THE I.C.R.M. CO.’S SQUADRON.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume III, Issue 165, 11 March 1864, Page 3

THE I.C.R.M. CO.’S SQUADRON.

There are few managers more actively on the alert, or more prompt in carrying their plans of improvement into operation, than Captain Vine Hall. One by one, and again and again, the ships of the Inter-Colonial Company have been modified and improved, through the force of his inventive genius, both in their sea-going qualities and in the great essential of passenger accommodation. As instances : —“ Claud Hamilton,” which yesterday left this port, lias had her sleeping cabins enlarged by some eighteen inches in width, and that, too, without impairing the beauty of her superb saloon. Fault has been found with her as a slow boat, notwithstanding which she has been extremely punctual in performance of her duties ; and after her next trip, we understand, she will be put into the hands of the Sydney engineers, with a plan in prospect by which, it is expected, her motions will be greatly accelerated. As a safe, easy, and comfortable sea boat, she cannot be surpassed.

As yet, the “ Phoebe” is perhaps the crack boat of the fleet, strong, swift, an admirable sea-goer, and with capacious and elegant accommodation that leaves nothing to be desired.

The “ Lord Ashley” has been remodelled and refitted, until we who know her as a mere cattle drogger in 1858, have some difficulty in recognising her as a smart and comfortable packet ship of 1864. Notwithstanding this, she, too, is once more about to be placed in the improver’s hands, —withdrawing from the East Coast station in the course of the next two months, when she will be replaced by that unrivalled clipper the “ Otago,” which is about to undergo a thorough averhaui from clue to earing, and to be placed in'command of Capt. Eandall, Capt. Smith, we believe, being likely to he transferred to the “ Ashley,” which will, after her overhaul, become the second boat on the East Coast line, of which Tauranga, at no very distant date, must inevitably become a most important port of call. To place ihe swiftest and latest of the Company’s vessels on the Auckland and Dunedin line seems to be suggestive of the rapid and increasing intercourse between the two great commercial ports of Northern and Southern New Zealand. “ Prince Alfred” is also in the hands of the improver; she is a noble craft, and will do her duty in whatever trade she may be placed. “ Airedale,” long and justly regarded as the cream of the Company’s craft, has undergone on extensive overhaul am\ refit since she last visited the Manukau waters. A new boiler, one-third larger than the former, has been put on board, whilst the engines have all been taken out and refitted, after being made equal to new. In the saloon, ventilation has been improved by means of an airfunnel which traverses the whole of the state rooms, and is connected with the ventilators on deck. There are likewise air pipes through the upper part of the cabins to the deck. These serve to carry off the foul air. The skylights, also, have been enlarged. The deck

Louse has been carried right across from side to side, thus affording ample splice for officers’ cabins, galley, &c. A steam winch and donkey have been supplied for quick discharge of cargo at the various ports of call on the West Coast. In Sydney it was generally admitted by persons competent to express an opinion, that “ Airedale” is one of the best equipped of any mercantile steamer out of that port, and we are led to expect that no steamer on the New Zealand Coast will be able to compete with her in point of continuous speed. On the trial trip at Sydney, the first day out, with engines stiff, she ran 11| knots by the measured mile. She is in command of Mr. R. A. Ferguson, formerly in Cunard’s service, commander of the “ Matoaka,” subsequently chief officer of the “ Australasian,” and latterly, the “ Phoebe.” The “ Airedale is due at Onehunga on the 11th inst.— N. Z. Herald, March 3.