NEW MOTOR-LINER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 858, 30 December 1929, Page 1

NEW MOTOR-LINER

RANGITATA COMPLETES MAIDEN VOYAGE GALE IN BAY OF BISCAY Her decks ablaze with lights from stem to stern, the New Zealand Shipping Company’s new motor-liner Rangitata slipped round North Head at 9 o'clock last evening. While crowded launches moved alongside to the accompaniment of cheers and cries of welcome, she anchored in mid-stream for the night, thus completing her maiden voyage from Southampton, which began on November 22. Though the Rangitata is a little larger than the Rangitiki. which paid her first visit to Auckland in November, the ships are rated as sisters and are almost identical in outward appearance. The Rangitata behaved well on her maiden voyage and was well tested when she ran into a heavy gale in the Bay of Biscay. The force of the wind at times slowed her down to knots, adding a day or two to her scheduled I time. She carried 96 first-class, 85 secondj class and 228 third-class passengers. While adjusting a ventilator on the forecastle head a seaman was struck by a sea and his leg was broken. The | injured limb was set by the ship's surgeon, and when the Rangitata ieached Colon the man was sent to | hospital. Fine weather was encountered in the Pacific, and Christmas Day was celebrated between Pitcairn Island and New Zealand. Another sister ship of the Rangitata is the Rangitane, which is also on her I maiden voyage to New Zealand, the ! tonnage of each vessel being 18,000 gross, or 1,245 tons larger than the i Rangitiki, the gross tonnage of which jis 16,755 tons. The three vessels are i similar in design, but with a slight difference in the furnishings. The Rangitata brought a party of 1 29 Flock House boys.