A LUXURIOUS LINER.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 May 1922, Page 12

A LUXURIOUS LINER.

MAURETANIA READY AGAIN.* ALTERATIONS COST £1,000,000. After having had nearly £1,000,000 spent upon her in redeeorations and in transforming her into an oil-fuel burner, the Mauretania reached .Southampton from the Tyne on March 13, and in a few days will be ready to resume her place in the Cunard Company’s Atlantic service, says a London paper just to hand. It was a wonderful voyage south. There was not the slightest semblance of motion. In fact, at one time or another, practically every passenger went to the side and peered over to make sure that the liner was actually on the move. It was as steady as a room at home. There had been something Gilberuan in the huge vessel being towed down the Tyne stern first; yet this was one of the most striking spectacles of the voyage. With thick black smoke belching from their funnels, the four tug-boats that towed the ship down the river were for long strenehes perfectly abreast and absolutely . equi distant, and as shrill cheers came across the water from the crowds lining the banks one wondered if the spectators’ emotions were stirred by the poetry of the picture or whether the cheering •was a tribute to the vessel which had provided work for so many Tyneside men during the present dark, period of the shipbuilding industry.

Tests were carried out in the North Sea, and these show that the liner’s speed, when occasion warrants, will be greater than ever. To all intepts and purposes she is a new Mauretania, far more luxurious than ever before. Each of the big rooms has its distinctive style of decoration. Perhaps the cosiest and most delightful place of all is the Louis Seize writing-room and library. Then there is the two-tiered dining saloon, with its massive dome —one of the most magnificent rooms ever constructed on board a ship. The lounge is representative of an eighteenth century French salon. A notable alteration here is the introduction in the centre of a parquet floor for dancing. The smoking room has also been renovated in a way to bring out the beauties of the Italian decoration or the fifteenth century period.

All the state-rooms have been improved, and many of the en suite rooms have been repanelled with silk. But after all the most important result of the six months’ lay-up is tne conversion of the vessel from coal-burn-ing to oil-burning. Already the Mauretania holds the blue ribbon of the Atlantic, and from what Sir Thos. Royden, chairmaij of the company, said she will retain it.

“It speaks volumes for the designers and engineers,” said Sir Thomas, “that in the fifteenth year of her existence the Mauretania is as good, if not better, than in. the year she came out. We expect —and we have good grounds for the expectation—that she will retain in the future all the prestige she has earned in the past.” The dry-docking of the vessel at Southampton was as skilful a feat as the towage down the Tyne. A single tug towed the liner practically into the entrance of tne dock, and then, when everyone was wondering how the tug would escape, she whisked round the bow of the Mauretania and out of the dock entrance with only about a foot to save her from being crumpled to matchwood.