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MOTOR LINERS FOR
AUSTRALIA ?
An Interesting Project.
(By 'ScUnot.*)
In Thursday's 'West Australian' there
appeared a telegram- regarding a pro
posed new shipping service between
Sneland1 and Australia. Aocorttine to
advice received m Sydney, tenders nave
been called in England for the construc
tion of several motor ships for- passenger
and cargo traffic. ' The details which so
far have come to hand are meagre, but
there is little doubt that the step now
taken is an outcome of the investigations
of Sir John Harvard Bilea, formerly
Prqfeeeor of Naval Architecture in the
University of Glasgow, and ' a leading
authority on marine engineering'. Ite
centljr there has1 been great advance in
io development *of Dieael engines, and
Sir John examined1 the possibilities of
establishing an accelerated passenger ser.
vice between England and Australia with
a standard speed ;of 20 knots. For
such , a fleet of ships high-powered inter-'
nal. loinbustion enjineij have a special
advantage. The saving in weight of
machinery is not'nerhaps- of «o fliueh con
sequence, but of great importance is the
reduction, in the weight of fuel to be, car
ried. . At' present oil engines developing
1,125 horse-power in each' of six cylin
ders are not uncommon, and they can be
built to give continuous and reliable work
ing under fairly exacting conditions.
Sir John considers that eight cylinder en
gines of the sam« cylinder dimensions
can be constructed without difflcolty, and
thus H.000 horse-power obtained for
each propeller shaft. Hence the way is
open for the construction of triple screw
liners of 27,000 h owe- power capable
of attaining a speed of 20 knots or
more. T '
-Apart from the matter of the technical
practicability pf the scheme, there is the
all important question of its economic
and 'financial success. This, too; was
investigated by Sir John 'Biles. With
20 knot Ships the voyage from London
to Sydney and back could be completed
in 65 days, or — since it appeared de
sirable to make i lie round trip in an. even
number of weeks — the speaf) be
tween London and Toulon; and
again -between. Fremautle au«j
Sydney could be reduced to 10 knots and
yet Ihe time kept within ten weeks'.
Five ships would be in commission for a
regular fortnightly -service, but one or
perhaps -iwo aulitional ships would be
necessary to permit overhauls. These
extra shins misht also' of course . earn
revenue by special ertrbes from the
terminal ports as centres. If the ships
were of about tOO' feet length and
drawing 30 feet of water when loaded,
they would provide aceqnunotiation for,
say, 400 cabin passengers, £000 steer
age passengers, and about a thousand
tons weight of cargo. In adopting these
figures Sir -John Biles started out from
a consideration of the power available.
The amount of cargo was fixed, to allow
a qiiick start on' , the return - journey
rather than as being the amount which
could be most economically handled. The
next step was to assume (hat the pas
senger accommodation would be tiled
on the average to the extent of 75 per
cent, the fares being £100 cabin and
£22 : 10s. steerage. To' the . resultant
revenue is to be added that derived from
freight. As the ships would carry only
the highest grade of cargo at increased
speed, .it .ap-peared reasonable, to raise
existing freight rates by 75 per ce»t.,
and to assume an average cargo of 90
per cent of full load. Allowing for a
net profit of 7 ner cent, on the capital
cost, it was reckoned that the service
would require a total subsidy in the
neighbourhood of £450,000 per annum.
This is a large .sum. but it lias to B$
remembered that the. present cost of
carrying the mail* is rather over a
quarter of a million per annum, and ex
Denditure is also iHturred through as
sisted passages.' These sums should
therefore be deducted from the- estimate
of £450,000 in coDsiderine how ? the pro
vision of such fast snipe would affect the
present position. v
We do not know at present to what
extent the announced new service is a
realisation of theft; ideas of Sir John
Biles, but it would appear that his re
l-ort must have influenced the formation
of the new company. It is probably
too much to ' hope for an early inau'
miration of such a frequent and' fast
?ervice as that \#hfch has been outlined
above, but if once a start is made with
swift motor ships there is every reason
to believe that the system would steadily
develop. It is to be noted that the
scheme of. fast, motor liners is bairn) on
considerations entirely, different from
lose governing most existing services.
The carrymg of passengers and not cargo
was made the factor which determined
ie dimensions of the proposed motor
ships. The total- amount of cargo being
small, there would be no difficulty in
handling 'it even with only a short stay
in. port, and -indeed the duration of stay
would be determined only by the re
quirements of provisioning the ship and
of overhauling the machinery. In view
of these facts it does not appear un
reasonable - ttwt Sir John Biles should
mve assumed the average cargo load as
90 per cent of the maximum although 65
or 70 per cent, is nearer the actual
igure for existing mail steamers which
hav& a much larger cargo capacity.
? Any advance which lead» to an acceler
ated and improved ocean service will un
doubtedly give rise, to an increased
volume of traffic. To us in Australia
extended scope for overseas trade is all
important, and anything which wiJl di
rectly or indirectly contribute to the. de
velopment of overseas markets is to
-e welcomed and encouraged. Austra
lians particularly are indebted to Sir
John Biles for the service he has ren
dered to the Empire in indicating how to
take advantage of recent progress in
engineering and we shall watch with in
terest the outcome of the tenders which
have been called by Sir Joseph Isher
wooo on behalf of the new company.
$