THE BUILDING OF STEEL SHIPS
As early as 1853 mild cast steel had been suggested for shipbuilding,
and in 1855 Howell introduced it as “homogeneous metal,” but
shipbuilders took little notice of the suggestion for some years.
Robert Napier and Sons received orders in 1858 for some high-pressure
boilers and marine machinery where lightness combined with strength
was of the utmost importance, and it was proposed to use “homogeneous
metal” for the one and puddled steel for the other instead of the
wrought iron which was ordinarily employed. Steel as then made was
very brittle and many attempts were made to remedy this defect. David
Kirkaldy made a series of important experiments which lasted three and
a half years and attracted the attention of the Scottish Shipbuilders’
Association. His principal service was the discovery and placing on
record of the effects of oil hardening upon the properties of steel.
The _Ma Robert_ is said to have been the first steel steamer ever
built; she was constructed by Laird’s for the Livingstone expedition to
the Zambesi. High tensile steel was used with a limit of elasticity of
about twenty-three tons, which is very similar to the metal used in the
_Mauretania_ and _Lusitania_ where stresses are to be met. Strength
and lightness were essential in the _Ma Robert_ and therefore the new
material was used. The little vessel was 73 feet long, 8 feet wide, and
3 feet deep, and was flat-bottomed and of very little draft. But the
hull corroded badly and leaked very much, and the steamer came to grief
on a sandbank in the Zambesi.
The _Rainbow_, built of steel plates in 1858, was a smart, handsome
paddle-boat, schooner-rigged, and carrying two very tall masts. She
had a high-pressure engine and her steam-pipe emitted the energetic
snort which was peculiar to the locomotive of the time. Indeed her
high-pressure machinery made such a noise that she could be heard from
one side of the Mersey to the other. She was intended for the Niger
Exploration expedition, and on her trial attained a speed of between
twelve and thirteen miles an hour. She was 130 feet long by 16 feet
beam. Although her plates were only one-eighth of an inch thick she
had the stiffness and rigidity of a strong ship, and there was almost
an entire absence of vibration from the engines. Her boilers, which
were of puddled steel plates, were proved up to 200 lb. on the square
inch, though they were only worked at 50 to 60 lb. The engine was of
60 nominal horse-power, working up to 200 indicated. The hull was
divided athwartship and longitudinally by bulkheads into ten or twelve
water-tight compartments.
It must be remembered that these experimental steel boats were intended
for inland navigation, and being taken to Africa were withdrawn from
the observation of practically every one who was competent to judge
of the relative merits of iron and steel. Certainly no one attempted
to build a steel boat for the ocean for some years afterwards, and it
was not until 1875, when the Admiralty, acting upon observations made
in the dockyards of France where steel was being used, represented to
British manufacturers the importance of improving the quality of steel,
that the Siemens-Martin process was brought out, and in consequence two
cruisers were constructed of steel produced in this way.
[Illustration: THE “BRITANNIC” (WHITE STAR LINE, 1874).]
[Illustration: THE “UMBRIA” AND “ETRURIA” (CUNARD).]
With the launching of the _Rotomahana_, an ocean steel steamer of 1777
tons gross built by W. Denny and Bros. in 1879 for the Union Steamship
Company of New Zealand, the iron age of the steamer may be said to
close and the age of steel to begin. It has been shown how iron slowly
but surely replaced wood in construction; when the superiority of steel
to either had been practically demonstrated the change from iron to
steel was rapid. In 1891 over 80 per cent. of the steam-ships under
construction were of steel.
The _Rotomahana_ was followed in 1881 in the transatlantic trade by
the Allan liner _Buenos Ayrean_. The Allan Line has always been to the
fore in the provision of first-class steamers. They were the first to
have a steel ocean steamer; the first to adopt bilge keels on vessels,
the _Parisian_ in 1884 being fitted with them; and they were the first
to make the experiment with turbine-driven steamers for ocean traffic
in the _Victorian_ and _Virginian_ in 1903. These two vessels are 540
feet in length by 60 feet in breadth, and 40 feet 6 inches in depth.
They are of 12,000 tons register, and have a speed of 17 knots. Besides
these, the company has five twin-screw boats of tonnages ranging from
9000 to 11,000 tons, and twenty-two screw boats from 3000 to 5395 tons.
The Cunard Line’s first steel steamer was the _Servia_, built by
Messrs. J. and G. Thomson, and completed in 1881. She was 515 feet in
length, and of 7392 gross tonnage, and her engines, of 10,000 indicated
horse-power, gave her a speed of 17 knots. Incandescent electric lamps
were fitted in her, she being the first of the fleet to carry them. The
_Aurania_, of slightly less length, but of equal speed, and also of
steel, was built in 1883. After her came the _Umbria_ and _Etruria_,
steel single-screw steamers, with engines of 14,500 indicated
horse-power, giving them a speed of 20 knots. The sisters _Campania_
and _Lucania_, steel twin-screw vessels of 12,952 tons, were added for
the New York trade, and later the _Caronia_ and _Carmania_. They were
sisters except in their engines; the latter being the company’s first
turbine experiment, and having triple propellers. They are each 675
feet in length by 72 feet 6 inches beam, and 43 feet 9 inches moulded
depth.
The _Etruria_ was sold in 1909 to the shipbreakers for £16,750, and
with her there ended another chapter in the history of the navigation
of the North Atlantic. She was a “flyer” only a few years before being
disposed of, her record passage from Queenstown to New York being 5
days 20 hours 55 minutes, and her eastward passage 6 days 37 minutes.
She was built to outstrip the _Oregon_, a vessel built for the Guion
Line in 1883 by John Elder and Co., and known from her speed of 18
knots as “the greyhound of the Atlantic.” The same builders were
ordered by the Cunard Company to eclipse her, and constructed two
steamers, the _Etruria_ and _Umbria_, which for many years were the
fastest ships afloat. Before they left the builders’ hands, however,
the _Oregon_ was acquired by the Cunard Company. The two Cunarders had
the largest compound engines in existence. These boats were 500 feet
between perpendiculars, 57 feet 3 inches beam, and 40 feet moulded
depth. They were each of 8127 tons gross, and had engines of 14,500
indicated horse-power, giving them an average speed of 19 knots. It
was stated of them at one of the meetings of the Cunard Company that
“no ships ever gave their owners less uneasiness than these two, and
no ships have done such an extraordinary amount of good work. They
are monuments that cannot lie to the skill of the design and the
faithfulness of the labour that went to their accomplishment.”
[Illustration: THE “MAURETANIA” (CUNARD, 1907).]
[Illustration: THE “CAMPANIA” (CUNARD, 1892).]
