BY STEAM AND SAIL

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8343, 1 February 1913, Page 9

BY STEAM AND SAIL

£ *Tho sarrulons sea is talking to the shore: let us go down and hear the graybeard’s speech.” Interesting details regarding the construction of the Cunarder Aquitania, which will be the world's largest steamer, were mentioned at a Board of Trade inquiry at Glasgow. Application was made by the Clyde Lighthouse Trust to deposit 1,000,000 cubic yards of dredged material upon a certain area on the lower roaches of the river. It was stated that the removal was primarily to permit of the Aquitania being taken out to the open sea. The vessel is expected to be launched in the spring,,and by the following year will be ready for commission. She is 45,000 tons burden, and it is intended to widen and deepen the Clyde channelway. Mr Raeburn, chairman of the Trust, stated that the Aquitania was a big problem, and every hour of their time would be required for the dredging. Several local authorities objected to the application, but after reassuring statements had been made by the promoters these were withdrawn, and Captain Monro stated that he would submit his report to the Board of Trade. The Wellaud Canal, by means of which the Niagara Falls are circumvented by vessels passing to and fro from the Upper Lakes and Lake Ontario, is to be very considerably enlarged in the near future. This canal forms the key of the great inland waterway system which provides cheap transport for so large a proportion of Canada’s commerce, and its improvement is a necessary consequence of the great growth of the trade of the Western portion of the Dominion. Plans are now nearing completion for the building of the now Welland Canal, providing, it is believed, for what will be the largest canal in Canada, the lock walls being practically the same as those of the Panama Canal. The new canal null probably enter Lake Ontario at McCallas Cove, three miles from the present outlet .at Port Dalhousic, and will'oxtend from Thorold, a distance of eight miles. This is what is known as the Ten Mile Creek route. The whole canal will then be 25 miles long. From Thorold to Port Colhorno the old channel will be used. It is expected that the work will (says a contemporary) take five years to complete, and the cost has been roughly estimated at £10,000,000. The construction of the canal, which it is hoped will be begun next summer, will call for the use of a very large plant, including a dozen large dredges, and 50 steam shovels. With this equipment it will be possible to carry on the work at all points simultaneously. The drillers and engineers are still at work along the route.

Some curious names are collected in an interesting article on ship christening in the shipping supplement of “The Times.” The writer thinks that the ideal name for the liner “should be emblematic of strength, grace, and the sea . through which she is to plough ; it should, for telegraphic purposes, not exceed ten letters, and it should be distinctice.” These qualifications are rarely all assembled in one name. He thinks the ideal name for a British ship is Britannia, but it is borne by a score of large craft; and hundreds of small ones, and ship-owners should not be encouraged to use it.

The Arcadian, of the Eoyal Mail Packet Company, is mentioned as particularly appropriate, and praise is given to the ten “Queens” of'the Dunlop line, Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, etc. —partly because such nomenclature is in accordance with the old rule that ships are of the feminine gender. A Hull trawling company has gone to Shakespeare for sixty names for its boats, another shipping firm call all its vessels after Scott’s novels, and a third takes the names of great public schools.

More appropriate is the naming of a fleet of trawlers after insects, trawlers veing very busy little boats; but it is curious that the names of fishes do not seem to have any attraction for shipowners. Perhaps they aro too suggestive, There is a touch of poetry and romance in the “Ho 1” line -—Eastward Ho! and Onward Ho! — and in White Wings and Silver Wings, though the latter are scarcely happy names for steamers. There are also some fearsome names. Pity the poor /hipping reporter compelled to record the arrival of the Thandauthapanijturavy, commanded by Captain Mailvaganam Coomaraswamy, or of the Thiro Nada Rasa Sivakama Sunthara Letchemy.

German North and Baltic Sea shipbuilding firms, according to one of the leading German x )a P ers > continue to complain about unsatisfactory prices. This factor was brought out in their annual statements, and has been again emphasised during the past few months. This state of affairs applies not so much to the building of small craft, business in which is at present quite good, but rather to vessels of the largest dimensions, which are built to special plans and not to prescribed standards. The calculations in respect of these huge vessels, which include large ironclads, have, owing to lack of experience, repeatedly turned out to be inaccurate, owing to alterations in the original plans and during the course of construction.

The factor of inexperience frequently leads to a certain amount of risk, not to say loss, especially in the building of war vessels. It is asserted, continues the “ Frankfurter Zeitung," that owing to the keen competition for the building of German war vessels prices are quoted which do not take an adequate account of the cost entailed according to the plans. Apart from that, however, the cause of keen underbidding among shipbuilders is attributable both to lack of experience tand to ignorance of the precise object in view. In view of these conditions, efforts were started some time ago in Berlin to form a syndicate among shipbuilders, but so far nothing definite has resulted, principally owing to the widely divergent interests which must 7iecessarily be reconciled. It appears, however, that the negotiations are still going on.