THE STEAMSHIP GOTHENBURGH

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1468, 18 April 1873, Page 2

THE STEAMSHIP GOTHENBURGH

For some weeks past a conspicuous object iv the basin of the Yarra, below the Falls Bridge, has been a dismasted and dismantled steamship, undergoing a thorough sea change. This vessel is the Gothenburg, whilom wellknown in the New Zealand trade.

When next she goes to sea she may fairly be regarded as a new ship The first process was to strip her fairly and to remove all her wooden top-sides. Thoroughly examined, her ironwork below was found to be in as good a state as when she was first launched eighteen years ago. The first business was to carefully cement the lower portion of the hull by the kelson, so that no biljre water could possibly touch the iron before, the plankin* was put down. Then the ship was built upon, the iron sides which had been employed to make the Cerberus fit for the voyage from England to Melbourne haviDg been bought by the owners of the Gothenburgh for the purpose to which the plates have now beeu applied. The result is that a comparatively unsightly ship has been changed into a very handsome vessel, and one of the strongest which hails from the port. She has been thoroughly receiled throughout, her 'tween decks now— braced with angle iron all round — are between seven and eight feet high, and well lined. Her new decks are of four-inch pine, carefully laid down, her engines were taken to pieces and it is curious to note that— like those of the Claud Hamilton, and those of another of the Company's steamers that lately underwent a thorough overhaul here — it was found better to send them to Ballarat. to tbe firm of Messrs Walker and Co. , for thorough repairs, than to employ any of the Melbourne firms. The Gothenburg, as her accommodations are now arranged, will carry but a limited number of passengers — not more than the Coorong. But she is not so much intended for a passenger steamer in the intercolonial trade as for sharing in other trades for which handy vessel of her class and steaming power are now becoming more and more wanted. She will be ready, for example, for a voyage to Newcastle, when coals again run up to famine prices, or if the sugar market presents a ■temptation, she will be fit for a run to Java or Mauritius, to bring hack her 700 or 800 tons of the produce of the cane plantations ; or she will carry her 120 horses to Madras or Calcutta, and return with rice from Rangoon; or she will take a flying run to China for tea — just as the market creates an opening. A very handsomely carved figure-head, representing a woman, will add. not little to the appearance , of the ship, and when— a fortnight or so hence— the last of the shipwrights engineers, painters, and riggers have left the vessel, the general verdiot of the public will

be that, with great spirit and at a large expense, M'Meckan, Blackwood, and Co., have carried out a new idea of much importance to the port, and that the new Gothenburg will be so great an improvement on the old one as to be known only as a new ship. — Melbourne Aye.