BIG NEW LINER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 133, 7 June 1937, Page 5

BIG NEW LINER.

LESSONS LEARNED. WILL BE IMPROVED.. many novel features. (From Our Own Correspondent.) GLASGOW, May 0. The Cunard-White Star liner No. 552, now being built on Clydeside, will be improved as a. result of. lessons learned from the operation of her companion ship, the Queen Mary. The new liner will be propelled by sixteen turbines, housed in two engine rooms. Instead of two generating stations, as in the sister ship Xo. 552 will have one, and oil engines will displace steam power in the station which will provide the electric load for hotel, lighting, passenger and cooking services. As a result of the reduction of boilers from 27 to 23, there will be four boiler holds instead of five, and the close arrangement of the stokehold means that the ship will have two funnels. Fresh Water in Walls. The application of electric welding, displacing rivets and steel angle-bars, will reduce weight. A novel feature of construction is that the fresh water for the use of passengers will stabilise the ship besides serving as a measure of safety. Fresh water tanks will be displaced and the water stored in the spaces between the inner and outer shells which will run along and form the walls of both engine rooms. The equal weight of water on each side of the ship will provide perfect balance, and as the inner shell is specially designed to protect the propelling machinery in the event of any obstacle' penetrating the outer hull, the volume' of water will serve as a barrier to any penetrating object. The number of oil fuel bunkers will be reduced from 32 to 16, and the 8000 tons of oil used on each voyage stored between the keel and the floors of both engine holds. J

Streamlining. By reducing the number of stokeholds, generating chambers, boilers and fuel bunkers weight will be reduced in the lower hull and a great area of air space provided. The presence of this volume of air will give No. 5.52 great buoyancy, keeping her high in the water and enabling her t'.t ride Atlantic breakers instead of ploughing through them. This will give more speed with a minimum expenditure of engine power. The velocity o? head winds will be accounted for by streamlining in the upper structure of the ship.