Queen Of Shaw Savill And Albion Fleet

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 153, 24 March 1939, Page 10 (Supplement)

Queen Of Shaw Savill And Albion Fleet

LARGEST SHIP IN NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIAN TRADE

Interesting Features Of Dominion Monarch NOTABLE BRITISH PASSENGER AND CARGO LINER

THE entry into the New Zealand trade of the Dominion Monarch is a notable event in the annals of Empire shipping. With the sole exception of the Empress of Britain, 42,348 tons gross register, which made a cruising vovage to this part of the world last year, the Dominion Monarch is the largest merchant vessel that has ever entered New Zealand and Australian ports. She is by far the largest ship specially designed and built for and regularly engaged in the passenger and cargo service to the southern Dominions. The Dominion Monarch is the largest merchant ship constructed on the north-east coast of Britain since the famous Cunard liner, Mauretania left the same building berth on September 20, 1906. and she is the most powerful motorship in service, and probably the largest cargo-carrier in the world.

THE principal characteristics of the Dominion Monarch are as follow:— Length (overall) 682 ft. Breadth (moulded) .. 84ft. 6in. Depth to bulkhead deck 48ft. 6in. I .oad draught 34ft. _ Gross register (tons) . 27,155 Load displacement, approx. (tons) 36,000 Deadweight capacity, approx. (tons) 16,000 Insulated cargo capacity (cubic feet) 505,000 General cargo capacity (cubic feet) . . 162,000 Main engines, brake horsepower 32,000 Maximum speed, knots 22 Service speed, knots .. _l9| Passengers 525 Largest Tyne Liner Since Mauretania The contract for the construction of the Dominion Monarch was placed by the Shaw Savill and Albion Company, Limited, with the famous firm of shipbuilders, Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson, Ltd., of Newcastle-on-Tyne, early in 1937. The ship was laid down at the firm’s Wallsend yard on the same berth as that on which the Mauretania was built 33 years ago. The Dominion Monarch is by far the largest merchant ship built on the Tyne since the Mauretania. The placing of the order with Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson was received with great rejoicings in the Tyne district, where it gave employment for many months to large numbers of shipyard and other workers. Apart from the actual construction of the ship and her engines, the fittings and furnishings of a great liner such as the Dominion Monarch provide employment in numerous ancillary industries. Specially designed as a high-class passenger and cargo liner to serve three Dominions in the former capacity and the exacting .requirements of the New Zealand export .trade in respect of the safe and speedy carriage of frozen and chilled meat, dairy produce and fruit, the Dominion Monarch is a noteworthy ship in many respects, mid as such she has been the centre of great interest in shipbuilding and shipping trade circles in Great Britain.

The adoption of high-powered oil engines and quadruple-screw propulsion to give this 27,155-ton liner a maximum of 22 knots and a timetable speed of 194 knots in a round-the-world service;- makes the Dominion 'Monarch an outstanding

vessel whose performance will be watched with the closest attention by the marine engineering experts of all countries. A Handsome Liner The Dominion Monarch is the most powerful motor-liner under the British flag, and, with one exception, the Netherlands liner Oranje, now under construction, the most powerful of her type in the world. With one raked mast placed forward and two great stream-lined funnels, a cruiser stern, a raked bow of rounded plate construction, and carrying the company’s house-flag on a plaque, the handsome appearance of the ship is enhanced by the company’s wellknown colours on the hull and funnels. The Dominion Monarch is characteristically a Shaw-Saviil liner.

The Dominion Monarch embodies all that is best in British ship design and construction, and is fitted with every appliance for the comfort, well-being and safety of her passengers and crew, and for the safe carriage of large and varied cargoes. It is interesting to note that on the white-painted topside plates of the hull a flush surface is obtained by the adoption of welded butts and seams for the shell plating in place of the usual riveted overlaps. Extensive welding has also been carried out to the main members of the hull structure, including the butts and seams of the plating of all decks, tank tops, bulkheads, casings, etc.

Passenger and Cargo Carrier

The Dominion Monarch has eight -decks, namely, sports deck, lounge deck, promenade deck and A, B, C, D and E decks, the first six being largely devoted to the passenger accommodation, which is described in a separate article. Special attention has been given to the housing of the master, officers, engineers and crew who, for the greater part of the time, make the ship their home. The master and the officers are accommodated in finely-appointed cabins on the island deckhouse under the navigating bridge, and the numerous engineers are similarly provided for at the after end of B deck. The various members of the crew are housed in comfortable two-berth cabins in the after part of the ship, mainly on C deck, where their messrooms are also situated. The Dominion Monarch, apart from her outstanding features as a fast, high-class passenger liner, is also a great cargo-carrier of a

capacity fully as large as that of the biggest freighters in the New Zea-land-London trade. The ship has six cargo holds, which, with various 'tween-deck compartments, are insulated for a capacity of approximately 505,000 cubic feet of space for the carriage of frozen and chilled meat, dairy produce and fruit. Included in the insulated cargo capacity is some 66,500 cubic feet of space specially arranged for

the carriage of chilled beef in gastight chambers. Tn addition to the insulated compartments, there is also approximately 162,000 cubic feet of space available in the various holds for general cargo. For the rapid handling of cargo the six holds are served by 24 electric winches, each of which is capable of lifting five tons at a speed

of 130 feet a minute. The installation of steel cargo derricks serving the six hatches includes seven pairs rigged to six pairs of samson-posts, and one rigged from the single mast, capable of lifting 40 tons at No. 2 hatchway. Nos. 3, 4 and 5 hatchways, which are trunked down through the passenger accommodation, are fitted with flush hatches at the passenger decks, so that they do not interfere in any way with games or promenading. When fully loaded with cargo, stores, oilfuel and water, the Dominion Monarch has a deadweight carrying capacity of 16.000 tons. Safety First Motor Liner The general and navigational equipment of the Dominion Monarch is as comprehensive as any that has ever been installed in a ship, and far more than fulfils every requirement of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea. There are 14 large lifeboats, including two oil-engined launches, fitted with wireless telegraphy apparatus. The boats are housed on the latest type of gravity davits, the launching gear and falls being operated by powerful electric winches.