The Cunard express steamer _Mauretania_, sister ship to the
_Lusitania_, launched at Clydebank, was constructed on the Tyne by
Messrs. Swan, Hunter, and Wigham Richardson, Ltd., who were already
represented in the Cunard fleet by the _Ultonia_, _Ivernia_, and
_Carpathia_. A description of the _Mauretania_ given by the builders
and the Cunard Company states that the flat keel-plate is five feet
wide and three and three-quarter inches thick, and forms a portion of
the bottom of the ship. Associated with this flat keel is a vertical
keel, five feet high and one inch thick, and to this vertebra are
attached, directly or indirectly, the frames and beams which make
up the skeleton. The double bottom is divided by this vertical keel
and the transverse frames into compartments in which water-ballast
may be taken. The tops of these tanks are carried well round the
turn of the bilge, so that should the bilge keels be torn away and
the hull pierced, the entering water would be confined between the
inner and outer bottoms. As a further precaution towards securing
insubmersibility, the lower deck is made completely water-tight. Below
it are the orlop and lower orlop decks, and above are the main, upper,
shelter, promenade, upper promenade, and boat decks--nine decks in all.
Automatically closing water-tight doors are fitted in the bulkheads,
and can be closed from the navigating bridge in a few seconds. The
_Mauretania_ has 175 water-tight compartments, so that it is claimed
for her that she is as unsinkable as a ship can be.
“The steel plates which cover the ribs or framing of the vessel or
are used for the decks, bulkheads, and casings, or in other ways,
number 26,000, the largest being about 48 feet in length, and weighing
from four to five tons. To secure these plates to each other and the
structural framework of the ship, over 4,000,000 rivets have been used,
aggregating in weight about 500 tons. The largest rivets are used in
the keel-plate, and these are eight inches in length and weigh 2³⁄₄
lb. The main frames and beams placed end to end would extend thirty
miles; the rudder, which has two sets of steering gear, both of which
are below the water-line, weighs 65 tons, and the diameter of the
rudder stock is 26 inches. The castings for the stem, stern-post, shaft
bracket and rudder together weigh 280 tons. Her ground gear is, with
that manufactured for her sister ship, the _Lusitania_, the strongest
yet made. The three anchors each weigh ten tons, while the 1800 feet of
cable is composed of 24-inch links, the iron in which is 3³⁄₄ inches
in diameter and the weight of each link about 1¹⁄₂ cwts. This mighty
harness has been vigorously tested, sample links and shackles emerging
successfully from a test strain of 370 tons.
“The principal measurements of the _Mauretania_ are:
Length 790 feet.
Breadth 88 „
Depth (moulded) 60 „
Gross tonnage 32,500 tons.
Displacement tonnage 45,000 „
Load draught 37 ft. 6 ins.
Height of funnels 155 feet.
Diameter of funnels 24 „
Height of masts 216 „
“Figures, however, convey but a bare idea of the great size. A
favourite standard of comparison in shipping is the leviathan of
Brunel, the _Great Eastern_, the mammoth steamer, which, born before
its time, yet solved in her construction many of the most difficult
problems with which the modern builders of big ships have to grapple;
yet the _Mauretania_ quite dwarfs the gigantic _Great Eastern_, as the
following figures show:
_Great Eastern._ _Mauretania._
Length 692 feet. 790 feet.
Breadth 80 „ 88 „
Displacement 27,000 tons. 45,000 tons.
Paddle, screw, and sail. Quadruple screws.
Speed 13 to 14 knots. 25 knots.
“The _Great Eastern_ was an experiment, but there is nothing of the
experiment about the _Mauretania_ and her sister, the Clyde-built
ship _Lusitania_. The valuable data obtained from the running of
the 20,000-ton turbine Cunarder _Carmania_ has afforded a valuable
object-lesson in adapting the turbine method of propulsion to liners of
the leviathan class, demonstrating the suitability of the steam turbine
to the largest type of vessel.
“The _Mauretania_ is propelled by turbine engines of about 70,000
indicated horse-power, driving four shafts, each of which is fitted
with one three-bladed propeller of manganese bronze. The outermost
shafts are each connected with a high-pressure turbine, the inner
shafts being rotated by the low-pressure turbines.
“The boilers and turbine engines of the _Mauretania_ were
constructed by the Wallsend Slipway and Engineering Company, Ltd.,
of Wallsend-on-Tyne. There are twenty-three double-ended and two
single-ended boilers, and one hundred and ninety-two large furnaces.
The boiler plates are the largest yet made. The steam is conducted from
the boilers into the turbines, of which there are four.” The turbines
contain about 3,000,000 blades, rotating four shafts, the united length
of which is close upon 1000 feet with a weight of about 250 tons,
each shaft carrying 17,000 or 18,000 indicated horse-power. Under the
covenant with the Government made at the time she was arranged to be
built, she is fitted for an armament of 12 six-inch guns. Her rudder
and both sets of steering-gear are below the water-line, and in the way
of the engine and boiler rooms there are side bunkers which, filled
with coal, are equivalent to an armour-belt round the vulnerable
portion of the ship.
Although the _Mauretania_ and _Lusitania_ are usually spoken of as
sisters, there are some differences in the design. They are the same
length, but the former is six inches deeper, which adds about 500 tons
to her registered tonnage. Special high tensile steel was used to a
greater extent in the construction of the _Mauretania_, making that
vessel something like 1000 tons lighter. Her lines are slightly finer,
and it has been claimed to account for her speed that there is some
superiority in her engines.
In regard to the structure of the _Lusitania_, it is stated that with
the whole structure of mild steel Lloyd’s accepted a stress of ten
tons to the square inch, and that in view of the strains thrown upon
the upper works a high tensile steel of less scantling was adopted for
those parts; a material having been discovered with a tensile strength
20 per cent. greater than mild steel, a reduction of 6 per cent. in the
scantlings was allowed from those for mild steel. The Cunarders were
not the first vessels by many years in which high tensile steel of a
strength of thirty-six tons was used, as it was introduced twenty-three
years ago in the steam-ship _America_.
Whether the great Cunarders pay in the financial sense is known only
to the management of the line, but there is no denying that they are
a great national asset. A detailed estimate, published at the time
they were about to make their first voyages, placed the expenditure at
£17,990 per voyage, and the income, allowing for a full passenger list,
at £31,350.[91] But this did not profess to be more than a general
estimate and in no sense official. The question has been raised in
various quarters whether an equal speed could not have been obtained
from reciprocating engines with a less consumption of coal; as a reply
to this view it has been pointed out that the sizes that would have
been required for the ingots, &c., for the machinery were beyond the
capabilities of our steel manufacturers, and thus, as so often has
happened, the new set of conditions was met by the new development of
invention.
