago, almost the whole of the original crew were still in the vessel. The ship was called after the most eastern port in New Zealand, which was visited by Captain Cook, and was now probably the richest district in the world per head of her population. Mr. Hooper, who replied, proposed the toast of "The Builders," and referred to the Maurotania, which, although 20 years old, still held Ihe Atlantic speed record, and to the building of the Singapore ponloon dock, which was another example of the firm's skill and workmanship. Sir G. B. Hunter, in reply, alluded to the enormous progress made in shipbuilding during Jus time. Sixtv vc-ars ago a ship of 1500 tons was a very big vessel, but now steamships and motor ships to carry more than 15,CC0 tons were built in numbers. In 1875 the combined tonnage built by Ids linn and associated companies was 19,300. but recently they had launched 180,500 tons in one year. In lb'Vb, or a little earlier practically all sea-borne goods were carried in wooden sailing ships, and in 1853 he sailed To'Australia in a wooden barque of 455 tons which carried passengers. Tup old-wooden sailing ships, however, were as graceful and beautiful as any of the finest passenger vessels oi the present day. In those days the building of ships was by rule of thumb, but now it was an exact science. When he began work in a shipyard iron building had not long emerged from the experimental stage. During the last 40 years, while his firm had built hundreds of steamships at Wallsend, they had only built two sailing ships. The speed of merchant ships had increased from 8£ knots to the Maurelania's 26 knots, and the, voyage across tlie Atlantic had been reduced from 15 to less than six days, and ocean travelling was safe and comfortable and more enjoyable than living in the best hotels on shore. Sir George also referred to tho progress made in marine engineering and the successes achieved by Sir Charles l'arsons.