Baltistan

LAUNCH AT WEST HARTLEPOOL

(Northern) Daily Mail March 5/10

To-day Messrs. William Gray and Co., Ltd., launched the large steel screw steamer Baltistan, which they have built to the order of Messrs. Frank C. Strick and Co., Ltd., of Swansea and London. Her principal dimensions are: Length over all, 362ft.; breadth, 46ft. 6in., and depth, 24ft. 9in.  She is a handsomely modelled vessel of the two deck type, with, poop, bridge and forecastle, and a sun deck over the bridge.

Very tasteful cabin accommodation is provided in houses on the bridge deck for passengers, captain and officers.  An electric lighting installation is being fitted, including a Suez Canal projector light. The vessel will take Lloyd’s highest class, and has a cellular double bottom and after peak tank for water ballast. The decks are of steel and teak. The steam windlass, steam steering gear, steam winches, large marine type donkey boiler, and the whole of the outfit are of the most approved description, including Porter’s patent derrick sockets for dealing with heavy lifts by combining the ships ordinary derricks.

The machinery is made by the Central Marine Engineering Works of the builders, being of the triple-expansion type with cylinders 25in., 40in., and 65in., and a 42in piston stroke. She is also fitted with Weir’s feed pump and heater, and two large steel multitubular boilers working by Howden’s system of forced draught at a pressure of 180lbs. per square inch.

The vessel and machinery have been constructed under the superintendence of Mr. Archibald Walker, on behalf of the owners, and the ceremony of naming the steamer Baltistan was gracefully performed by Miss Edith Gray, second daughter of Mr. Wm. Creswell Gray, J.P., D.L., Tunstall Manor.

TRIAL TRIP OF THE s.s. BALTISTAN

Daily mail June/18/10

Yesterday, the large steel screw steamer Baltistan, built by Messrs. William Gray and Co., Ltd., for Messrs. Frank C. Strick and Co., Ltd., of London and Swansea, was taken for her trial trip.

The vessel takes Lloyd’s highest class, and is of the following dimensions, viz.: Length over all, 362ft., breadth, 46ft. 6in., and depth, 24ft. 9 in. She is a handsomely modelled vessel of the two deck type with poop, bridge and forecastle and a sun deck over the bridge. Very tasteful cabin accommodation is provided in houses on the bridge deck for passengers, captain, and officers.
    
Triple-expansion engines have been supplied by the Central Marine Engineering Works of the builders, having cylinders 25in., 40in., and 65in. diameter by 42in. stroke, and two large steel boilers of the builders well-known flanged shell type, adapted for a pressure of 180lbs. per square inch, worked under Howden’s system of forced draught. A leading feature in the design of the engines is the very large port openings in the cylinders to insure an easy passage for the steam, and so obtain the maximum efficiency from it.

The engines have been fitted with a “contraflo” main condenser a “contraflo” atmospheric type condenser being installed for the auxiliary machinery. A Weir’s feed pump and heater, a Morrison’s surface feed heater, combined with oil and air extractor, are also fitted, the engine room auxiliaries, including a number of duplex pumps of the builders “Cmew” type, being very complete, and carried out in accordance with the requirement of the owners’ superintendent engineer.
 
The leading feature of the condenser design is a new method of temperature regulation by means of which the air withdrawing capacity of the air pump can be so adjusted to the demand that the thermal efficiency of the engines is at a maximum under all conditions of working, this arrangement having a favourable influence on economy.
 
Mr. Archibald Walker, who has superintended the construction of the ship and machinery, represented the owners on the trial; Mr. James Innes, Lloyd’s Register; Captain J. E. Murrell, the shipbuilders; and Mr. Maurice S. Gibb, the engine builders.
 
The trial was a very satisfactory one, a speed of 13 knots being obtained.

Masters: 1911 WAH Davies: 1915 CA Leslie: 1916 G Maine: 1917-19 G Maine: 1920 CG Parkes: 1937 Aitken.

Crew 1915: Arundell, A, assistant cook, 28, Wimbleton; Barnett, J, assistant steward, 19, Melbourne; Beilby, RE, ordinary seaman, 19, Hull; Belcher, W, trimmer, 23, Oxford; Callidy, A, cook, 50, Athens; Cushing, C, trimmer, 36, Durham; Danielson, R, fireman, 24, Gefle; Erskine, George, carpenter, 30, Aberdeen; Fadyen, Martin, boatswain, 52, Argyleshire; Firth, William TC, master, 45, Victoria; Hanson, N, fireman, 27, Norway; Hawkins, J, 4^th engineer, 23, Sydney; Hodgson, TE, 2^nd engineer, 33, Maryport; Hughes, E, fireman, 35, Llanelly; Johnson, G, fireman, 27, Sweden; Kagansk, M, ordinary seaman, 15, Victoria; Kelly, P, steward, 22, Isle of Man; Knox, EJ, able seaman, 30, Cork; Lambert, WB, ordinary seaman, 19, Birkenhead; Larsson, F, fireman, 26, Sweden; MacSween, A, 3^rd engineer, 28, Stornaway; Matheson, WJ, donkeyman, 37, Sutherland; Matslaimen, J, fireman, 25, Finland; McMahon, F, 1^st mate, 32, Belfast; Mibler, S, trimmer, 26, Santa Fe; Odmark, G, fireman, 29, Sundsyal; O’Hara, A, able seaman, 33, Belfast; Pennyman, G, able seaman, 30, London; Quinn, H, able seaman, 29, Tyrone; Simons, AP, 2^nd mate, 34, England; Tuson, W, able seaman, 38, London; Whitford, W, 1^st engineer, 50, Dunolly; Wright, WB, able seaman, 29, Glasgow.