FAST CARGO WORK

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 757, 2 September 1929, Page 11

FAST CARGO WORK

(From Saturday* )at« Ui;v*n)

VESSELS KARAMEA AND ARLINGTON COURT MODERN METHODS USED What must be a record tor cargo working at Auckland has just been completed by the Shaw. Sav;ll and Albion Company’s motor vessel Karamea, which made such a good passage from London to Auckland, doing the journey in less than 32 days. ’T’HIS work reflects credit on all those A concerned in the discharge, and is a recommendation for the staff of the j company, the waterside workers, ami the Auckland Harbour Board equipment. i The Karamea started discharge at t 9 a.m. on Tuesday last with eight * gangs, and up till Friday night, when j she finished, more than 6,300 tons of i cargo, both inward and outward, had been handled. Four of the gangs fini isbed early on Friday, yet, for the four days the vessel worked, more tbau ! 1,500 tons a day had been dealt with. The vessel has electric winches and ! the latest cargo handling appliances. ' and the Harbour Board cranes for disj charging and stacking were used in j conjunction with the ship’s gear. When it is realised that cargo loaded l on the Karamea at London on July i -6 was delivered to the consignee at . Auckland on August 27, it can be i readily seen what quick transit means both to cargo coming to this country as well as to exports going to the Homeland. The Karamea sailed for Wellington at 6 a.m. on Saturday, and given fa\ ourable conditions there, by the end of this week her inward cargo of more than 10,000 tons will have been landed and partially delivered to the consignees. This performance is, of course, an unusual one, but it shows that the shipping companies concerned in the New Zealand trade are alive to the needs ] of the country, and determined to do j their part in this connection. SULPHUR LOADING The Court Line steamer Arlington Court, which arrived at Auckland on Friday from Galveston, Texas, with a cargo of 6,500 tons of sulphur for discharge at Auckland, Lyttelton, Port Chalmers, New Plymouth and Wanganui, had this cargo loaded in 12* working hours. The sulphur is loaded by means of a single chute and some idea of the speed with which this is loaded may be gauged, as the vessel has to be moved continually backward and forward alongside the loaning chute, and this is included in her time of working. v

Another fast piece of work was done when the vessel was at Colon, where she took on 166 tons of bunker coal in 32 minutes. She was only alongside the quay at Colon for about 45 minutes.