MERCHANT ARMADA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 May 1942, Page 4

MERCHANT ARMADA

ALREADY EQUIPPED FOR PEACE. NEW SHIPS COMMISSIONED. Cargo can be handled twice as fast as in 1939 by the ships now leaving yards in a steady stream all over the United Kingdom. Scores of new tankers, large and fast refrigerated cargo vessels and general cargo carriers of several sizes are already in service—a triumphant vindication of the policy of the British Admiralty not to adopt one standard type of merchant ship, but to use a number of types developed before the war for different trades. Exact plans used in this colossal programme have been sent to Canada, Australia and the United States, where ships are now being produced at the unprecedented rate of two a day. Britain’s standard ships are a very great advance on their predecessors ofj 25 years ago; indeed, in many respects they are better than those launched just before the war. Besides possessing twice the capacity of the 1939 vessels in handling cargo, today’s, whether steam or diesel driven, have a higher speed. The new merchant fleet has practically every item which will be needed in peace time, a useful indication of the official view on the result of the Battle of the Oceans. Accommodation. has been improved beyond belief. The fo’c’s’le has gone, and the modern tramp has deck houses for its petty officers, seamen and firemen, specially designed. Here they sleep in cabins with two berths, wardrobes and mirrors. There are bathrooms, and they have their meals in separate small messes. Even passenger accommodation, which will be needed when peace comes, has not been forgotten, and it has been done as artisticaly as if there was not a U-boat under the ocean.