Marine Tattle

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 160, 27 September 1927, Page 2

Marine Tattle

JAPANESE SHIPYARD FAILURE.— According to cabled news from Tokyo, the Kawasaki Dockyard Company has, owing to its inability to obtain the necessary financial support, been compelled to discontinue its shipbuilding work, states “Fairplay.” It is added that the navy has agreed to take over and complete the construction of the warships which the company was building. During the war the Kawasaki Company built a large number of steamers on spec, and was able to dispose of them at a considerable profit. Instead of taking contracts at the top of the boom from responsible owners for the building of as many steamers as possible at the prices current, the company continued its system of building on spec, with the result that, when the slump came, it had a large number of vessels on its hands unsold. These were run on behalf of the shipbuilding company with disastrous results. SOLD TO GERMANY. —It is announced that the Ellerman-Bucknall steamer City of Boston, a regular trader to Australian and New Zealand ports, has been sold to the Norddeutscher Lloyd, Bremen, for about £50,000. The vessel is of 5,855 tons gross, and was built by J. C. Techlenborg, A. G. Wesermunde, Germany, in 1912. She was previously known as the Dusseldorf. Another Ellerrnan-Bucknall steamer, the Kosmo, ex Nordmark, has also been sold to the same company for £50,000. This vessel is 5,170 tons gross, and carries about 8,900 tons deadweight. She was built and engined by W. Doxforcl and Sons, Sunderland, in 1913, and frequently visited New Zealand under the A. and A. and E. and B. flag. A FAMOUS ISLAND. —The Island of Juan Fernandez is by no means ari isolated spot in these days. Several vessels have been making trips to tho island with passengers during the past few months, and, naturally, the bestadvertised island in the world is receiving visits from people of all nationalities who can afford to make the pleasure trip in the Pacific, where the climate is ideal. A project is afoot to establish a first-cla*s hotel on the island, so that visitors can spend some time ashore there and become acquainted with the haunts of Alexander Selkirk, upon whose adventures Defoe based his world-famous “R.obinson Crusoe.” SALVING THE RIVERINA.— After carrying out the initial stages of an attempt to salve the Riverina, the tug Kurrara returned to Sydney recently. Captain Dunn stated that much difficulty was experienced in establishing communication with the stranded ship, and it was only by working a lighter with salvage gear through the surf that the task was accomplished. There is a good chance of salvaging the Riverina, Captain Dunn said, as the holding on the three-ton anchor is good, and in view of the fact that there is only 10ft. of sand on the sea side of the vessel. There is water aft and forward at high tide. The attempt to refloat the vessel has been fixed for the middle of this month. GOOD CONTRACT LOST. —It is a sad business that the Argentine Government should have gone to Italy for the building of its two new cruisers, writes -the ‘‘Shipping World,” for Argentina used to be a good customer of British shipyards, and as a result thousands of men in the past found well-paid employment. These two vessels are to be constructed, one at the Orlando Shipbuilding Yard at Leghorn, and the other at the Odero Shipbuilding Yard at Genoa. Each cruiser will displace 6,000 tons, so that the sum involved will certainly exceed £3,000,000. It is not so much the loss of the money which is of importance, though we could have done with it, as this country’s prestige as offering the best and quickest construction of men-of-war at a competitive price. It is true that Messrs. Hawthorn, Leslie and Co. have secured orders for two tugs for the Argentine. | but our shipyards should have got the i cruisers as well.

BRITAIN'S MOTOR FLEET.— The relative reluctance of British shipowners to construct motor-ships has frequently been criticised, and comparisons are customarily instituted with the rate at which Continental owners are adopting the new system of ship propulsion. Among the voluminous satisfies published with the new volume of “Lloyd’s Register of Shipping, however, there is disclosed the fact that the number and tonnage of the motor-ships under British registry is greater than that of any other country in the world. It is quite true that they form a small percentage of the total tonnage of the country, but with 291 motorships of 1,167,301 tons, the British motorfleet is easily ahead of that of Norwav, the next competitor, which posseses 197 mo tor-ships of 580,551 tons. Italy comes next with 64 motor-ships of 363,822 tons, while the United States has 182 motordriven sea-going vessels of 348,506 tons.