The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Latest Dataon New Marine Work Information on New Ships Ordered—Building and Repair Con- tracts Let—Shipping Board Loans Made, Authorized or Pending HE shipping board on May 21 ! authorized construction loans to aid in building the two largest merchant ships yet contracted for in an American shipyard.. The vessels will be built for the Transatlantic Steamship Corp. and the North At- lantic Steamship Corp., subsidiaries of the United States Lines, Inc., and will be built by the New York Ship- building Co., at its yard in Camden, N. J. Contracts covering the construc- tion already have been agreed upon by the owner and_ builder, and the board has been advised: that work will proceed forthwith. The amount of the loans will aggre- gate $15,750,000 for the two ships, the total cost of construction being $21,- 000,000. This latter figure was the offer of the builder as the result of competitive bidding on the part of the leading shipyards of the United States. These ships are designed for the North Atlantic-Continental European and Hamburg-Bordeaux range service of the United States lines, for which they will be completed in about two years time. Their construction will not, however, have any bearing on the agreement made by the United States lines at the time the line was pur- chased to build two 45,000-ton express liners of 28-knot speed for the New York-Channel ports run. The ships for which the loans were granted today, will be 705 feet in length, 86 feet beam, propelled by twin screws, driven by geared tur- bines, or by turbo-electric combina- tion. They will be of about 30,000 gross tons and will have sea speeds of 20 knots, which compares very ’ favorably with vessels of similar type in the trade for which they are de- signed. Accommodations will be pro- vided for 600 first class, 490 tourist, and 200 third class passengers. These loans will be repaid in 20 annual in- stallments with interest, payable semi-annually, at the minimum rates provided in the Jones-White act. Loan for Tankers A loan of $6,328,125 in aid of con- structing five tankers to be operated in the oil carrying trade was granted by the shipping board May 14 to the Motor Tankship Corp. of Philadel- phia. This loan which represents approxi- 42 mately three-fourths of the construc- tion cost of the vessels is from the construction loan fund created by the Jones-White law. It was stated that the vessels are to be built by the Sun Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co. at its yards in Chester, Pa. They will be diesel driven and will be approxi- mately 13,600 tons deadweight, with a speed of 11 knots. With the con- tracts already agreed upon, the work on the new vessels is to start imme- diately. et To Convert Bremerton The shipping board on April 30 authorized the sale of the steamer BREMERTON to the Bulk Transporta- tion Corp., New Orleans, for $25,000 cash, under an agreement by the pur- chaser to convert the vessel to a self-discharging bulk ore carrier which will be equipped to burn pulverized coal. The purchaser also agrees to install a stream line rudder. The estimated cost of these improvements is $400,000, and the sale agreement is contingent upon the award by the board of a construction loan covering three-fourths of this outlay. After the vessel is made ready for operation, the Bulk Transportation Corp. will furnish the board with performance data on the pulverized coal units for a period of one year. The BREMERTON is a_ steel cargo steamer of 7390 deadweight tons and is now laid up at Norfolk. Open Bids for Cunarder According to Sir Ashley Sparks, resident director for the Cunard line in United States, bids were received from British shipbuilders May 11 for the construction of the huge vessel with which the Cunard line hopes to regain its prestige of operating the fastest liner in transatlantic service. This new vessel which has_ been widely discussed both here and abroad in shipbuilding circles, if operated at its alleged 32-knot speed, would make a crossing from Southampton and Cherbourg to New York in four days flat, 17 hours faster than the best time made by the BREMEN or EUROPA. Reports received from abroad placed the tonnage of this proposed liner at 75,000 tons. The length is to be 1000 MARINE REVIEW—June, 1930 feet and the beam 115 feet. Luxurious accommodations are planned for 4000 passengers in the various classes. A crew of 1200 men will b2 required to man the vessel. It is expected that the contract for building the new liner will be let as soon as possible, but even providing the order is placed in the near future the belief is that the vessel will not be ready for service before the sum- mer of 1933. It is understood that either John Brown & Co. of Clyde- bank or Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson will be awarded the con. tract. To Build Six Ships Loans in aid of building six com- bination passenger cargo vessels for the United Mail Steamship Co., a subsidiary of the United Fruit Co., Boston, were authorized by the ship- ping board May 21 in the maximum aggregate amount of $15,412,500. These loans will represent three- fourths the cost of building the six ships, three of which will be built at the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., Newport News, Va., and three at the Bethlehem Ship- building Corp.’s Fore River yard at Quincy, Mass. Three of the new ships will be op- erated between San Francisco and Puerto Armuellas and the other three will be operated between New York and Port Limon. All of the ships will be of 16 knots speed, 447 feet in length, 60 feet beam, by 24 feet draft and will have deadweight ton- nage of 4000 tons each. They will be equipped with turbo-electric machin- ery and will be propelled by twin screws. These loans will be repaid in 20 annual installments with inter- est, payable semi-annually, at the minimum rates provided in the Jones White Law. Tanker to Have Trials Sea trials of the VEEDoL No. 2, second coastwise, diesel-electric tanker for the Tide Water Oil Co., took place May 8 at the plant of the Pusey & Jones Corp. in Wilmington, Del., where the ship was built. Like the first vessel, now in service, the new tanker will carry approximately 20,-