Mokta Voyage History

Steamship Mokta.

Steamship Mokta.

LAUNCH AT WEST HARTLEPOOL

Daily Mail Oct 12/12

Yesterday, Messrs. William Gray and Company., Limited., launched the handsome steel screw steamer Mokta, which they have built to the order of Messrs. Frank C. Strick and Co., Ltd., of London and Swansea, for La Tunisienne Steam Navigation Company, of Paris.

She will take the highest class in Lloyd’s and is of the following dimensions, viz.: Length over all, 362ft., breadth, 50ft., and depth, 27ft. 8 in, with long bridge, poop, and top-gallant forecastle.

The saloon, staterooms, captain’s and officers’ rooms will be fitted up in the poop, and the engineers in houses on the bridge deck, and the crew’s berths in the forecastle. An electric light installation is being fitted throughout.

The hull is built with deep bulb-angle frames, cellular double bottom, and large aft and peak ballast tank, ten steam winches, steam steering gear amidships, hand screw gear aft, patent direct steam windlass, large horizontal multitubular donkey boiler, stockless anchors, telescopic masts fore and aft rig, boats on deck overhead and all requirements for a first class cargo steamer, including Porter’s patent derrick sockets for dealing with heavy lifts by combining the ships ordinary derricks.

Triple-expansion engines are being supplied by the Central Marine Engineering Works of the builders, having cylinders 24in., 38in., and 64in. Diameter, with a piston stroke of 42in., and two large steel boilers adapted for a working pressure of 180lbs. per square inch, worked under Howden’s system of forced draught.

The ship and machinery have been constructed under the superintendence of Mr. Archibald Walker on behalf of the owners, the ceremony of naming the steamer Mokta was gracefully performed by Mrs. J. A. Turnbull, Victoria Road, West Hartlepool.

    

TRIAL TRIP OF THE s.s. MOKTA

Daily Mail Nov 9/12

On Thursday, the handsome steel screw steamer Mokta was taken from the yard of Messrs. Wm Gray and Co., Ltd., for her trial trip. She has been built to the order of Messrs. Frank C. Strick and Co., Ltd., of London and Swansea, for La Tunisienne Steam Navigation Company, of Paris. She takes the highest class in Lloyd’s Register, and is of the following dimensions: Length over all, 362ft., breadth, 50ft., and depth, 27ft. 8 in, and is fitted with all the requirements of a first class cargo steamer.    

Triple-expansion engines have been supplied from the Central Marine Engineering Works of the builders, having cylinders 24in., 38in., and 64in. Diameter, with a piston stroke of 42in., and two large steel boilers adapted for a working pressure of 180lbs. per square inch, worked under Howden’s system of forced draught. The engines have been fitted with “contraflo” main condenser, a “contraflo” atmospheric condenser being installed for the auxiliary machinery. The engine room auxiliaries include a surface feed heater with oil and air extractor, an evaporator, and duplex feed and ballast pumps, all of the “CEMEW” type.

Mr. Archibald Walker, who has superintended the construction of  ship and machinery, represented the owners on the trial, and Mr. James Innes and Mr. Ward were on board on behalf of Lloyd’s Registry. The performance of the vessel and the working of the machinery were highly satisfactory.