[91] _Liverpool Courier_, November 18, 1907.
KAISER
CAMPANIA. OCEANIC. BALTIC. WILHELM II. LUSITANIA.
Displacement 20,000 26,100 33,000 26,000 41,500
Draught 30 30 30 30 32
Speed 22 20 16¹⁄₂ 23¹⁄₂ 25
I.H.P. 30,000 29,000 16,000 38/40,000 65,000
Consumption }
of coal, tons } 485 400 260 660 840
per day }
Length, b.p. 598 685 709 684 760
Breadth 65 68·3 75·6 72·3 88
Depth 43 49 49 52·6 60·5
Gross tonnage 12,950 17,274 23,800 19,360 28,830
Number of } {12 double}
boilers } 13 16 8 { 7 single} 24
Total cost £615,000 £739,000 £800,000 £927,200 £1,250,000
“The above table shows at a glance the ships that have come between
the _Campania_ and the _Lusitania_. The _Baltic_ shows the type of
steamer that pays the best, going across at a moderate speed sufficient
for most people while at the same time carrying an enormous amount of
cargo.”[92]
[92] _Shipping World_, January 2, 1907.
Alterations have been made in the propellers of both these steamers
with a view to finding the size, pitch, number of blades, material,
weight, and number of revolutions per minute and the other details upon
which efficiency depends, but the result is carefully guarded. Such
tests are expensive.
In 1889 the White Star Company built the _Teutonic_ of 10,000 tons,
which, like her sister ship the _Majestic_, was intended to be an armed
mercantile cruiser. These two vessels, which each took nearly three
years in building, were at that time the finest the world had seen, and
the speediest, and were regarded with such wonder that at the naval
review in 1889, one of them was visited by the German Emperor and the
late King Edward (then Prince of Wales) and many distinguished officers
of the Navy. The _Majestic_ soon brought the record from Queenstown to
New York down to 5 days 18 hours 18 minutes, but this was reduced by
the _Teutonic_ to 5 days 16¹⁄₂ hours.
The second _Oceanic_, also of steel and a twin-screw boat, was placed
in the Liverpool and New York service in 1899. She was 704 feet in
length and was the first vessel to be built longer than the _Great
Eastern_, but in other respects she was smaller, her beam being 68·3
feet, her gross tonnage 16,900 and her displacement tonnage 26,100. The
indicated horse-power of the _Oceanic_ was 29,000 as against the 11,000
of the _Great Eastern_, and her speed was 21¹⁄₂ knots as compared with
13. In equipment, too, she was regarded as the last possible word in
luxury and magnificence. Her promenade deck was 400 feet long, and the
saloon was 80 by 64 feet, the latter surmounted by a glass dome 21 feet
square.
Two enormous steamers, the _Celtic_ in 1901 and the _Cedric_ in
1902, of 20,904 tons gross, again established a record for size; the
latter is slightly the larger vessel, but in other respects they are
sisters. These were the last vessels built for the White Star Line
as an independent organisation, as in the following year the line
became a part of the great Morgan Combine though still retaining its
individuality of management.
The _Republic_, a White Star steamer which had just left New York for
England, was rammed off Nantucket in January 1909 by the Italian Lloyd
steamer _Florida_ inward bound. The White Star liner _Baltic_ took
off from the _Florida_ all the passengers that had been saved from
the _Republic_. The latter vessel was kept afloat all night by her
water-tight compartments. All the while she was afloat she signalled
by wireless telegraphy for assistance and this brought the _Baltic_
and other vessels on the scene. The _Republic_ was built in 1903 for
the Boston-Liverpool trade of the Dominion Line and was named the
_Columbus_, and was afterwards taken over by the White Star. She was a
twin-screw steel steamer of 15,378 tons gross, and the largest vessel
which has yet been lost at sea.
[Illustration: THE “TEUTONIC” AND “MAJESTIC” (WHITE STAR LINE, 1889).]
[Illustration: THE “OLYMPIC” (WHITE STAR LINE, 1910). FROM THE PAINTING
BY CHARLES DIXON.]
A notable event in the trade with Canada was the introduction of
the White Star liners _Megantic_ and _Laurentic_, which are run as
White Star-Dominion Line steamers to save possible complications
with other lines in the Canadian trade. They are important, not
only on account of their size, but also because of the engineering
experiments they embody, the _Megantic_ standing for the highest
perfection of the twin-screw balanced reciprocating engine, while
the _Laurentic_ is remarkable for the introduction of reciprocating
engines and low-pressure turbines. In other respects they are sister
ships. They are the largest vessels yet placed in the Canadian trade.
The _Laurentic_ was launched in September 1908 at Belfast by Messrs.
Harland and Wolff, and the _Megantic_ left the slips the following
December. They are each 565 feet long by 67 feet 4 inches beam, and
about 15,000 tons gross. Each carries 260 first-class passengers, 420
second-class, and over 1000 in the third class. Their cargo capacity
is also very great. They are singled-funnelled, two-masted steamers.
Like all the other vessels of the White Star Line they have been
constructed throughout on the most approved principles, nothing that
long experience and practical knowledge could suggest being wanting to
make them as perfect as possible in all particulars.
The last three or four years have seen the advent of the largest
steamers afloat, and before the end of 1910 they will be eclipsed by
one of the two steamers, the _Olympic_ and the _Titanic_, now building
for the White Star Line by Harland and Wolff at Belfast, which are
to be of about 45,000 tons each. At present the largest White Star
vessel is the _Adriatic_, launched in September 1906 and placed upon
the service to New York in the spring of 1908. This gigantic ship is
709 feet 2 inches in length, 75 feet 6 inches beam, and 52 feet deep,
and her displacement is over 40,000 tons. Besides the usual luxurious
fittings of the vessel, which are all in accordance with the traditions
of the White Star Line--she is in this respect an improved version of
all her great predecessors--she has an electric passenger lift giving
communication between the various decks, a gymnasium, and a full set of
turkish baths besides plunge bath, massage couches, and electric baths.
The hull is divided into twelve water-tight compartments, the bulkheads
being fitted with doors which can all be closed instantaneously from
the bridge if desired, and there are no fewer than nine steel decks.
The Inman and International liners _City of New York_ and _City
of Paris_, steel twin-screw steamers, were launched in 1888 and
1889. These two steamers marked one of those epochs of complete
transformation in type of vessel necessitated by the public demands
and rendered possible by the advance of engineering science.[93]
They had considerable beam and their subdivision into water-tight
compartments was more thorough than in any vessel hitherto built.
