Ferries of the Future

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 146, 10 September 1927, Page 8

Ferries of the Future

Improvements at Devonport Winches Operated By Tide AUTOMATIC gear, operated by floats actuating trips and switches, will be an interesting feature of the new ferry wharves at Devonport. When the installation is complete, many of the present cumbersome methods will be superseded.

PASSENGERS will leave tlie steamers by wide gangways, electrically-operated. Jostling on narrow exits will be relieved, if not eliminated, and the speed with which the mechanism works will fit the gang-

ways into place so rapidly that those who “hop the rails,” as at present, will derive vei'y little advantage from that hazardous practice. Nine Feet Wide

Compared with the existing plant, the gangways of the future, Oft. 6in. wide, and 17£t. 6in. long, will seem luxurious. Each gangway will he approximately two tons in weight, and a hoisting wincliwill he installed on the wharf, above or beside the portal from which each gangway will swing. Emergency hand-operating gear will be provided, but unless a breakdown occurs it will not he called upon. The tedious hand-hauling of to-day will be banished, and the setting-up of the gangways will be simply a matter of seconds. The lay-out of the new wharf installation at Devonport provides for two large D-shaped piers, of w T hich

the sheltered inner jetty, decked from end to end. will be the passenger wharf. Outside it the cargo and vehicular wharf has already taken substantial shape. In their sheltered berths the passenger ferries will be able to manoeuvre and tie up with more than their present disregard of stormy weather, but apparently the same reliance is still to be placed on the skill of the pilots. Clever navigation reduces delay, under the present system, to a minimum, but in more modern overseas ferry systems difficulties of berthing are entirely removed by the provision of elaborately-cushioned docks, which the steamers enter or leave with great ease. Once a boat has been brought up against the encircling belt of fenders, an automatic locking arrangement holds her in position, and simultaneously half a dozen gangways drop into position, so that the crowd aboard a packed steamer dissolves in a moment. Auckland, ultimately, must consider the introduction of similar methods. Adjustments By The Tide

Cushioning of a parallel type will hold the vehicle ferries in position at their new landing, a steel bridge parallel to the inside of the cargo wharf. Approaching end on. the steamers will be partly held by protective fender piling. Powerful automatic hoisting gear will be an interesting feature of the vehicle landing. One end of the approaching bridge, supported by a tall concrete portal now under construction, will be held at a constant level above the water. In place of the present pontoon, rising and falling with the tide, will be automatic winches, actuated by floats setting the gear in motion with every six inches of tidal rise. As well as the main bridge, which will be 110 ft. long, there will be an auxiliary flap, 18ft. long, to make the actual connection between the bridge and the ship, and offset, by its adjustment, any change in the draft or trim of the ferries as vehicles embark or disembark.

Except for the auxiliary flap, which is necessary on account of the relatively small size of the vessels, the system adopted for the vehicle-ferries is identical with that employed in cross-channel train ferries. The whole of the new plant at Devonport *is expected to be in operation by the beginning of next winter