SEA RECORDS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 413, 23 December 1932, Page 6

SEA RECORDS

.... SHIP OPAWA MAKES YERY FAST PASSAGE. What is belicved to be a record passage between Auckland and London, via Cape Horn and Dakar, has been completed by the New Zealand Shipping Company's motoi*-ship Opawa. The Opawa left Auckland at 2.30 p.m. on November 10, and arrivecl at London at 1.45 p.m. on Decemher 14. It is not known how long the Opawa stayed at Dakar which is on the West Coast of Africa, for fuel, but the voyage was one of 34 days. To escape the Panama Canal dues, ships proceeding Hom'ewards from New Zealand have recently taken to using the Gape Horn route, and records on the route are still in the proeess of formation. However, the Opawa's performance will take a fair bit of beating, although it is likely the Otaio and Orari, sister ships to the Opawa, could repeat the performance. The Opawa has a number of fast pas'sages to her credit. On one trip, in which she made a record for the Glas-gow-Auekland, via Cape of Good Hope route, she maintained an average for the whole voyage of 16.02 knots. The distance covered was 13,620 miles, and the actual steaming time 850,25 hours. The Opa-^ on this occasion was in ballast, but when loaded on a previons occasion phe maintained an average speed of 15 knots between Liverpool and Aucldand, via the Cape of Good Hope, lior a call only at Dakai", the Opawa made a record passage of 345 days when she arrived in London from Wellington in August of last year. The Opawa, which was launched early. last year, has a gross tonnage