Another innovation in their construction was the arrangement of fore
and aft bulkheads in addition to the transverse bulkheads. Both
these ships were of the Inman type with clipper bows and the usual
long graceful lines, but they spread less sail than any of their
predecessors, being fitted simply with three pole masts carrying fore
and aft schooner rig only. The funnels of each boat, which were three
in number, were placed between the fore and main masts. Each vessel
carried two separate engines built on the three-crank system, and the
boilers were constructed to work at the then unusual pressure of 150
lb. to the inch. The rudder was in many respects different from that
usually constructed for merchant steamers, and more nearly approximated
to the type adopted in the Navy, in which, as a protection against
hostile projectiles, the rudder is wholly submerged. This form of
rudder was introduced in these two steamships as they were intended to
be used as auxiliary cruisers. The rudder itself was constructed on a
modification of the balanced system, in which a portion of the rudder
is placed forward of the stock. Both these steam-ships made some very
rapid passages, the _City of Paris_ in May 1889 bringing down the time
of the transatlantic journey to less than six days. These were the
last vessels added to the Inman and International Line. In March 1893
the line was reorganised and became the American Line. This company
launched the _St. Louis_ and _St. Paul_ built at Cramp’s yard at
Philadelphia. The two American-built ships were each 554 feet in length
and of 11,600 tons gross register. They held the record for the New
York-Southampton service for some years. During the Spanish-American
War they were used as auxiliary cruisers.
[93] “The Atlantic Ferry.”
[Illustration: THE “OLYMPIC” BUILDING, OCTOBER 18, 1909 (WHITE STAR
LINE).]
The increase in the size of steam-ships is not confined to the Atlantic
alone, but is a feature of all the great lines whatever part of the
world they may serve. The Peninsular and Oriental, the Pacific Steam
Navigation Company, the Ellerman Lines, all the passenger lines trading
to North America, the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, the Orient Line
and the principal lines trading to the Far East, are all the possessors
of steamers of 12,000 tons or over, though in the case of those that
use the Suez Canal the size is limited by the fact that if they were
made any larger they might have difficulty in getting through the canal
at all. The heavy canal dues, which are already a serious item to the
owners of all steamers using the canal, would be more onerous still
if the vessels were of greater size, and as it is, some of the lines
trading to Australia deliberately take the Cape route so as to avoid
this expense.
Lloyd’s Register’s Annual Summary issued in January 1910 contains the
following on the production of large steamers since 1893:
“The number of large steamers launched in the United Kingdom during
1909 has been less than during any of the previous four years. During
the years 1893-6, on an average, ten vessels of 6000 tons and upwards
were launched per annum in the United Kingdom; in the following four
years, 1897-1900, the average rose to 32, at which figure it stood for
the four years 1901-4, and at 30 for the four years 1905-8. During
1909 only 19 such vessels were launched. Of vessels of 10,000 tons and
upwards only three were launched in the four years 1893-6; 24 were
launched during the four years 1897-1900; 27 were launched during the
four years 1901-4, and a similar number during the four years 1905-8.
“During 1909 six vessels of 10,000 tons and above were launched, the
names of which are as follows:
Balmoral Castle 13,000 tons gross.
Orvieto 12,130 „ „
Osterley 12,129 „ „
Otranto 12,124 „ „
Mantua 10,885 „ „
Ruahine 10,758 „ „
“At the present time there are under construction 37 vessels of 6000
tons and upwards, of which eight are of over 10,000 tons each.
“The average tonnage of steamers launched in the United Kingdom during
1909 is 2092 tons: but if steamers of less than 500 tons be excluded
the average of the remaining steamers reaches 3080 tons gross.
“Of the vessels launched in the United Kingdom 16 are capable of a
speed of 17 knots and above. The fastest of these vessels is the
turbine yacht _Winchester_ (26 knots). The fastest merchant vessels
are five steamers intended for Channel service (two turbine and three
twin-screw vessels), all of which attain the high speed of 22 knots.”
Of late years the P. & O. Company has added several magnificent vessels
to its fleet, of a size and degree of equipment superior to any of
their predecessors, mostly of the “M” class, so called because all
their names begin with that letter. These are _Moldavia_, _Mongolia_,
_Macedonia_, _Marmora_, _Mooltan_, _Morea_, and _Malwa_, and they mark
a new epoch in the history of the company’s shipbuilding operations, as
they far exceed in size the largest previous type as represented by the
_China_, _Persia_, _Egypt_, and others, which in their turn were far
ahead of all the steamers before them.
The _Marmora_ and _Macedonia_, built at Belfast by Messrs. Harland and
Wolff, are each of 10,500 tons, and are 530 feet long by 60 feet broad,
with a moulded depth of 37 feet. Accommodation is provided for 377
first and 187 second saloon passengers. The _Moldavia_ and _Mongolia_,
built at Greenock by Messrs. Caird and Co., have a gross register of
about 10,000 tons, and are 520 feet long by 58 feet broad and 33 feet
deep. They have been fitted for the conveyance of 348 first and 166
second saloon passengers. The arrangements in connection with the
passenger accommodation are in advance of anything hitherto attained
in the company’s steamers in respect to comfort, roominess, light, and
ventilation. All the cabins are on the main, spar, hurricane, and boat
decks, and most of the inside ones are lighted from the outside of the
ship by a passage-way to the scuttle.
The vessels have a coal capacity of 2000 tons in bunkers and reserves,
and have a limited cargo space of about 3500 tons, half this space
being fitted with the most up-to-date appliances for the conveyance of
refrigerated produce.
The fifth of this class of steamers, the _Mooltan_, was built by
Messrs. Caird and Co., Greenock.
The _Morea_ and _Malwa_ combined the best features of all these
steam-ships. They are of 11,000 tons register, with engines of 15,000
indicated horse-power driving twin screws, giving them a speed of 18
knots. The former was built by Messrs. Barclay, Curle and Co., being
the largest which has yet left their yards. This shipbuilding firm, by
the way, claims to be the oldest on the Upper Clyde, and has probably
built and engined first-class mail steamers for as many companies as
any other shipbuilding establishment in existence. The _Malwa_ was
built by Caird and Co.
It is thirty-eight years since Barclay, Curle and Co. began building
for the P. & O. line, their first steamer being the _Zambesi_ in 1873.
[Illustration: THE “ST. LOUIS” (AMERICAN LINE).]
[Illustration: THE “MOREA” (P. & O. LINE).]
