LARGEST CARRIER AFLOAT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1627, 21 October 1916, Page 4

LARGEST CARRIER AFLOAT.

An Italian builder Ims recently launched the larges I cargo-carrier trading on (ho sous. This is Iho Navigazoie Genera le Italian;) linov Milazzo. She is more peculiar and striking in appearance than any ship to be seen on the ocean on account of the twenty (all steel shafts which tower high above the decks. Engineering contrivances comprise a new scheme for the rapid loading of the enormous cargo which the ship carries. She has a cargo capacity of 14,000 tons, is 512 feet, in length, and has a breadth of beam of 05.8 feel, and a moulded depth of .44.8 feel. When loaded her displacement is 20,040 tons, and with a quadruple expansion engine of 4,000 horse-power, she steams at the rate of 14 knots.

The ship is primarily designed for the carrying of coal, grain, or similar hn Ik cargo. On either side of the centre of the ship are tunnels, each with two tracks laid. On these tracks small cars travel until elevator shafts are reached, from which elevators reach lo the upper deck. The cars, loaded with freight, are carried by these elevators to a height iyom which they can he emptied into smaller vessels alongside the Milazzo or on the pier. The roofs of the tunnels in the hold are slanting, anil feed the enrgo through small openings to the ears on the Backs, so that it may be conveyed to the elevators for discharge. Bo efficient has this system been proved that, it is possible to unload jhe rargo of 14,000 tons un liu . Milazzo in 48 hours, with a great diminution of the man labour required for (he unloading of the ordinary ship. The Milazzo has twenty of these elevators, and shafts used for loading ami unloading. Another advantage secured by the new design „f construction is that, because of the slanting sides „f the ship’s holds, the cargo, when taken on hoard, practically stows itself. The Volturno, a sister ship of the Milazzo, is to he launched at Bpezzia, Italy, in a few weeks’ time.