LUXURY LINER

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18590, 28 December 1934, Page 5

LUXURY LINER

VISIT TO GISBORNE

ORIENT FLEET QUEEN

TOURISTS TO VIEW COOK’S LANDING PLACE

(Special to the Herald.) AUCKLAND, this day. Tourists from Australia, to the number of nearly 1000, travelling aboard the Orient Company’s luxury liner Oronsay, will have an opportunity to view briefly the I first New Zealand

landing place of the famous navigator, Captain James Cook, when the vessel calls about 5.30 p.m. to-day at the port of Gisborne, It is anticipated that the break in the journey between Auckland and Wellington will prove of very great interest to the passengers aboard the Oronsay, though the liner will merely take a swing round the bay—conditions being favorable—and will then resume her journey to Wellington without dropping anchor or taking visitors aboard. The decision of the commander of the Oronsay to call at Gisborne en route to Wellington was taken just prior to the hour of sailing trom Auckland at mid night. Yielding to representations from Gisborne people temporarily in Auckland, Commodore Ci G, Matheson, D. 5.0., R.D., R.N.R., who commands the liner and stands at the head of the Orient Line’s long list of masters with active service records, intimated that Jie would give his passengers an opportunity of seeing, at fairly close quarters, the place at which the first pakeha foot was placed on New Zealand soil. Most of the passengers have some interest in the Historical aspects of European settlement in Australia and New Zealand, and are expected to appreciate keenly the opportunity of including a call at Gisborne among their experiences. 20,000-TON LINER It is equally probable that the people of Gisborne will appreciate the opportunity of viewing the queen of the Ogent Line’s fleet, even at the distance of a mile or two. The Oronsay, of 20,000 tons, will be the largest ship of the mercantile marine ever to have visited the harbor of Gisborne, and represents the latest developments in the building of passenger liners. Ordinarily she. operates solely on the Suez route between Australia and the United Kingdom, but on the present cruise she is well off her beaten track, haying been commissioned for special tourist work such as has become an important adjunct to regular shipping business in recent years. Built in 1923-24, the Oronsay made her maiden voyage in February, 1925, sailing from Tilbury Docks via Plymouth, Gibraltar, Toulon, Naples, and the Suez route ports to India and Australia, with a full complement of passengers. Since that year she has been one of the most popular vessels in the passenger trade, and is well known to many hundreds of New Zealanders who have travelled between Australia and England in her. The liner lias been kept right up to the minute in point of equipment and accommodation, and has maintained her place among the passenger vessels on a route which is used by the most exacting tourists. It is expected that the Oronsay will arrive in the Gisborne roadstead about 5.30 p.m. to-day, and will steam slowly up to the anchorage, turn and depart without ceremony. HOLIDAY CRUISE The Oronsay .commenced her holiday cruise proper at Fremantle on December 11 and thereafter large additions to the company were made at Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. She arrived at Auckland on Wednesday from Brisbane and, berthed without difficulty at Prince’s wharf. Nearly 850 passengers made the voyage across the- Tasman and many of these were Australians making their first visit to the Dominion. Ideal weather was experienced on the trans-Tasman cruise and the liner made an average speed of 184 knots for the voyage. Commodore Matheson is in command, and Captain A. E. Nicholls is staff CQmmander. The crew number 422 all told, including five deck officers, five pursers, two doctors, a nursing sister, chief engineer and 22 assistant-engineers. There is accommodation on board for 497 first-class and 1086 third-class passengers. The tourists began their sightseeing at Auckland at tne earliest possible moment, and quickly set off in the taxis and special buses that were waiting for them. The New Zealand Government Tourist Bureau had on board three

officers, who joined the Oronsay at Sydney for the special purpose of assisting passengei’s to plan out their tours. Some of the tourists left by car for Wellington and were to visit various places of Interest en route. A large number of the passengers journeyed by car and train yesterday to Rotorua and were to return the same day to Auckland. Others of the company’were occupied with shorter sightseeing trips in the neighborhood of Auckland.

This is the first of such cruises to be undertaken by the Orient Company, and so popular has it proved in Australia that an officer stated on arrival at Auckland that the available accommodation could have been booked twice over. All the accomodation on the second cruise, bv the Otranto, which will leave Sydney at the end of January on a 13-days’ trip, already has been booked. She is due at Auckland on February 6. A feature of her voyage is that while on the Oronsay only about 30 are making the complete voyage from London and back, on the Otranto about 200 are doing so.