It is now some years since steel-built vessels propelled by new
and economical machinery became the premier cargo carriers in the
Australian trade. Recognising that it would no longer be profitable
to build sailers to compete against the steam-ships, many of the
sailing-ship owners decided to adopt steam-power and to dispose
of their sailing ships as the opportunity offered. The principal
steamer lines which brought about this change were the Peninsular
and Oriental Steamship Company and the Orient Line. The steam-ships
of the Orient Line began to run in June 1877, when the _Lusitania_,
chartered from the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, was despatched
from London to Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney via the Cape of Good
Hope. In the following year the joint efforts of Messrs. Anderson,
Anderson and Co. and Messrs. F. Green and Co. founded the Orient Steam
Navigation Company. The service at first was to be monthly, but it
was soon evident that fortnightly sailings were imperative to meet
the demands upon the line by shippers and passengers. The fortnightly
service was determined upon in the beginning of 1880, the company
obtaining the co-operation of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company.
Among the earlier vessels were the _Cuzco_, _Garonne_, _Chimborazo_,
_Cotopaxi_, _Lusitania_, and _Sorata_, which were some of the finest
that had ever crossed to Australia. The Orient Company afterwards
built the steam-ship _Orient_, an iron vessel, and at that time the
largest and finest steam-ship afloat. She remained in active service
for no less than thirty years, and was disposed of to be broken up
only a few months ago, when she was still as sound as on the day she
was launched, her only defect being that she was unequal to modern
requirements. The Orient Company also built the _Austral_, which had
the misfortune to sink in Sydney Harbour whilst coaling. She was raised
again and continued in active service until a few years ago. The Orient
Company for some years carried the mails to Australia with vessels the
ownership of which was shared by the founders of the line, Messrs.
Anderson, Anderson and Co., and Messrs. R. and H. Green and Co. and
the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, the line being then known as the
Orient-Pacific Line. The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company bought out the
Pacific Steam Navigation Company and for some years the line was known
as the Orient Royal Line. The Orient proprietary, however, recently
bought out the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, and the Orient Company
are now the exclusive owners of the service. New vessels have from
time to time been added to the fleet, all of which are of steel and
propelled by twin screws.
When the Government of the Australian Commonwealth entered into a
fresh contract with the Orient Company in 1908, for the conveyance
of the mails, for a subsidy of £170,000 per annum until 1920, the
company placed orders for the building of five new splendidly fitted
steam-ships which are among the largest and fastest travelling to
Australia. On the Orient mail route to Australia eleven ports are
visited between London and Brisbane, and the journey is thus relieved
of the monotony and tedium usually incidental to a long sea voyage.
Notwithstanding the many calls made, the voyage to Sydney is made in 43
days, or in 33 days if the railway is made full use of.
Messrs. Geo. Thompson’s Aberdeen Line of steamers is a direct
descendant of one of the most famous of the clipper lines. At one
time it owned about 25 sailers of the highest class, including the
_Thermopylæ_, _Patriarch_, and _Miltiades_; the first named made the
fastest passage on record for a sailing ship to Australia, 60 days
from London to Melbourne, and with the others afterwards distinguished
herself in the tea races. Such was the speed and reputation of the
Aberdeen Line clippers that the company did not find it necessary
to adopt steam until 1881, but then they decided to be well ahead
of the times, and on the advice of the late Dr. Alexander Kirk had
the steamer _Aberdeen_, which they ordered, fitted with the first
set of triple-expansion engines that had ever been applied to a
large ocean-going steamer. This vessel was followed in 1884 by the
_Australasian_, and then by the _Damascus_, and other vessels of
the same high class were added as required. How great is the care
taken of passengers is shown when it is stated that in all its long
career not one of the company’s vessels has ever lost a life except
through natural causes. The vessels of this line travel by way of the
Cape, where a call is made. The steamer _Miltiades_, added in 1903,
accomplished on her maiden voyage the fastest passage ever made up to
then from London and Plymouth to Melbourne, and a year or two after,
when required at a few days’ notice to take the running of the regular
mail boat via the Suez Canal, landed the Australian mails more than 24
hours before time.
The old proprietary of Geo. Thompson and Co. was turned into a limited
liability company in 1905, and both Messrs. Ismay, Imrie and Co., who
represented the White Star Line, and the Shaw, Savill, and Albion
Company, Ltd., accepted the invitation to become interested in it.
Hitherto its largest vessels were the _Marathon_ and _Miltiades_,
each of 6800 tons, but in 1907 the _Pericles_ was launched by Messrs.
Harland and Wolff, being named after an old clipper of the line which
in her day was one of the finest and fastest ships ever built. The
_Pericles_ was a twin-screw steel steamer of over 11,000 tons register
with two sets of quadruple-expansion engines, and her scantlings and
fittings were in most cases considerably beyond the requirements of the
Board of Trade and the Admiralty Transport Department. Her length was
500 feet, and her beam 62 feet. She was unfortunately lost in 1910 by
striking an uncharted rock off the West Australian coast.
The first regular cargo line of steamers between England and Australia
was established in 1880 by the late Mr. W. Lund, who previously owned a
large number of sailing vessels. These steamers were started as cargo
boats but carried a limited number of passengers, and as newer steamers
were added they became very favourably known for the comfort of their
accommodation. The first steamer owned by the Lund, or, as it is better
known in the South African and Australian trades, the Blue Anchor Line,
was the _Delcomyn_. In 1909, their largest steamer, the _Waratah_, a
fine screw steamer of 9000 tons, was mysteriously lost with all on
board between Durban and Cape Town. The Blue Anchor Line has recently
been acquired by the P. & O. Company.
The Shaw, Savill, and Albion Company, Ltd., is an amalgamation, formed
in 1883, of the two historic firms whose names it embodies. The united
company ceased a couple of years ago to despatch sailing ships, but
the main result of the combination has been the placing on the route
of some of the finest passenger and cargo steamers afloat, and the
inauguration of a fortnightly service between London and New Zealand.
Shaw, Savill and Co. in the early days made London their main port of
departure, and just in the same way the Albion Company adhered to the
Clyde. The joint concern covers the whole ground. The steamers of the
line are built specially for the company, and are expressly designed
for the Colonial trade, and are second to none in comfort, celerity,
and security combined.
The outward voyage of the steamers is via Teneriffe, Cape Town, and
Hobart; and the homeward trip is made via Cape Horn, calling at Monte
Video or Rio de Janeiro and Teneriffe.
The company has played an important part in the development of the
frozen meat traffic between England and New Zealand. The machines used
are those patented as the “Haslam” and “Bell Coleman,” known as the
Patent Dry Air Refrigerators, though in the later steamers the CO₂
system is installed. The Shaw, Savill, and Albion Company, Ltd., were
the pioneers in this trade. They fitted up the first sailing ship with
refrigerating machinery, and successfully inaugurated an industry which
has since grown to such vast dimensions.
The company is one of the largest carriers of frozen meat in the world,
bringing over to this country in their steamers considerably over
2,800,000 carcases of mutton per annum.
