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172 THe MaRINE REVIEW wi oe a] ES 2 = os : Fic. 6--VoLtratH THAM. CRANES DISCHARGING ORE INTO LIGHTERS. gear. The captain and officers have commodious quarters at the after end of the ship, and amidships there is also a Captains room, while the crew are berthed forward. The Rederiaktiebolaget Lulea-Ofoten is a transport company subsidiary to the Trafik Aktiebolaget Grangesberg- Oxeldsund, of Stockholm, who, as one of the largest mining syndicates in northern Europe, work the extensive iron ore mines at Gellivare and Kiruna- yvaara, in Lapland, which together .pro- 'duce more than one-half of the total amount of ore obtained in Sweden. By means of the Ofoten-Lulea state rail- way, which runs alongside Lake Tor- nea and is the most northerly railway line in the world, these mines have con- nections with the shipping ports of Lulea (Sweden) and Narvik (Norway). Narvik is a comparatively new port, and although at lat. 68.26N it is free May, 1910 from ice all the year round. The Trafik Aktiebolaget Grangesberg-Oxelg. sund, of Stockholm, who annually ship from Narvik some 2,500,000 tons of ore, possess at this place large storage grounds fitted with the most approved appliances for the economical and ex. peditious handling of large consignments of ore, and Fig. 7 is a view of the ore loading dock, which is capable of dealing with about 1,000 tons of ofe per hour, and alongside which there jg a least depth of 27 ft. at any stage of tide. The ship was built to the designs and under the patents of Johnson & Welin, naval architects, Gothenburg and Stock- holm. Another vessel of similar type, but to carry 11,000 tons of ore, is now under construction by the same builders and for the same owners. In comparing the Vollrath Tham with the ore carriers of the Great Lakes, it must be borne in mind that the condi- tions in the one case are entirely dif- ferent from those of the other. On the Great Lakes the ore trade is enorm- ous in volume and the constant effort is to improve the ship as a carrier only and to treat the unloading equipment as an entirely distinct subject. The points of discharge are clearly defined and the urloading apparatus is fixed ashore and the traffic so regulated as to keep all equipment as fully employed as possible. The ship, therefore, is not hampered either in cost or deadweight with any cargo handling apparatus whatever, and on the other hand, the constant employment warrants the in- vestment in shore plant. and betterments which have made the existing cargo records and costs possible. The Swedish ore is hard and relatively low in moisture and trims freely to and through a spout, while by far the Fic. 7--Tue Vottrath THam ALoncsipe THE Ore LoaApINc BERTHS AT Narvik.