PRIDE OF ATLANTIC.

Putaruru Press, Volume IV, Issue 127, 8 April 1926, Page 3

PRIDE OF ATLANTIC.

REMODELLED AQUITANIA. “ Triumph of Craftsmanship.” “A magnificent advertisement for British craftsmanship,” is the descrip- ! tion given by the “Morning Post” of; the Cunard Company’s fine steamer Aquitania, as she emerged from her recent overhaul from stem to stern. Britain has always ben proud of the Aquitania. With a gross tonnage of 45,047, she is the largest ship built to date on British shores. But now Britain has another source of pride in this beautiful liner; the incomparable artistry of the decorative schemes in the suites and en suite rooms on “B” deck. To enlarge these twenty-four suites, the former raised deck-chair deck, 7ft. wide, situated between the artists’ suites and the main promenade, has been swept away. But it is not the new spaciousness of the suites that makes the vivid appeal. It is the sheer beauty of the decorative colour schemes. The Cunard Company’s designer has drawn on the artistic lore of the ages and has woven and interwoven his own conceptions so delicately, embellished the chosen styles with so many individual touches, that he has created a series of distinctive designs reminiscent here of the Queen Anne period, there of the Sheraton influence, elsewhere of the art of tho Pharaonic era, but all essentially British. He has, in brief, cast the masterdesigns of the past in a British mould. British Designs and Materials. Take but one instance. For one suite he has chosen the soft grey that one will find on the walls of some of the Royal mortuary chapels in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings at Luxor, j The mural decoration is based on tho vivid lines that limn the rock around the sarcophagus. But instead of the stiff, angular figures, he was woven his i simple chaplet. j With oxidised silver bedsteads, maho- ( gany dressing tabels with large wing j mirrors, a scries of shaded globes dilutI ing a soft glow from the ceiling, and bed-head lamps flooding a rosy radiance through beautiful alabaster bowls of crystal pine-cone design, the designer has cultivated the flower of j Pharaonic art in an atmosphere as delicately intime as the Parisian boudoir. There is surely matter for just pride in the reflection that the new designs land the materials used on these new suites are British products. For five weeks 1500 men have been working on the Aquitania day and night. The army of upholsters, painters, joiners, polishers, electricians, plumbers, shipwrights, fitters, drillers, caulkers, burners, riggers, coppersmiths, marble masons, platers—even bricklayers—swarmed from the tops of .those mammoth funnels to the depths of the lowest engine room. Over 3000 gallons of paint were used to restore to the ship the glimmer of polished brightness. Curtains and hangings were replaced, new linoleum substituted for old, and half an acre of carpet cut and laid. A Ship of Power and Beauty. Extra promenade space was secured on the promenade deck by a rearrangement of the lifeboats. All cargo gear was thoroughly overhauled. The great turbine engines were lifted and cleansed. The machines on which depend the facilities for ventilation, sanitation, cold storage and pumping were adjust-

ed and repaired. Even the giant 100ton rudder has been unshipped and overhauled. And all done right to time —another tribute to British industry. When, right on the stroke of noon on January 20 the Aquitania swung out in the brilliant sunshine for Cherbourg and New York, with her company of distinguished passengers almost garlanded in the wealth of bouquets, she seemed conscious of her power and her beauty. And, as if her pride was infectious, the cro'wd massed upon the dock raised a cheer that grew and rang