Marine Tattle

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 80, 25 June 1927, Page 2

Marine Tattle

NORWEGIAN SHIPPING. The report of Wilh. Wilhelm sons Rederier, which manages a fieet of 21 motor-ships and 29 steamers, totalling 428,910 tons dead-weight, contains an interesting review of conditions in 1926. In the first half of the year freights fell to such a low level that not even enough profit was earned to provide for depreciation. Complaint is made of high taxation and other State burdens and regulations, which place Norwegian shipping at a dis <1 vantage compared with that of otl > countries. Cargo carried by the regular lines exceeded 1,000,000 tons for the first time, while tramps and tankers carried 1,392,129 tons of cargo. The vessels covered 2,446,805 miles during the year and the gross freights amounted to 55,465,525kr.

AMERICAN MERCHANT LINES.— The United States Shipping Board announced from Washington on May 3 that it has decided to take no action at the present time to place the ships of the American Merchant Lines under direct Governmental operation. The decision was reached upofi the proposal of the president of ths Merchant Fleet Corporation, Mr. A. O. Dalton, to consolidate the American Line ships with the United St Lines, now operated by the Fleet Corporation. The 10 ships of the American Merchant Lines, five passenger-cargo vessels and five cargo ships, are operated by J. H. Winchester and Co., Inc., of New York, who, under the board’s action on May 3, will be retained as managing operators. CONWAY’S NEW COMMANDER.—

Lieutenant-Commander F. A. Richardson, R.N\, has been appointed commander of the cadet ship Conway, in succession to Captain H. W. Broadbent, whose retirement was recently announced. The new commander was a Conway cadet from 1900 to 1902, and in the latter year was the King’s Gold Medallist. He served for four years as a deck officer with the Asiatic Steam Navigation Company, and, after training in the Royal Naval Reserve, was transferred to general service with the navy for meritorious service. Since then he has had ten and a half year’s continuous command of His Majesty’s ships. During the war he was twice mentioned in despatches, and was awarded the D.S.C.

THE OLD MANNER.— Owners and skippers understood one another pretty well in the old days and, knowing that collier brig captains preferred to choose their own officers, the owner rarely inflicted a man of his selection. If he did so the nominee had a roughish time. •’Here is a story that I frequently heard told during my early seafaring life, where a skipper was given a new mate of whom he disapproved,” writes Sir Walter Runciman, a well-known Tyneside shipowner; “Coming down the coast he encountered bad weather. The mate, climbing his way to the poop of the sailing vessel, commenced stuttering something, and the captain said to the stuttering officer: ‘For God’s sake go away and make • a poem about it and come back in two hours to sing it to me.’ The vessel was at that time going ten knots an hour. The mate came back to him as ordered, and this is what he sang: “Should auld acquaintance be forgot And never brought to mind, The blooming cook fell overboard And he's twenty miles behind.”

H.M.S. WOODCOCK —lt Is interestwLJd r ? al U th , at the Old gunboat, Woodcock, which was lately in action on the Yangtse River, was the first ITtT the l v e B U iSh Nav >- to navigate the Yangtse Gorges between Ichang and Chungking. She was built by Messrs. Thornycroft at Chiswick 30 YS ar ? and was a sister vessel o£ the Melik, which was built for Lord U* tc , l ? erier K Khartoum Expedition, and led the river attack, bombarded Khartoum and destroyed the Mahdi’s tomb A very shallow' draught was obtained by using screws in tunnels, and the plating ot the upper part of the vessel % “YP er , Str l uc . tur< ' was only about 3-16 in thick, but was nevertheless capable of resisting ordinary rifle bullets owing to the fact that it was composed of specially heat treated alloy steel. This V, ; aa , I U,C flrst case of the employment of this material for anything other than small gun shields. The hull was a , nu , mber of watertight sections to facilitate re-erecion abroad It speaks well for the design and con-' struction of the vessel that, after :;o years, the Woodcock is still an effective unit.

MAIL BAG CONVEYOR.— A new mail bag conveyor has recently- been put into use at Plymouth. This conveyer, which was built by Messrs Frazer and Chalmers, is balanced upon a central pivot, and, when not in use is turned parallel to the quavside where a tender is brought alongside the pier. The conveyor is pivoted so tba t the lower end rests upon the deck of the tender, while the other end Itefv in’ Sl ? a ,a Platfrir "» immediw?l y Ttl h the mail van doorway. The belt is electrically driven and is capable of a speed of 260 ' vllen loaded. The balanced pivot and suspension of the belt enables tenders to be discharged at any state of the tide while powerful lighting obviates all the difficulties usually experienced during night -vork- £* U eall v? e With tw- tSSfc in Xe min v,™ . b t en i- he Practice- for the to - be dlsc karged from the “ ? lyin £j in Plymouth Sound to a he nU A then o br °ught alongside ,:®, 1 , Ir ; where they were discharged and loaded into railway mail-vans bv anendkss human chlin each Lan passing on to the tender by one gane- ! vay ’ Picking up a bag and proceedmiavS. S another gangway to ' the hi the v'aiL here tb i bas " as deposited

AQUITANIA'S CENTENARY the Aquituuiu. reached " ben last on May 3 she had coniDl {^fuc r . ed Thil°^n“ulat a tb oaa *** Au service alone since the°war*

TEES-SIDE 120-TON CRANE—-p*. 12 O^tThoue h t \ n * xlmurn lift ©* stalled the crane primarily EL ilu use. to lift and place in ally - { It has a

SINGAPORE DOCK.— The Adm' SKI-istSSSi making good progress, and three of which is designed for service*Lt**??* new naval base at Singapore* * ordered in November of last vm*** seven sections ov** 20,000 tons of steel. Of this total h? tween 8.000 and 10,000 tons have been delivered and about 4,000 tonL worked into the structure. Some '.h’i'T t iVetS "L" b , e re <iuired before the dock is ready for taking out to the East. As all the steel is being ob tained on the Tyne and the Tees, the oontuu represents a \er\ large amount of employment in that area.

