GIANT NEW CUNARDER

Opotiki News, Volume I, Issue 61, 25 July 1938, Page 4

GIANT NEW CUNARDER

LAUNCHING NEXT iMO.NTH MAIDEN TRIP IN JUNE, 1939 NEARLY 2000 MEN ENGAGED LONDON, May 20. A great new Cunarder, which will inherit the name Mauretania from the gallant liner known for more than a quarter century as the “Speed Queen of the Atlantic,” is being born in a. forest of derricks and scaffolding at Birkenhead, opposite Liverpool, on the bii!*y River Mersey. An army of 2,000 workmen lias been feverishly busy, through the winter and early spring putting the finishing touches to the steel hull of the 33,000ton vessel, which will be launched on July 28 and completed in time for a maiden voyage to New York in June, U/39, as a floating British Museum of art and industry for the World’s Fair. Hundreds of pneumatic hammers have been humming a. strange staccato lullaby as they drive home the last of the 2,500,C00 rivets in the CunardWhite Star Line’s new “baby.” Doubly Proud. j 'j This is believed to be a record in the construction of 11 liner of such tonnage. The Queen Mary, the biggest liner ever built in England, of wliieb the Mauretania will be a pocket edition, was launched on the .Cjylde, in Scotland, from the slipway which now cradles the shell of a sister ship, the Queen Elizabeth. The Olympic, now being broken up for scrap, wast- another large British liner, but came from Belfast, as did the Georgia and the Britannic.

The new Mauretania dwarfs everything else on the Merseyside. Walls of steel already tower 85 feet above the * waterfront of the shipyard of Cammell Laird and Company, Limited. They will be still higher before the Mauretania leaves the ways. From the unfinished promenade deck, the new British aircraft carrier Ark Royal, which is nearing completion in a wet basin at the yard l , looked like a pugnacious, snubnosed baby whale. Far below at one side lay the squat skeleton of a new 25,000-ton battleship, the Prince of Wales. In graceful contrast, the yaclit-like lines of the Mauretania, soared above the tangle, of crane? and cat-walks. Her rust-stained, uupainted plates—each ricket chalked with the approval

A\\e: •• ; ;; v; : . •• • - of experts —failed to mar the sweep of the hull from the raked stem to the cruiser stern. The terracing of the upper decks near tlie bridge was beginning to take form. Beneath the Mauretania’s huge but almost flat belly, workmen were getting ready to build" tlie t :t which ’, will take ship’s weight'from the keel blocks and shoring for the launch. .

It was difficult to imagine that mass of steel, sliding /into the river and floating 1 safely,V but' representatives of the Canard-White Star Line were confident that notjiing would mar the ceremony. •*& 20-foot tide is , due in the Mersey on July 28, and when it reaches its peak Lady Bates, wife of Sir Percy Bates- chairman of CunardWhite 6tdT, Limited, will break the traditional bottle of champagne and give the signal, for the props to be knocked "away. Maroons will warn shipping to keep clear as the Mauretania dips into the river. The Mersey is a mile wide opposite the slipway, but the tide will take the hull upstream before it has a chance of crashing into the Liverpool shore. As the Mauretania- loses momentum 10 tugs will" cast..dines aboard and tow her to the' fitting-out basin. 1400 Passengers. f When the Mauretania leaves the Mersey in 'April or May, next year, lor her trials in the Irish idea, she will have cost about £2,500,000. 1 win "sereins, taking their power from steam turbines, will drive tlie Mauretania at 0 „ 22-23 knots “with something m reserve.” She will carry 1400 passengers in cabin tourist and third classes and will make the crossing to New York in six to seven days. ‘London is expected to be the Mauretania’s borne port, as it is for the Geprgie and Britannic. Like these ships, the Mauretania will call at Havre and Southampton before proceeding to New York.

The Cunard-White Star Line’s express service will be handled by the liners Queen Mary, Aquitania and Berengaria. "When the new Queen Elizabeth is completed in 1940, the Cunard June’s centenary year, the Aquitania and Borengaria probably will be sc rapped. The Mauretania will then be used as an occasional relief ship on the express run, whenever the Queen Mary or Queen Elizabeth is taken out of service for an 1 overhaul.

The new Mauretania will be 2000 .tons larger than her namesake and ahout as long. She will not he as fast unless that “something in reserve” at which shipping men hint at means several knots.

The M siu rota ilia’s two main gear wheels will be the largest ever eon-

structed for a liner. "They are 46 loot in circumference, 15 feet in diameter and weigh 85 tons. Nearly 500 teeth will be vCut in. each wheel, this process takipg three months. The teeth are cut to the one-hundred thousandth of an inch. Two propellers for the ship are now being cast in’ London. They are equal in size to those of tlie Queen Mary and each will weigh twenty-five tons. Castings By the Ton. Other giant castings for the Mauretania include the rudder and stock, ninety tons; shaft brackets, fortyfive tons, and stern frame, forty tons. These have been forged at Daflington. Steel shafting for the propellors has been made at Sheffield and is '309 feet in length. Three anchors, each of ten tons, are being made, and nearly three miles of chains, cables and wire hawsers have been ordered'. Construction of the Mauretania has given employment to 5,009 men at the Birkenhead yard. The work has stimulated many trades throughout the country, and it is estimated that by the time the Mauretania is completed about 150,000 persons" in 100 cities and towns will have taken some part in her construction, furnishing and e'quipmeut.