NEW MATSON LINERS

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 190, 8 May 1940, Page 7

NEW MATSON LINERS

Proposal To Build' Ships Of 35,000 Tons The Matson Line intends to proceed with its plans for building two luxuri- ' ous 35,000-ton liners at a cost of more than £3,125,000 (Australian) each, for the service between San Francisco and Australia. Tlie announcement was made by the president of the Matson company, Mr. W. P. Both, and was received by the Sydney branch of the Matson company recently. According to ollicials of the company in Sydney, the new vessels will not be of the ‘'President” or “Hight deck” type favoured by the United States Maritime Commission, but will conform with the Matson company’s own plans. "I have seen the plans of Hie new liners,” said .Mr. E. D. Walker, trallic manager of the Matson Company in Sydney. “The ships will be the last word in luxury.’ In equipment and fittings they will compete with anything afloat, including the transatlantic liners.”

The United States Maritime Commission announced recently that it proposed to build four 35,000-ton liners of the “President” class, which were designed for quick conversion to aircraft carriers. Two of the ships would run between California and the East, and the other two to Australia. According to the report, received in Sydney, Mr. Kolb informed Ihe Maritime Commission that the “flight deck” type of vessel could not. be adapted to the peculiar needs of the Australian trade. His company, he said, had been advised that, unless Hie proposed liners were designed for conversion to naval use, they would have to build without the United Slates Government construction subsidies. “The flight deck superstructure of these 'President’ vessels so restricts tlie amount of passenger space that such vessels could not be adapted to our needs,” Mr. Roth added. “We need space for about. 900 passengers in first and second class quarters exclusively. These ‘flight deck’ ships will have accommodation for fewer Ilian Got) such passengers. Their large steerage accommodation would be useless for the Australian trade.”