All the company’s present steamers are of steel, and most are twin
screw, their tonnage ranging from 5564 in the _Karamea_ to 10,000
in their newest boats, the _Pakeha_ and _Rangatira_. Its service is
maintained in connection with the White Star Line, which supplies four
or five steamers of 12,000 tons each.
By few firms has such an extraordinarily rapid progress been shown as
by that known as Elder, Dempster and Co., of which the late Sir Alfred
Jones was the head. After his death the line was acquired by Lord
Pirrie, who transferred it to a new company bearing the name of Elder,
Dempster and Co., Ltd. The firm originally consisted of Alexander Elder
and John Dempster, who founded the British and African Steam Navigation
Co., Ltd., in 1868, and in 1879 Mr. (afterwards Sir) Alfred L. Jones
was admitted to partnership. Under his direction the firm became of
considerable importance, but it was not until he and Mr. W. J. Davey
became partners and sole managers that the firm progressed by leaps
and bounds and rapidly became one of the largest and most influential
commercial houses in the world. Its energies were tremendous and its
successes no less so. The Beaver Line of steamers to Canada from
Liverpool was at one time the property of this firm, who sold it to the
Canadian Pacific Railway. The shipping companies controlled by Elder,
Dempster and Co. included the British and African Steam Navigation
Company (1900), Ltd., the African Steamship Company (incorporated under
Royal Charter), Elder, Dempster Shipping, Ltd., Cie. Belge Maritime du
Congo, Imperial Direct West India Mail Service, and the Compañia de
Vapores Correos Interinsulares Canarios.
Only a few years have elapsed since the banana was almost a curiosity
here, but thanks to the enterprise of Elder, Dempster and Co., who
practically created the tropical fruit trade and built several steamers
for the conveyance of tropical fruit to England, the banana has become
most popular. The West India Islands, especially Jamaica, have derived
immense benefit from this trade, the encouragement of this and other
tropical products having brought it no small measure of prosperity.
For this work the Imperial Direct West India Mail Service, Ltd., was
established in 1901, maintaining at first a fortnightly and then a
weekly service from Bristol to Jamaica. In connection with this service
there are numerous inter-island services.
The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company in 1905 inaugurated their splendid
“A” class of steamers, of which the _Aragon_, _Amazon_, _Avon_,
_Araguaya_, and _Asturias_ are examples. The largest of these is the
_Asturias_ of 12,500 tons.
In part directly and in part through its connections the company’s
enterprise extends to all parts of the world. It acquired in 1907 an
interest in the Shire Line of steamers engaged in a regular service
from London to Port Said, Suez, Colombo, Penang, Singapore, Hong-Kong,
Shanghai, Nagasaki, Kobe, and Yokohama; and in 1908 it took over the
old-established Forwood Line service from London to Gibraltar, Morocco,
Las Palmas, Teneriffe, and Madeira.
The repairs effected to ships since they have been built of steel are
no less wonderful than the building of the ships themselves. It is
by no means uncommon for a ship to be cut in half, the pieces drawn
asunder, and the intervening space built up. The repairing of the
_Suevic_ by fitting it with a new bow was not the first operation
of the kind. The _Milwaukee_ was similarly treated at Wallsend by
Armstrong. The destroyer _Syren_ lost her bows by stranding at
Berehaven, but the after portion with the machinery was saved and
given new bows by the Palmer Company, the two parts being towed to
Haulbowline for the purpose. The Norddeutscher Lloyd steamer _Hudson_
had her bows so badly damaged by fire that she had to be provided
with new ones. Nor are the repairing feats effected by the steamers’
engineers in mid-ocean, often in circumstances of extreme difficulty,
less praiseworthy and remarkable, especially when it is a matter of
patching a fractured propeller shaft while the vessel is rolling in
the trough of a heavy sea and the work has to be performed in the
semi-darkness of the shaft tube.
The steamer _Norfolk_, in 1906, after her engines broke down in the
Indian Ocean, was taken into Fremantle under improvised sail. The sails
were made of tarpaulins stitched together and the necessary spars were
improvised out of derrick booms.
[Illustration: THE “ASSINIBOINE” IN SAULT STE. MARIE CANAL (CANADIAN
PACIFIC RAILWAY CO.).]
The steamer _Hansa_ broke down in October 1908 in the South Pacific
through the propeller jamming against the rudder stock. After a delay,
the shaft broke when the steamer was 1281 miles out from Newcastle, New
South Wales, for New Zealand. The shaft tank was flooded and the ship
drifted in circles with sea anchors out, under such sail as the crew
could set, while the engineers worked for almost twenty days--night
and day--and sometimes more than waist-deep in water in the stern
tube, till they managed to repair the shaft. Then the funnels of the
steamer were used as masts and tarpaulins were rigged to them as sails.
But such sails as they could set were insufficient and she drifted
broadside on. The ship was picked up and finally brought into port, but
by that time she was able to get her own engines to work and release
the strain on the towing steamer.
Repair work of a totally different kind is associated with steamers
built to be severed and joined up again. The Canadian Pacific Railway
steamer _Assiniboia_, for instance, was constructed by the Fairfield
Company at Govan in 1907 for service on the Great Lakes and was so made
that she could be cut in half in order to pass through the canals to
reach her destination, after which the pieces were reunited.
That a vessel should be built in order that she may be sunk and raised
was the unique experience of the steamer _Transporter_, built by
Messrs. Vickers, Sons and Maxim, Barrow-in-Furness, in 1908. Some time
previously the Japanese Government placed with the firm an order for
two submarine vessels, and a special steamer had to be constructed to
carry them. This vessel is over 250 feet long, very broad and with
large hatchways. When the submarines were ready for shipment the
steamer was taken to Liverpool and sufficiently submerged in dock to
allow of them being floated into the hold. She was then pumped dry, and
after being overhauled she left for Japan.
