NEW MOTOR SHIP

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 398, 6 December 1932, Page 6

NEW MOTOR SHIP

AUSTRALIAN CHALLENGE TO THE MATSON LINE. THE WAN GANELLA. Interesting referenee to the purchase by the Huddart-Parker Companv oi' the motor-ship Achimota (renamed Wanganella by her new owners) is made in "The Syren and Shipping," which states that the sale of ihe 9563-ton motor-liner marks an- • ither slep forward in the settlement ■>i the tangled affairs of the Royal Mail group and also signifies the de-.ermine-d nature oi' the reply which uie Australian firm intend to make i.o the challenge of the American Matson Line (in the Pacific trade. .vie,-srs. Huddart, Parker had been considering the acquisition of new connage for some time past, and reocntly it was reported that they were eontemplating ordering a ship from Messrs. Harland and Wolff. Their plans, however, were altered and negotiations ' for the purchase of the Achimota were concluded. Sold by the Builders. This vessel was completed by Hariand and Wolff at Belfast in 1931, but owing to the reorganisation of the Royal Mail group she was never delivered. In effect, she was left on her builders' hands, for them to dispose of as and when they could. In the voting trustees' explanatory memorandum regarding the Royal Mail seheme, it was .stated: "The m.v. Achimota shall not be delivered to ihe African Steam Ship Comp-any or to Operating Company No. 2- (now Elder Dempster Lines, Ltd.) or mortgagod, but shall be sold hy Harland and Wolff, Limited, as a new vessel for the best price obtainable. The net proceeds of sale shall be applied in or toward paying the balance due and „o become due to Harland and Wolff," Ltd., in respect of the completion of the m.v. Achimota and the bills for £277,500 (except as to £25,000 part thereof to be taken over by Operating Company No. 2) rateably. Any dericiency shall be satisfied in deferred creditors' certificates of the African Steam Ship Company at par." The cost of construction was- £520,000, but no details are yet available as to the purchase price agreed upon, and in any estimate of this latter the rate of exchange as between Australian pound and the pound stei'ling has to be taken into account. Messrs. Harland and Wolff reconditioned the ship and prepared her i'or her second trials, the work being supervised hy Mr. C. S. Waugh, Messrs. Huddart Parker's marine superintendent, who was at Home in connection with the transjficttion. Although she was launched in December, 1929, her original trials were not run until last summer, as her completion was delayed owing to the loss of her machinery through the sinking of the Burns and Laird Line vessel which was carrying it from Govan to Belfast. New engines had then to he constructed. The Archimota will be the largest vessel in her new owners' fleet. that record being at present held by the motor-ship Westralia, 8108 tons gross. and she will be employed in the service between Australian and New Zealand ports, commencing in January, when her first trip will probably be to Wellington.