FLOATING TOWN

The casual observer of the Oronsay gets a vivid impression of wide decks, palatial public saloons and luxurious cabins, with a highly efficient crew, whose sole object is to minister to tho wants of 'the passengers. What most do not realise is tho huge organisation that lies behind the care-free life Jed bv the passengers and the vast quantities of stores handled by the crews below decks. t Some anticipation of the full miracle of a large ocean liner comes from the knowledge that she has cost over .fit,ooo,ooo,to build. An Orient 20,000ton boat is actually larger than towns like lluntly, Dargavillo or I’neroa, in both its population of 2000 and its combined floor-space. Tho captain takes the place of the Mayor, and the ernef officer, the purser, and the chief engineer represent the holders of the various municipal offices. Altogether there are seven shops, of which five arc rciail, with two barber’s shops, and two general stores in each class. There are also four separate public bars.

INGENIOUS MACHINES

He low decks are other shops, not seen by the passengers. The butcher, with his large staff, has ip his charge 85,0001'b. of various fresh and corned meat, 7000 head of poultry and game, 11,0001 b. of bacon and ham, and 26,0001 b. of fish, all for use on the singhA voyage from Australia to England. ' Many useful labor-saving devices, all of them electrically worked, help the master butcher with his great task of preparing this meat for the

chef. They include a meat chopper, a mincer, a sausage-maker and a baconsi icer.

The dairy is the home of pe/haps the most famous of all the ship's machines, familiarly known as the “iron cow." Its name comes from its function, which is to make milk. Milk is difficult to keep in bulk on board ship and hence the invention of this wonderful machine. In a sense it reverses the operation of a milk separator, by reuniting the various constituents of milk, which the separator divides.

REMARKABLE PROCESS

During the process, which takes one hour for 30 gallons of milk, there are put into the machine, at different temperatures, fresh water, milk powder and unsalted butter. These are turned back into the milk from which they came. This same machine, with slightly changed temperatures and in gredients, also produces both cream and ice cream. The supply of butter for one voyage amounts to over 12,0001 b. in weight.

The baker and his six assistants work in their bakery, which is well furnished with useful labor-savers. The floating township consumes 5500 rolls a day, to say nothing of 350 21b. loaves and alt kinds of cakes, pastries, tarts and pies. Every day some 12501 b. of flour are used by the baker.

STOCKS OF GROCERIES.

The groceries necessary for one trip of one of these large liners reach huge proportions. • They include (50,000 eggs, a ton of salt, 4001 b. of honey, 60001 b. of jam, 23001 b. of nuts, 1100 bushel cases of various fruits, 6000 tablets of soap, 50,0001 b. of vegetables, 15,0001 b. of sugar, 17001 b. of coffee and cocoa and the same quantity of tea, with large quantities of many other groceries. \

In the galley the chef, reigns over his staff 'of 22 cooks and 21 pantrymen and carvers, in addition to the butchers, the bakers and the dairymen, and the staffs of the hot press, the cold larder and the still-room. Most of the cooking is done on an island stove, which contains the roasting ovens on both sides and has a low top for frying and boiling. It is heated by oil burners which have oil sprayed in under high pressure. All grills are done by electrically-heated groups of red-hot wires, which are Jot down as close to the meat as may be required. Vegetables and potatoes arc boiled by low;pressure steam.

POTATO-PEELING MACHINE.

Still more labor-saving devices help to lighten the monumental task of the kitchen staff. The potato-peeler is a rapidly-revolving drum which grinds off the skin, at the same time continuously spraying the potatoes with water. One machine cuts bread. Another toasts it by slowly passing the slices before a grill. Yet another machine slices and butters bread for making sandwiches. Further on there are three very ingenious smaller machines —the breads; rum tiling machine, the raisin stoncr and a machine for pooling and coring apples. The automatic egg-boiler dips the eggs, each in a tiny bucket, into boiling water and lifts them out again automatically according to how it has been regulated. When meals are over there is naturally a great deal of: vvasriiiigup to be done and here once more machines come to the rescue. Plates and crockery are washed in a huge electric machine and silver is burnished in another.

Townships on dry land have, normally, an almost unlimited supply °t fresh water, but the ship has to carry hers with her, because salt water, though good Cor washing docks, is not suitable for personal use, for cook ing or laundry work, or for the’ engines. Altogether the ship consumes daily some 32,000 gallons of fresh water.