The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY, AUGUST 23, 1930. MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

Hokitika Guardian, 23 August 1930, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY, AUGUST 23, 1930. MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

Being a progressive newspaper, tile Daily Mail likes to look pleasantly ahead. If its aeronautical correspondent- gives a touch of graphic realism to pictures of ships of the air that are agreeably in advance of their times, its nautical expert doubtless feels placed upon his mettle accordingly. The present is an era of marked activity in the planning and construction of larger and faster liners than the world lias hitherto known. If half of what is; promised in this direction materialises, says the ! Otago Daily Times, there is likely to he some very pretty competition for the blue riband of the Atlantic in the -not distant future. The dimensions of the mammoth vessel which the Cunard Company is projecting really seem to be growing .more 1 impressive with every fresh cablegram received relating to the subject. According to the latest bulletin the vessel is to be- ICOOft. in length, of 75,000 tons, and to cost £6,000,000. It is understandable that within a length of a thousand feet quite a few Atlantic billows may find space to rise and fall. This little consideration is of interest in relation to the secret which the Daily Mail divulges that, provided experiments which are now in progress are successful, the giant Cunarder will not stretch exactly a vast unbroken rigid length upon the waters, but will consist of three sections, the idea- being, that the forward and after sections can rise upon the crests of the rollers while the. central mass sags in the trough, and the vessel’s back is thus relieved of undue strain. Otherwise put. the scheme is to prevent any possibility of the ship’s hade being broken by the simple expedient of breaking it before-band in two places. But wliv only two places? Why should not the. vessel he constructed in not three only, but many sections, so that her back might be as sinuous a.s that- of the sea serpent and she might rhythmically rise and fall and undulate and in truth wag her very tail to meet all ocean frolics and pressures? The Daily Mail seems quite hopeful about the prospects for the now jointed liner of the future, bin there are other sea risks than those of breaking a- liner’s 'back. Too little rigidity might easily be 'more embarrassing than too much. There would seem to lie a rich vnrietv in 1 lie pro-

blems which the behaviour of a threesectioned liner might present for solu-

tion, not least of which might he undue competition by passengers for atv' commodaiion amidships. But perhaps there is no occasion for serious concern. The marine architects are wonderful at their business, and are. probably a little too conservative or jealous of their reputation to perpetrate a leviathan that lifts or drops her ends independently of her middle, and in her quivering shecrlinc presents a novelty calculated to set ancient mariners howling to their gods.' Tne tradition “The liner she’s, a lady,” may live a little longer.