NEW LINER AORANGI.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 September 1924, Page 6

NEW LINER AORANGI.

MAIDEN VOYAGE. FIRST VISIT TO AUCKLAND. DUE IN FEBRUARY NEXT. London, August 12. It lias been decided to despatch the steamer Aorangi on her maiden voyage to New Zealand and Australia, on w'hat might be called “an ocean cruise,” which will occupy about seven weeks, to Sydney. She will sail from a United Kingdom port about the end of December, and will probably go first to Kingston (Jamaica), and then through the Panama Canal to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Vancouver, with short stays at all ports mentioned. At Vancouver the Aorangi will take the Makura’s sailing from that port on ’February 11, which will mean that the latter vessel’s trip from Sydney on January 15 will be cancelled. The Aorangi will then proceed, via Honolulu, Suva (where she connects with the Tofua for the sound trip to the South Sea Islands), to Auckland and Sydney. This tour should appeal to returning Dominion passengers, and also to tourists from this side who wish to avoid the English winter, because the vessel herself will be the last word in maria?*' construction, and the fares to be Charged will be as low as to make the trip a most .attractive one. Although fares are not yet definitely fixed, they will iprbbably be:—First class, minimum to Sydney, £113'5; to Auckland and Suva, £125; Honolulu, £115; Vancouver, £95; San Francisco and Los Angeles, £9O. The second-class rates will probably be; ATimimum to Sydney, £1)0; Auckland and Suva, £BO, with correspondingly cheap riites to Honolulu. Vancouver, San Francisco and Los Angeles. There will be' small premiums in both classes for better rtecommiodation.

The Aorangi, which was laid down for the Union Steam Ship Company, by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company in 1922, will be 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 yet 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, which is to be employed in the Vancouver mail service, is GOOft in length, in beam. 46ft Gin in depth to the lowest weather deck, and of about 23,000 tons displacement. She will have accommo dation for 440 first-class, 300 secondclass, and 230 third-class passengers, and will carry officers and crew numbering 230. despite the elimination of practically all firemen and. trimmer ratings. The bunkers will carry sufficient fuel oil for the whole of the round voyage from Vancouver to Sydney and back, a total distance of 15.000 nautical miles, or as far as five trips across the Atlantic. The Aorangi was launchel in June last. According to the timetable fixed, she will arrive at Auckland about the end of Fcbunarv next.