The ship is well subdivided by watertight bulkheads, and is fitted with an all-electric system for controlling eight watertight doors in the bulkheads, three being vertical and five horizontal. All these doors are centrally controlled from the navigating bridge, where electric indicators show when they are closed or open. In addition, there-.are

nine hand-operated watertight doors fitted in the. passenger accommodation, and eight of these have exceptionally large clear-passage openings of 6 feet 6 inches by 6 feet. Every conceivable precaution is taken in the liner against the risk of fire. In addition to the comprehensive and well-organized firefighting appliances, an exceptionally extensive installation of Grinnell sprinklers lias been provided throughout the living accommodation and store and cargo spaces, together with a combined smoke-de-tecting and CO.. fire-extinguishing installation. The cabinet of the smoke-detector on the bridge is so divided and fitted that smoke in any compartment of the ship can be detected and its location known instantly.

Latest Navigational Appliances The navigating bridge and the chart-house of the Dominion Monarch are furnished with a marvellous array of appliances for the navigation and general safety of the ship. In addition to a complete outfit of the latest type of magnetic compasses, the ship is provided with a Sperry gyrorcompass and automatic steering apparatus, electric logs, a recording echo-sounding machine which plots the depths in a continuous graph, and a draught indicator which will give the ship’s draught at any time. There are also revolving clear-view screens, loud-speaking and automatic telephones communicating with every important department of the ship, and a multiplicity of other ingenious appliances relating to the safe

working of the ship at sea or in port.

The windlass for working rhe anchors and cables and the capstans for handling the mooring hawsers are of robust construction, and are operated by powerful electric motors.

Wireless telegraphy naturally occupies an important position in the Dominion Monarch, both in regard to safe navigation and general utility. as well as in case of emergency.

The wireless installation is of the Marconi type, and supplies; facilities for long-wave, medium-wave and short-wave communication, as well as for direction-finding. The ship can be in telegraphic communication at all times with any part of the world or with any other ship at sea.

There is also in the vessel a com-

prehensive sound-reproducing system, and an interesting feature is that all of the 55 loudspeakers in the public rooms, entrances and passageways can be switched on to sound the chimes announcing the serving of meals. Of the 55 loudspeakers 23 are fitted in panelling and 14 in cabinets. There are 18 in entrances and passages for special purposes. Such an arrangement obviously has its uses for emergency no less than for everyday service.

Powerful Propelling Machinery

The Dominion Monarch, which is the most powerful motorship in service in the world, is propelled by four four-bladed screws, driven by four great oil engines aggregating 32.000 brake horsepower to give a speed of 22 knots. Each engine is of the two-stroke cycle, opposedpiston, directly reversible tvpe, and has five cylinders. The maximum output of each engine is 8000 brake horsepower at a speed of 133 revolutions a minute.

The four engines are arranged abreast in the main engine-room, which is 84 feet in breadth. 81 feet in length, and extends to B decklevel in height. There is an engineroom casing at the after end which opens into the second funnel and serves to accommodate the wasteheat fired boilers and the silencers of the main engines. Extensive Use of Electricity Practically the whole of the auxiliary machinery of the Dominion Monarch throughout is electri-cally-driven. This, together with the extensive lighting and other services, requires a vast amount of electric power-—sufficient, indeed, for the requirements of a fair-sized town. The electric-generating plant is housed with a multiplicity of other machinery in the auxiliary en-gine-room. a large powerhouse 54 feet in length and extending for the most part the full width of the ship. There are five electricity generating sets, each of which is rated at 600 k.w., d.c., 220 volts when operating at 280 revolutions a minute, and is driven by a sixcylinder Diesel oil engine. The refrigerating machinery is housed in a separate compartment off the auxiliary engine-room. The main plant comprises four twincompressor CCL sets, each driven by a direct-coupled variable-speed electric motor of 160 horsepower. The ship’s steering gear. is.of the electric-hydraulic type, operated by two 90-horsepower electric motors.

When the main engines are not in operation steam is generated by two boilers, other than those in the after funnel operated by waste heat. Situated at the forward end of the auxiliary engine-room, these boilers burn oil-fuel under natural draught. Steam is used in the Dominion Monarch for the boiler-feed pumps, emergency air-compressor, in connexion with the cooking and heating services and for sundry other intermittent duties, such as heating the oil tanks, etc. To maintain essential lighting and other services in an emergency, an electricity-generating set is fitted in the small deckhouse at the forward end of the sports deck. This set comprises a 100 k.w. generator direct-coupled to a 150 brake horsepower Diesel engine with its own air-starting arrangement, including a small air-compressor.