THE STEAMSHIP ORIENT.

Kumara Times, Issue 1014, 31 December 1879, Page 4

THE STEAMSHIP ORIENT.

The satisfactory trial trip of the great steamship Orient (says the Pall Mall Gazette) will be of interest to all concerned with Australia. This magnificent vessel of 9000 tons displacement and 5400 .register, capable apparently of averaging -fifteen and sixteen knots an hour in anything like good weather, will at length pujji .Australia on a level with America in -. relffect to comfort at sea. The Orient has been, specially built for this trade, and the owners have wisely adopted the plan first tried by the famous builders of the White Star Line to New York of placing the saloon in the centre of -the ship. Everything has been done in fact to make a voyage to Australia almost as much a . pleasure trip as the summer passage from Queenstown to New York. It is calculated that the Orient will make the passage from Plymouth to Melbourne in .thirty-six days, and the return trip through the Suez Oannal ought to be even more rapid. Indeed, a steamer of this power, if she touched at Brindisi, • would probably bring Melbourne withm the much desired thirty-days' post of England. In order, however, to achieve the long sea passage in the time named, she will have to carry 3000 tons of Welsh coal, and this is in itself a sharp criticism upon the miserable coal-carrying capacity of some of our vessels of war. There is not a ship in the fleet that could keep company with the Orient for a week, leaving aside altogether such a feat as continuous steam to Australia. It is satisfactory to learn, therefore, that in building the Orient attention has been paid to the fact that it may be desirable to turn her. into ah armed cruiser. Arrangements have been made with regard to water-tight compartments and ports for carrying heavy guns in time in need. Thus she would be less of a makeshift than ordinary mercantile steamers. At any rate, for the purpose for which she was originally designed she bids fair to be a great success; and being ready in time for the Sydney and Melbourne exhibitions Mfi great } point for her owners, as well r for those who intend to visit Australia this year and next/