ATLANTIC RIVALS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 340, 28 April 1928, Page 28

ATLANTIC RIVALS

GIANT FLOATING PALACES CHALLENGE OF GERMANY How long will the Mauretania continue to hold the Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic? asks A. L. Phillips in the ‘ Melbourne Herald.” How long will she retain the reputation of being the speediest luxury liner on the Atlantic run? There are signs that her long reign is to be seriously challenged by sisters of her own line yet to be born, and by new German ships now building. The tremendous volume of wealthy tourist traffic from America to England since the war has made it exceedingly profitable for the shipping companies to cater specially for this luxury-loving, speed-craving c lass of Americans. This is producing something of a boom in shipbuilding. Already, the White Star Line has ordered a ship of 25,000 tons and it is rumoured that another of 60,000 tons is contemplated. Meanwhile the Cunard Line is waiting p>

see what its rivals are going to do, but in shipping circles the view is held that new Cunarders must soon be built to replace some of those at present in its service. Two giant liners, each of 46,000 tons, are being constructed for the North German Lloyd Line. They are the Bremen and the Europe, and their estimated speed of 26 -knots is expected to enable them to show a clean pair of heels to the opposition. They will have to do better than this, however to pass the Mauretania, which can still do 26.25 knots; in fact, her engineers say that if she is pressed she can do better. Something New In adidtion, eight new ships are to be built by the Hamburg-Amencan Line, two of which are to reveal something new to the passenger trade. The Hoiland-American Line is completing the "Statendam,” of 30,000 tons, which was begun before the war, while the Norwegian-American, the SwedishAmerican and the Scandinavian lines each intend to construct a new liner especially for the Atlantic run. Italy is also competing for the spoils, with two huge motor-shins, one of which, the Augustus, is the world's largest motor-ship. She has just been launched, her tonnage being 32,500 tons.

If anything comes of the proposal of an American company to build ten 20,000-ton liners, each capable of do-

ing 32£ knots, all the liners now in service will be left standing.. The aim of the sponsors of this proposal, the American-Brown-Boveri Electric Corporation, is to build ships that w*ill cross the Atlantic regularly in four days. Rather confidently, they propose to call the fleet the Blue Ribbon Line. Shipping experts do not doubt that such a speed could be attained, or that Americans could build them. These ships would develop between 100,000 and 130,000 hcrse-power, whereas the two high-est-powered ships afloat, the Lexington and the Saratoga, both Amer: an built, develop 180,000. The trouble is that the company is relying on Government backing for the venture, and as America’s Governmental experience in the shipping world has been disastrous, Congress is not likely to give the project much support. The latest addition to the Atlantic fleet of floating palaces is the recently launched “lie de France.” Her gross tonnage is 42,050 tons, so that she is in the class of the great Cunarders and White Star liners. For the decoration of some of the main halls, especially of the entrance hall and of the dining saloon, inspira„.:>n has been sought in modern art; the schemes have been planned by some of the younger generation of French artists, and the effect is one of original beauty tnat conforms to no accepted period. In the massivity of the grey- sweeping beams of the lofty entrance hall, and its wide staircase,

there is a suggestion of cubist influence, while the great height of the dining room makes the white tables and chairs look like tiny, moulded snow piles. Magnificent Suites Round the main entrance hall are the offices of the ship’s officials as well as pursers, doctors, maicres d notel, baggage-masters, information and travel agents, ticket office, hairdresser’s and tobacconist’s, telegraph office, and a branch of the great Paris stores, Les Grands Magasins du Louvre. Besides the ordinary gymnasium there is a shooting gallery, and in the children’s playground an electric merry-go-round. So magnificent are some of the suites, which include private dining rooms and drawing rooms, that the ordinary description has had to be expanded to “grande suite de luxe.” The fastest ships on the transatlantic run at present are the Mauretania. 26.25 knots, the Majestic, o£ 56,551 tons, the largest ship in the world, 25 knots, and the Aquitanla, 23.85 knots. The record transatlantic run was made by the Mauretania in 4 days 10 hours 41 minutes. Whether the new ships will contain turbine engines or internal com.bustion oil-driven engines is a question of great importance. As far as large passenger liners are concerned, the latter engine is more or less on trial. The British coal industry has been badly hit by the great increase

in the use of oil for ship fuel, and research into methods of enabling coal to compete with oil is being actively pursued. The lines of development at present being followed lie in the direction of the use of higher pressures and superheat with steam engines (which can be associated with the use of either coal or oil), the use of pulverised coal for firing boilers, the conversion of coal into oil, and the use of powdered coal in Diesel engines.