Marine Tattle

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 31, 29 April 1927, Page 2

Marine Tattle

A NEW MOTOR LINER —A new motor liner for Lloyd Sabaudo Line has been laid down at Trieste. She will have a tonnage of 25,000 tons, and will be christened Conte Grande. PADDLE STEAMER SALVED. — The paddle steamer Washington Irving, 3,104 tons gross, which sank after a collision in the Hudson River last June in 30ft of water, has been salved by the Morris and Cummings Dredging Company, after she had been abandoned by her owners and the underwriters. She was owend by the Hudson River Day Line, of New York, and was the largest vessel in the company’s fleet. A watertight cofferdam 24ft in height and about 524 ft in circumference was built around the vessel, in order to facilitate salvage work. UNIFORM FUNNEL. Upon the amalgamation of the German Australian Steamship Company and the Ham-burg-America Line it was decided to create a uniform funnel for all steamers by uniting the funnel mark of the D.A.D.G. (black, white, red top on black funnel) with the funnel mark of the Hamburg-America Line (yellow funnel). As a result, all steamers are now furnished with the funnel mark of black, white, red beginning at the top of the funnel and the lower part painted yellow. The first steamer of the line to visit Sydney bearing the new funnel mark was the Essen, which arrived there early this month.

DEPTH BY SOUND. —lncluded in the navigation equipment of the motorship Alcantara is the Echo Sounding Gear, which has been supplied by Mesrs. Henry Hughes and Son, Ltd., The receiver, which is fixed in the chart-room, measures the depth of water by recording the time taken for a sound to travel from the ship to the sea-bed and back again. The ground transmitter is fitted in the shell of the ship just below the engine-room, and is connected to the receiver. It is operated by the ship’s circuit. The hydrophone fitted forward under the bridge and connected with it amplifies the echo. By means of this ingenious installation, an immediate sounding can be obtained together with a continuous record of the depth. AROUND THE WORLD CRUISE.— The fourth annual cruise around the world of the Red Star liner Belgenland. calls attention to three additional ports of call for *the voyage of 30,000 miles, which will begin at New York, December 14 next. These are Keelun, island of Formosa, Bangkok and Athens. On her present cruise, from which she is now due at New York, the Belgenland was diverted from Shanghai, at the request of the American and Belgian consuls there, because of local war conditions and as an alternative visited Bangkok. Reports of the call there, received at New York by radio, led to inclusion of the Siamese capital as a fixture in next winter’s itinerary. The Belgenland which is the largest steamshipJto circumnavigate the globe, is now en route from Calcutta to Colombo, and has 400 Americans on board. THE MARGARET W.— The Margaret W. has been placed in commission at Sydney to carry poles from Port Stephens to New Zealand, having been chartered for this purpose by Mr. A. C. Brown, of Newcastle. Built five years ago in Denmark, and named the Margot, she is a four-masted auxiliary schooner, fitted with a 100 h.p. Diessel engine. She was registered in Sweden, bought in France, and re-registered in England by her present owner, Captain Watchlin. It is stated that the last time she changed hands she was sold for £28,000; Captain Watchlin acquired the vessel for just one-quar-ter of that sum. Her length is 141 ft., beam 33ft., depth 14ft. 6in. She has a carrying capacity of about 600 tons and left England on January 1 with a cargo of fire bricks for Mauritius. From there her first port of call was Port Kembla for loading instructions. When the work of loading poles at Port Stephens is completed she will proceed direct to a New Zealand port. She will remain under British registration.

THE MARGARET W. —The auxiliary four-masted schooner Margaret W.. previously known as the Margot, left Newcastle yesterday for Kopu. The vessel, which is commanded by Captain Watchlin, of Auckland, also has cargo from Port Stephens.