The most serious competitors British shipbuilders have are those of
Germany. The industry there is of comparatively modern growth, and it
is not more than a few years since all the large steamers required by
German owners were built in Great Britain. All the early steamers of
the Hamburg-Amerika Linie and also of the Norddeutscher Lloyd were
constructed here, but in the early ’seventies, owing to the patriotism
of a Secretary of State for the Navy in encouraging the construction
of warships in German yards, shipbuilding was taken up in earnest and
there are now shipyards in Germany capable of turning out steam-ships
in every respect equal to the best that British establishments can
produce. At first, German competition was not regarded very seriously
by British builders, nor were German owners altogether enamoured of
the products of their own yards owing to the lack of uniformity in the
quality of the materials employed. The foundation of the Germanischer
Lloyd during the ’sixties meant that a new influence was exercised
upon German shipbuilding equivalent to that exercised by Lloyd’s
upon the British mercantile marine. It was not, however, until 1882
that the Hamburg-Amerika Linie inaugurated the serious competition
between German and British builders by entrusting the building of
the mail steamer _Rugia_ to the Vulcan Shipbuilding and Engineering
works at Stettin, and the _Rhaetia_ to the Reiherstieg Shipbuilding
and Engineering Works at Hamburg. Previous to this the German yards
had been constructing small steamers, the first of which there is
any record being the _Weser_, built about 1816, at the Johann Lange
yards. Iron shipbuilding was established at what is now the Stettin
Vulcan yard in 1851 and the same year the “Neptun” yard was founded
at Rostock. The first German iron steamer was built at the Schichau
Works at Elbing in 1855, and from 1859 to 1862 the machinery for wooden
gunboats was supplied. Two iron steamers were launched by Klawitter at
Dantzic in 1855, in which year also the Godefroy wooden shipbuilding
yard, the present Reiherstieg yard, laid the keel of the first iron
ocean-going steamer built on the North Sea coast. The Norddeutsche
Werft was started in 1865 at the newly created naval harbour of Kiel,
and in 1879 was united with the Maschinenbau-Gesellschaft, formerly
Egells, whence arose the well-known Germania shipbuilding establishment.
Without entering upon debatable economic questions it may be asserted
as a fact that German shipbuilding is a State-developed industry.
Little was done until von Stosch, Minister of the Navy, in introducing
a Bill for the establishment of a German Navy defined once for all the
relations between the German Navy and the German industries. Not only
did the State give assistance by the placing of orders, but further
assistance was afforded in 1879 by the exemption from import duty of
mercantile shipbuilding materials, a concession the importance of
which was recognised when the Norddeutscher Lloyd placed an order with
the Vulcan yard in 1886 for six imperial mail steamers for the East
Asiatic and Australian lines. These were the first large iron passenger
steamers built in Germany. Being Government mail steamers, German
material was to be used in their construction as far as possible.
Before this, the Vulcan and the Reiherstieg yards had each shown
what they could do by building an ocean steamer of about 3500 tons.
Several English-built steamers were bought for the N.D.L. in 1881 and
the following years, but in 1888-90 the company had three steamers
of 6963 tons gross built by the Vulcan Company; these vessels had
engines of 11,500 indicated horse-power and a speed of 18¹⁄₂ miles
an hour. In these steamers were adopted central saloons and a long
central deck-house with a promenade deck above, while on the main
deck a dining-room, extending from one side of the ship to the other,
was built. In these ships also German decorators and furnishers
were given the opportunity to distinguish themselves and rival the
British, and they did so. Steam-ship after steam-ship was produced,
each one excelling its predecessor, until the N.D.L. decided upon the
construction of the _Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse_ under the onerous
condition that if she did not come up to the very strict requirements
they imposed, the Vulcan Company should take her back. One condition
was that the ship should be exhibited in a trial trip across the ocean
to New York. The _Barbarossa_ type, corresponding to the White Star
intermediate vessels, appeared in the ’nineties, carrying a large
number of passengers and having great cargo capacity. In 1894 the
twin-screw vessels _Prinz Regent Luitpold_ and _Prinz Heinrich_ were
added with special equipment for the tropics. Since then steamers have
been added to the fleet with almost startling rapidity to cope with
the company’s many services, all the important German yards being
favoured with orders. The largest steamer the company has is the
_George Washington_, launched in November 1908 by the Vulcan Company,
which is the greatest steamer yet constructed in Germany. She is 725¹⁄₂
feet in length with a displacement of 36,000 tons, while her gross
registered tonnage is 26,000 tons. She is a first-class twin-screw
steamer with five steel decks extending from end to end; she has
also thirteen water-tight bulkheads, all of which reach to the upper
deck and some even to the upper saloon deck. Contrary to the English
practice, which is to reduce the number of masts as much as possible
in these big liners, she has four masts, all steel poles, and carries
29 steel derricks. Her accommodation is for 520 first-class passengers
in 263 staterooms, 377 second-class passengers in 137 staterooms,
614 third-class passengers in 160 staterooms, and 1430 fourth-class
passengers in eight compartments, this vessel being the first in which
four classes of passengers are carried. Besides the 2941 passengers
she has a crew of 525. She has two four-cylinder, four-crank,
quadruple-expansion engines of 20,000 horse-power, which give her a sea
speed of 18¹⁄₂ knots.
[Illustration: _Photo. G. West & Son._
THE “KRONPRINZESSIN CECILIE” (NORDDEUTSCHER LLOYD).]
[Illustration: _Photo. G. West & Son._
THE “KAISER WILHELM II.” (NORDDEUTSCHER LLOYD).]
With this steamer and four others only slightly less in size, the
_Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse_, the _Kronprinz Wilhelm_, the _Kaiser
Wilhelm II._, and the _Kronprinzessin Cecilie_, the company is able to
carry out its ambition of maintaining a weekly express service between
Bremen and New York.
The other great German shipping organisation, the Hamburg-Amerika
Linie, started with a fleet of sailing ships, but inaugurated its steam
service in 1856 with the _Borussia_, built by Caird of Greenock, who
in the next few years executed orders for a number of vessels for the
line. This steamer was one of the best of her day. The progress of
this line, which claims with good reason to be the greatest shipping
organisation in the world, has been extraordinary. Long ago it was
adopted as its motto “My field the World,” and well it has acted up to
it. Its fleet had grown by 1897 to sixty-nine steam-ships with a total
of 291,507 tons register, in addition to several smaller steamers for
coastal and harbour work.
Its extension in the last few years has been phenomenal. Among its
largest and fastest boats are the _Cleveland_ and _Cincinnati_, _Koenig
Wilhelm II._, _Amerika_, _Kaiserin Auguste Victoria_, _Patricia_,
_President Grant_, _President Lincoln_, and _Deutschland_, the last
being one of the fastest afloat. Some of its larger vessels have been
built at Belfast, notably the _Amerika_, and the _Spreewald_ and others
of her class at the Middleton yard, Hartlepool. In March 1909, the
fleet comprised 164 ocean steamers of a total of 869,762 tons register,
and 223 smaller steamers of 46,093 tons, or a total of 387 steamers
and 915,855 tons. Both these companies, by their direct services and
the numerous lines which they control, are in connection with every
port of importance throughout the world.
With regard to engineering developments, it must be remembered that
high-pressure and multiple-expansion engines were known before 1879.
