MARINE TATTLE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 526, 1 December 1928, Page 2

MARINE TATTLE

! retot’we tohVsh ! Atlantic. The same article was an£2 h ently also reproduced by ;1 Shanghai journal. .MniU'iny an ci Kupineerinr• and a correspondent to that paper w attempted to show that the conception of j Shipping" was an incorrect one" tv‘ : cannot accept this, writes the "Svren • ; for if we did we should be siigmatisiag as fundamentally wrong the conch- ! sions of many experienced observers, ini | eluding Ltvky. The correspondent re- ! ferred to claims to have had half a een- | fury’s experience at sea, and his views are therefore entitled to respect. The ! greatest height of Western Ocean wavvl. lie says, was first measured from the j paddle-boxes of the old Arctic in the 1840 s. and the maximum height of the ■ natural wave has always been taker at 30ft. Off the Horn, the third wave ; pobably will measure sft more, deep water rising higher than that being I artificially created by running a speeding vessel's bon against a rolling wave When a fast-rolling sea roiled up to windward of a sailing vessel's bow the old order to the man at the wheel was i "ease her.’’ The wheel was put up a spoke, the vessel’s bow fell off from the ] crest, the wave rolled under her, and only spray came aboard. “Then meet her”—a spoke or two to windward, and she climbed the crest below her rail, her forecastle dry. Compare that procedure with that of the liner, which must make her port on the other side on her due date, if possible; she is driven into these rolling masses at 8 to 20 or more knots. -BIG REPAIR JCB. —Messrs. Cammell, Laird and Co. have recently carried out at their Birkenhead works one of the biggest damage repair jobs ever undertaken. The vessel concerned is the Anglo-American Oil Company's motortanker Seminole, which stranded in the Mersey toward the end of December whilst fully loaded with benzine, and after difficult salvage operations was placed in the Queen’s Graving Dock. Liverpool, for examination. It was found that the ship was seriously damaged amidships, being set up bodily to the extent of sft for a length of 160 ft. In addition. the sides amidships were buckled, and the decks set up and badly fractured. The owners called for tender? from the principal repairers in the United Kingdom and Holland, and the Mersey firm were successful in obtaining th*work in the face of keen competition. The damage repairs specified consisixd, broadly, of the entire renewal of all steelwork, shell, decks, summer tank sides, summer tank decks, thwartship and longitudinal bulkheads, together with all frames longitudinal and stiffeners, with their connections, from the forward end of No. 3 tank to the after end of No. 7 tank—in all, a length of llOfL The ends of the vessel were to be repaired where damaged, and faired before fitting the new parts in place, the total weight of steel required being about 900 tons. In addition to this work, the main engines of the vessel were to be removed, the searings rebuilt, and the engines, after overhaul, replaced. THE PEOPLE PAY.—Commenting on the New Zealand Shipping Company's decision to reduce its rates from Montreal to New’ Zealand to 5 dollars a ton of measure for all classes of cargo, as against 25 dollars paid recently for the highest class. “Fairplay” writes:— “It would appear that, in order to increase its hold on the trade, the Canadian National Steamships, which is Owned and controlled by the Canadian Government, decided to reduce the rates, and, in adopting the policy of going one better, the New Zealand Shipping Company states that ‘it has no intention of getting out of the business, and that it intends to fight to a finish to stop the Canadian National Steamships from gaining a monopoly of the New Zealand trade. It may be explained that the whole of the shares of the New’ Zealand Shipping Company are held by the P. and O. Company, and that, while its financial position is eminently satisfactory—the investments, apart from the fleet, amounting £2,464,139 —the Canadian Government Merchant Marine, with a paid-up capital of 460,900 dollars, has a debit balance of no less than 51,065,892 dollars. Inasmuch, however, as the Government owns the shares, nobody seems to worry when, at the end of each year, a few* more millions are added to the debit fialunce.” A FEAT OF ENDURANCE.—There are times when the casualty lists published each day in “Lloyd's List” unconsciously and in laconic phraseology provide themes to which only the pen of a Kipling or a Conrad could do full justice, writes the “Shipping World.” Romance is dead at sea, w*e are told. What nonsense! Take the case of the British trawler Susarion. At a distance of 200 miles from her home port of Grimsby* she broke a thrust shaft in the North Sea. Far from hoisting distress signals, as sjie justifiably might have done, her skipper, with his mate and two engineers, patched it up after 24 hours’ w T ork, work of a heartbreaking sort which only the initiated can understand. Then for 100 miles the engines turned over and the trawler pushed onwards. Then again trouble arose and temporary repair work was carried on for a further five hours and again all was well for a time until the shaft parted again. If at this point distress signals had been hoisted, the struggle would have been noteworthy, but not a bit of it! Another four or five hours of work and the shaft was patched up, so that the Susarion reached Grimsby under her own steam and, metaphorically speaking, with her flags flying. To those who carried it out, this incident probably appears trivial and more or less in the nature of things. As an island people we know singularly little about the sea and those who sail it. WITHIN WIRELESS RANGE— The following vessels are expected to be within range of the undermentioned wireless stations during the week-end: — Auckland. —Rotorua, Lomaston, Somerset, Golden Cloud, Eastraoor, Nordhval, Waihemo, Niagara, Omana, Waipahu Thin aroa, Turakina, Maunganui, Gleneden, Cumberland, H.M.S. Dunedin. Chatham Islands.—Port Arthur, Canadian Cruiser. Wellington.—Wahine, Maori, Ngaio, Arahura, Tamahine, Manuka, Port Curtis, Kalingo, Tahiti, Somerset, Golden Cloud. Hertford, Aorangi, Karamea. Canadian Highlander, Bnswortb, Manama, Kaiwarra, Port Wellington, Buecinum. Awarua.—Tahiti, Ben holm, Matakana. J. G. Ross, C. A. Larsen, N. T. Neilsen Alonso, City* of New York, Makura, Karetu.