NEW FERRY STEAMER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 202, 15 January 1913, Page 8

NEW FERRY STEAMER.

LAUNCH OF THE WAHIXE. UNION COMPANY'S SECRETS. London, November 29. The new steamer which the Union Steam Ship Company has ordered for the AVellington-Lyttelton ferry service, the Wahine, is generally similar to the Maori. Her principal dimensions are: Length 374 ft, breadth 52ft, depth 27ft Gin. Accommodation is provided for 400 first-class passengers, and about 180 second class. The lifeboat equipment is on a very complete scale. For convenience of handling in terminal ports, the vessel is fitted with a bow rudder, worked by

steam gear controlled from the flying bridge, in addition to an after rudder—which is of the partially-balanced type —of large area. The warping arrange-

ments, both fore and aft, are extremely powerful. The propelling machinery consists of three sets of turbines, supplied with steam from water tube boilers of the Babcock and Wilcox type. A NEW BOILER SCHEME. Mr. Denny said the Wahine was built i for what the people in New Zealand in their modest way, called a ferry service, but as it was a service of about 17G knots, the ferry part of it was very difficult for them in this country to realise. However, this service between Wellington and Lyttelton was the connecting link between the railway system of the North and South Islands, and they, as builders of the Maori, had been assured that she had been a successful vessel on the route, and a great favorite with her own special public. But her owners had done more than tell them that, because, when the service had been so far created, and the New Zealand Government gave the Union Company a strong hint to carry it out efficiently, they needed not one vessel but two, they gave the same firm the order lor the second. The Wahine was simply an improved Maori. She was larger, they hoped would be faster, and all details bad been modernised in line with her owners' experience. The only radical departure in the machinery was that, instead of Scotch boilers, she was fitted with water-tube boilers of the Babcock and Wilcox pattern. While that was a new step for the Union Company to take, it was not without justification, because before determining upon it they had submitted to them the exp'ericnee of another Australasian company, who found that boilers of this type were especially suitable for Australian coal. Tlipy had also the experience of the successful application of this type of boiler on the steamer Riviera, running on the Dover-Calais service—experience showing, the saving of weight these boilers effected, their flexibility in work, and their simplicity of renewal. All these things had been considered before they made this departure. A PROGRESSIVE COMPANY. Replying to the complimentary remarks of Mr. Peter Denny regarding the Union Company, Captain McDonald said the Wahine brought up the Union Company's fleet to 71 steamers, with an aggregate tonnage of 107,300, as compared with three steamers, of a tonnage of 811, when the company was registered in 187."). The population of Dunedin when the company was registered was 15,000; now the company, directly and indirectly, supported from 1-.0110 to 10.000 persons. Of their fleet of steamers, Messrs William Denny and Brothers had built forty, and the best compliment he could pay the firm was totell that they had a steamer they built for them thirty-six years ago, and although she had ' run 'on uncharted rocks, sunk another steamer, and knocked away a few piers which had evidently been in her way, she was still running, going strong, and was a general favorite on the route. (Applause). Captain McDonald then presented Miss Mills with a diamond bracelet as a memento from the owners. I

Dr. Denny. tlu> liosul of the designing department, said whatever new came out Sir James Mills expected them to tell 'him ;it once, and he was never satisfied until they had it put aboard his ships. When they first 'began 'building turbine 'bouts, Bir James pressed them' strongly to let hiui go. in for 11 turbine, but they a.sked him to wait a little until they gained more experience. Ultimate/), ,

placed the first ocean-going turbine steamer with them, the Loongana, which Captain Livingstone took out in the fastest time ever done between this country and New Zealand. Sir James not only pressed them to take up tur- \ bines, but to manufacture them them- ( selves, and they were much indebted to him.