BUSY SHIPYARDS

Opotiki News, Volume I, Issue 112, 21 November 1938, Page 4

BUSY SHIPYARDS

POSITION IN -BRITAIN DEMAND FOR MACHINERY HIGH PRESSURE ACTIVITY The busy, state of the British engineering and shipbuilding industries, apart altogether from .rearmament orders, wa» referred to by Mr. A- S. Peacock, a manufacturer of' steamship and Diesel engines in Melbourne, who was a. through passenger by the Monterey. For some classes of. machinery, lie said, orders could not bo executed for two and a-lialf years. Members of the British Association of Tool Manufacturers, who were doing very little munition >vork, were employed night and day to meet orders. 1

Mr. Peacock was considerably impressed by the developments that had taken place in certain classes of machinery. Wonderful improvements Were noted in tuVbine engines at the Glasgow Exhibition. There was exceptional activity in the shipyards in Great Britain, and he had not observed a vacant slipway oy his tours through the Clydeside. Shops devoted to marine engines were working at pressure for mercantile marine orders. He inspected the Bulolo, tho new Bfurns, Philp steamer for

the Islands trade, and his admiration was-excited hy its exceptional equipment. Ho spent a week in th'e engine room of the liner,Queen Elizabeth, and, by.comparison with the liner Queen Mary, improvements were i evident that suggested that the first-named would be 'tho speedier ship. Apart from the engines, there were other improvements in the Queen Elizabeth, notably in the accommodation for tourist class.

Mr." Peacock paid a tribute to the great development effected in the American engineering industry, which was not so busy, however, as the British. Nor, did the state of'the American. shipbuilding industry compare. He visited several major shipbuilding yards where slips were being prepared for orders that were to be lodged. His dominant impression of America was that it was suffering from labour troubles,- and it was a new experience foA him to see girl strikers parading the streets.