THE COMING COLONIAL STEAM SHIP.

Wellington Independent, Volume XVIII, Issue 1872, 23 May 1863, Page 3

THE COMING COLONIAL STEAM SHIP.

(From the New Zealander.)

This vessel has been successfully launched at Dundee, from which port she was to sail for the Clyde, on the 25th February, taking her departure from thence for Auckland on the 20th March, We copy the'following particulars from the Dundee Advertiser of the 19th February:—

The Rangatira, a new and strong iron screw steamer, schooner rigged, and built by the Messrs. Gourlay Brothers, for owners who intend to employ her in the coasting trade of New Zealand, yesterday made an experimental trip. The Rangatira is constructed in the new fashion, with a straight stem, without a- bowsprit, and is propelled by a couple of engines, driven by tubular boilers. The engines are of the kind which have the cylinders inverted, to give a simpler construction, and a more immediate action on the screw. The vessel is wedgeheaded, and very sharp, so as to admit of her being driven at a high speed with a very mo derate consumption of coal. Her cabins are planned with au eye to the increasing passenger trade of the colony ; and are, for the size of the ship, remarkably airy and handsome. The Rangatira is 150 feet long, 21 feet beam, 10£ feet in depth of hold. Her gross tonnage is 217 tons, and her register tonnage 174 tons. Her nominal power is 50 horses, her indicated power 150, and the pressure at which she may be worked is 201bs to the inch. Her cylinders are " jacketted" in casings of felt, covered with wood, to prevent condensation — an arrangement not now in common.

A little after one o'clock yesterday, a numerous party of ladies and . gentlemen, invited by the owners, assembled to enjoy tbe fineness of so fine a day in a trip down the river. The Ringatira was no sooner in the roadway than the order was piven to run her " full speed," and immediately she began to make 100 revolutions of the screw per minute, the screw being one of a strong pitch ; aud experienced shipmasters were attonished to find her going through the water at the rate of oue of the largest and most powerful screws. Although the ship was not deep enough to submerge her propeller to its best position, she began to run at from ten to eleven knots per hour, and this speed she maintained without any apparent effort on the part of the stokers. With slow firing, sbe bad more tban an enough steam, blowing off her superfluous steam all the way, out and home. The patent log showed, on the return, that she had done more than 10i|- knots a rate which, considering the trim of the vessel, would have seemed incredible had not the Rangatira been enabled to test the rate of progress against that of the large and "crack" steamer London, built by the same builders. The day being five, tbe river smooth as a lake, and the visitors in high spirits, it was resolved to put the steamer round, and measure her velocity hy that ofthe celebrated London. The little ship held her own udmirably against the larger and more powerful one. For some little time it seemed j doubtful whether the London would get a-head, her gain being so infinitesimal. Her advance was a question of inches, and when at last it was clear that tbe London was slowly drawing ahead, the Rangatira oeased ' her speed, the London fired a pai ting salute, the colors ofthe two ships were dipped in courteous acknowledgment, and tbe New Zealander was put round on her way back to Dundee. The new ship answers her helm with singular promptness, maintains ber pressure of steam with easy I firing, runs very fast without healing her machinery, and promises to be, iv her distant sphere of labor, an aquisition to the colonies, a credit to her smart captain, and a profitable , vessel for her enterprising owners. J