THE BERWICK.— The light crui*, Berwick, which the Fairfield Shipbuild. ing and Engineering Company, Goran has- recently completed for the \a’ miralty, has been on the hands of h»r builders for almost three veirv The comparatively long time is J? plained mainly by the fact that the Admiralty was not pressing for delivery. and in consequence progress slowm the early stages. The Berwick cruisers, and is in general design a sister-ship to four other vesselia nowunder construction on the Clyde the Norfolk, ut Fairfield; the Shropshire at Dalmuir: and the Australian cruisers Australia and Canberra, at Clydebank —as well as to several others in Ene. lish werds.

SALVAGE ON THE TEES.— An unusual occurrence took place in the Tecs recently. Loaded with plates, the small coasting steamer Smaragd -vyas proceeding down the river to the sea when there was a roar from the stokehold and the ship was enveloped in steam. The crew, fearing an explosion, abandoned the ship, it is reported, and the vessel, still with some way on. was heading for a wharf with a vessel alongside, and both were threatened with damage. Some six or seven fovboatmen, however, boarded the vessel, and while the departed crew looked on, still waiting for the boilers to explode, the foy-boatnien successfully berthed the steamer to await survey. The vessel is of 458 tons, built in 1889, and is owned by Messrs. Hannevig Brothers, Ltd., of Llanelly. NEW AUSTRALIAN COASTER.— The new cargo steamer Noora, of the Adelaide S.S. Co.’s line, recently made her first trip to Sydney. The Noora is under the command of Captain W. Scott -Kemball, formerly in charge of the Orama. He brought her from Blytk to Adelaide, leaving the port on February 6, and taking 58 dayi to Adelaide, by way of the Suez Canal From there she went to Thevenard, which port was left on May 21. Thisii the vessel’s first trip in the inter-State trade. A steamer of 1,078 tons gross register, the Noora is a very trim looking craft, and, although without passenger accommodation, looks like a small passenger steamer. She wei bought by the Adelaide S.S. Co. from French owners, being formerly known as the Ornais, but was built in British yards, having been launched in 1924 by the Blyth Shipbuilding and Dry Docking Company, Ltd., The Noora has a i sea speed of nine or ten knots, and will i be engaged in the general inter-State cargo traffic. RUSSIAN SHIPS ROTTING AWAY. —The Moscow Soviety Government has a manner of its own in presenting official figures. Recently it had to send Geneva a list of warships constituting the Russian Black Sea Fleet. These figures were to be taken as officially correct for the purpose of calculating Russian naval strength in the Black Sea. From a French Foreign Office paper, however, it is shown that of the number of warships claimed by the Soviet as representing their Black Sea Fleet, one battleship, one cruiser, six sea-going destroyers, and four submarines were in the great naval port of Bizerta, Tunis. They were taken there by General Wrangei, and left as a guarantee for the repayment of suras advanced to the Wrangei Government These sums have never been paid oack, and this portion of the Black Sea Fleet is rotting at anchor in Bizerta Harbouhr, and is now in such a condition that it can never take the sea again. THE EMPRESS OF AUSTRALIA.— When the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, of Go van, are done with the Canadian Pacific lin** Empress of Australia, that: vessel bear very little resemblance to tne Tirpitz, which the Vulcan Company of Stettin, built in 1914 for the Ham* burg-America Line. The shell wi u be the same, but not very much tl* 4 * As reconditioned, the vessel wiU ■*** accommodation of the latest Bntwj type for 400 first-class, 144 tourist* an 632 third-class passengers; all * cabins and public rooms of an ingly comfortable and finely decoratca character. The biggest transform** tion is, however, in the propelling ma* chinery. The German turbines ana Fottinger transmission gear haven*™ replaced by mechanically-geared * al field turbines of the latest P^° nf type. The designed service . the vessel is 18 knots, and her sailing will be on June 25, from Soinn* ampton, via Cherbourg, to the o Lawrence. .g,. THE ALCANTARA.— The comP|« tion of the motor-ship Alcantara n with the Asturias, given the h > Mail Packet Company a pair ©t | markable vessels which have TDa ', outstanding claims to d istincU( ; n L P S the first place they are the ships under the British flag by internal-combustion [dimensions of the latter ship bm®*. | Length, 655 ft Sin; beam, ‘ m \ r 3depth, 45ft; the gross tonnage exerting 22,000 tons. Apart from tnis vessels stand out as ™agniftoe« amples of ship artistry, the s P a 5 w t [ te ness of their public rooms a beauty of their decorations striK g I very high note indeed. s*°? that the Alcantara was only in September last, the build*** completed her in excellent t • expedition which has been show® no doubt due in part to the the work was much simplihc-t experience gained with tne J~id.rjsawhich lends support to the c y bility of building in P Jjvanhaving obviously many -TW tages to recommend it, stat Syren and Shipping.” im posir-S I The Alcantara is a very its structure, her massive nu»«. wer . cruiser etern, truncated funn o c '’ e * ing upper works, and vast P t spaces for the purpose* or promenading, suggest tne py l strength of a ship of war ri - the the ordinary merchantman. construction of t* l ' I, "A£i improvements m shipbuiia™ reT j have been incorporated, an f _-n©d to. highest standards are®® divide h* Eleven watertight bulkhead i into 12 compartments, * lable fof double bottom, which is a € xte®& water, either fresh or g-g©-the full length of tbe sh:ip. tank «tous provision of titf* is essential when it is with a full complement oi v and crew the company of jj**, I tara will number on fe\*er