The little _Enterprise_ was engined by Wilson of London, in 1872, with
a pressure of 150 lb.; the _Sexta_, engined by the Ouseburn Engine
Works of Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1874, had boilers with a pressure of
120 lb. and triple-expansion engines working on three cranks; the
_Propontis_, engined in the same year by Elder, of Glasgow, was also
fitted with triple-expansion engines. Mr. Perkins’ tri-compounds came
out in the ’seventies, the _Isa_ (yacht) in 1879, with a pressure of
120 lb.; and there were a few others. With the exception of the _Isa_,
all the others may well be designated experiments that failed, and it
was owing to the success of this little yacht that the possibility of
the ordinary boiler for still higher pressures suggested itself.[94]
[94] Paper on “Cargo Boat Machinery,” by Mr. J. F. Walliker,
Institute of Marine Engineers.
The _Propontis_, built in 1864, was re-engined and fitted with
tri-compounds and new boilers in 1874. The boilers (of the water-tube
type) were a failure, and were replaced by cylindrical boilers in 1876,
at a reduced pressure of 90 lb. With these she worked till 1884, when
her boilers were renewed. Dr. Kirk declared “that the want of a proper
boiler had delayed the introduction of the triple expansion.”
Plates of five tons in weight and upwards are in common use for boiler
shells, yet in 1881 hardly a firm on the north-east coast would
undertake to build a boiler for 150 lb. pressure.
The success of the triple engine resulted in many vessels being
converted and fitted with new boilers, while others were re-engined.
Messrs. Palmer, in the _James Joicey_, fitted an interchangeable
crank-shaft with the crank-pin on the centre engine, made with a
coupling at each end to fit into a recess in the web. It was seen at
quite an early stage of tri-compounds that the three-crank engine, with
cranks at equal angles, from its easy turning moments, would be the
most satisfactory, and its universal adoption in new engines was only
the work of a very short time. The steamers _Aberdeen_ and _Claremont_,
both launched in 1881, were the first to have commercially successful
triple-expansion engines.
As to how high steam-pressures may go, it is recorded that the yacht
_Salamander_, with triple-expansion engines, had the valve set at 600
lb.
The invention of the turbine has been the most remarkable event in the
modern history of the steam-engine. The following passages, taken from
the Hon. C. A. Parsons’ paper on turbines, read at the Engineering
Exhibition, 1906, give an account of its adoption for purposes of steam
navigation:
“Turbines in general use may be classified under three principal types,
though there are some that may be described as a mixture of the three
types. The compound or multiple expansion type was the first to receive
commercial application in 1884; the second was the single bucket
wheel, driven by the expanding steam-jet, in 1888; and lastly a type
which comprises some of the features of the other two, combined with
a sinuous treatment of the steam in 1896. The compound type comprises
the Parsons, Rateau, Zoelly, and other turbines, and has been chiefly
adopted for the propulsion of ships. The distinctive features of these
varieties of the compound type lie principally in design; nearly all
adopt a line of flow of the steam generally parallel and not radial
to the shaft. In the Parsons turbines there are no compartments: the
blades and guides occupy nearly the whole space between the revolving
drum and the fixed casing, and the characteristic action of the steam
is equal impact and reaction between the fixed and moving blades. The
chief object is to minimise the skin friction of the steam by reducing
to a minimum the extent of moving surface in contact with the steam,
and another, to reduce the percentage of leakage by the adoption of a
shaft of large diameter and great rigidity, permitting small working
clearances over the tops of the blades. The other varieties of turbines
have all multicellular compartments in which the wheels or discs
revolve.”
The first vessel to be fitted with a turbine engine was the little
_Turbinia_, in 1894, and successful though she was it was found
necessary in the two following years to make a number of experiments
which resulted in radical changes in the design and arrangement of the
machinery. The first engine tried was of the radial flow type, giving
about 1500 horse-power to a single screw. A speed of only 18 knots was
obtained. Several different propellers were tried with this engine,
and the result not being satisfactory the original turbine engine was
removed, and the engines finally adopted consisted of three turbines in
series--high pressure, intermediate pressure, and low pressure--each
driving a separate shaft with three propellers on each shaft. A
reversing turbine was coupled with the low-pressure turbine to the
central shaft. The utility of the turbine for fast speed having been
demonstrated by the _Turbinia_, the destroyers _Viper_ and _Cobra_ were
built and given Parsons turbines and propellers, and the _Viper_ showed
herself the fastest in the world with a speed of 36·86 knots per hour.
These two vessels came to grief, through no fault, however, of the
turbines.
[Illustration: _Photo. G. West & Son._
“TURBINIA.”]
Captain Williamson, the well-known steamer manager on the Clyde,
was the first to order a turbine-propelled boat for commercial
purposes, this being the steamer _King Edward_, built in 1901. She
gave such excellent results that the _Queen Alexandra_ was ordered.
The South Eastern and Chatham Company was the first railway company
to order a turbine steamer, _The Queen_, 310 feet long and of 1676
tons gross, with engines of 7500 horse-power. The first ocean liners
fitted with turbines were the Allan liners _Victorian_ and _Virginian_,
built in 1904, each of about 10,754 gross tonnage and having turbine
engines of about 12,000 horse-power. The Cunard Line built a turbine
steamer in the following year, the _Carmania_, with turbines of 21,000
horse-power and of 19,524 tons gross. So satisfactory, apparently, was
the experiment that the Cunard Line next ordered the _Lusitania_ and
_Mauretania_ with turbine engines of 70,000 horse-power each.
After the two torpedo vessels already mentioned, the Admiralty ordered
the _Velox_ and _Eden_, which had additional engines for obtaining
economical results at low speeds. Then came the third-class cruiser
_Amethyst_, and comparative trials with sister vessels fitted with
reciprocating engines showed the superior economy of the _Amethyst’s_
engines. Next the _Dreadnought_ was fitted with turbine engines.
Another conclusive proof of the superiority of the turbine was afforded
by the steamer _Princesse Elisabeth_ on the Ostend and Dover service,
which in her first year averaged 24 knots as against the 22 knots of
the _Princesse Clementine_ and _Marie Henriette_ on an average coal
consumption per trip of 23·01 tons, compared with their 24·05 and
23·82 tons respectively. The turbine boat also does the trip in about
15 per cent. less time than the other two, or, “to reduce the turbine
boat to the displacement and speed of the paddle-boats, and assuming
that the indicated horse-power varies as the cube of the speed, the
mean consumption of the _Princesse Elisabeth_ would be about 17 tons
as against 24 tons in the paddle-boats, thereby showing a saving of
over 25 per cent.” Many other vessels have been fitted with turbine
machinery, including the royal yacht.
The multiple propellers tried in some of the earlier vessels were found
to be less satisfactory than single propellers on each shaft.
The first in which a combination of reciprocating and turbine engines
was installed was the _Otaki_ by Denny, for the New Zealand Shipping
Company.
[Illustration: THE “OTAKI” (NEW ZEALAND SHIPPING CO.).]