TASMAN TRIP TOGETHER

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19375, 13 July 1937, Page 5

TASMAN TRIP TOGETHER

AWATEA AND MONTEREY NO QUESTION OF RACE SERVICE IRREGURARITIES (Special to the Herald.) AUCKLAND, this day. For the first time since they have been in service two of the fastest liners in the Pacific, the Union Steam Ship Company’s Awatea and the Matson liner Monterey, will steam together across the Tasman Sea from Auckland to Sydney next month. By an unusual duplication of the services both vessels are scheduled to leave Auckland at 5 o’clock on the afternoon of August 6.

The two ships are fairly evenly matched in speed. Both average in the vicinity of 20 knots, carrying several knots in reserve. It is stated, however, that no question of a race across the Tasman should arise. By leaving Auckland at 5 p.m. on August 6, the liners should arrive at Sydney on the morning of August 9.

The Awatea has been undergoining an extensive overhaul and refit at the Cockatoo Island dockyard, Sydney, and she will resume the intercolonial service on July 31, when she will leave Sydney for Auckland. Her return to the service will in the first three months result, in four instances, in duplication with Matson liners of sailings from Auckland for Sydney. The irregularity of the trans-Tasman sailings and the duplication of the services have been the subject of frequent comments. After the departure from Auckland for Sydney of the two rival ships a considerable gap will remain until the next trans-Tasman sailing when the Awatea and the Monterey sail on August 6. There will then be no steamer leaving Auckland until the Wanganella is dispatched on August 20, a break of a fortnight.