NEW EPOCH IN SHIPPING

Southland Times, Issue 17010, 6 April 1912, Page 6

NEW EPOCH IN SHIPPING

THE MOTOXt-SSZF SELANDIA. IMPORTANT DANISH ENTERPRISE. _____ . LONDON. February 23. St. Valentine’s Day, 1912, will go down in history as the opening of the epoch of motor-ships, for on that day the oilengined ship Selandia, of 10,000 tons and 3000 horse-power, ran her official trials in Copenhagen Sound with complete success. Tlie Selandia is 370 ft in length, 53ft in extreme breadth, and 30ft in depth, moulded to the upper deck. The gross tonnage is 4900 and the net register 3200 tons* and the ship will have a deadweight capacity of 7400 tons and a displacement of 9800 tons. Loaded with 900 tons of oil fuel in tlie double bottom, in addition to about 30 tons of fresh water and the same amount of galley fuel, she made 13.35 knots over the measured mile with a displacement of about 4000 tons. With a full cargo, her speed at sea ought to be about 11 knots.

The credit for this new development in the shipbuilding world belongs to Denmark. The Selandia is one of three sister ships ordered by the East Asiatic Company, of Copenhagen, a progressive firm whose vessels trade to the Straits, East India, and China, and she is the first large ocean-going motorshlp to be completed. Her two sisters, the Fionia and the Jutlandia, are expected to pass their trials in April. Nor does the enterprise end here, for the East Asiatic Company is to place orders for two more 10,000 ton ships and six of 6000 tons, all to be propelled by oil-engines, while the sequence logically decided upon is the sale of the steamships owned by the company.

While the Selandia’s engines may be reckoned to have cost £IO,OOO more than Hie machinery of a steamer of the same displacement, yet the company estimate that she will save £SOOO per annum on the fuel bill and will gain £3OOO on her freight receipts. The grbss earnings of the Selandia will thus be £BOOO more annually than that of a similar boat with steam engines. In the first year she will pay off four-fifths of her extra cost. In her second year she will show a gross profit of £6OOO excess, and in following years a gross profit of £BOOO excess. Upon those figures the East Asiatic Company lias bought the ships, and is ordering others. British shipowners, according to their outlook, may accept or reject those figures. The company have provided exceptionally fine accommodation for the round dozen of passengers who can be carried. A large dining saloon and drawing room, furnished in elegant style occupy ,the centre space, with a fine staircase. They are Hanked by corridors, off which the cabins open. Insurances on the three vessels —Selandia, .lutlandia, and Fionia—have been accepted by London underwriters on precisely the same terms as the numerous steamships of the company’s fleet. The motor-ships, of course, require no funnels, and thus present a strange appearance.