A MARVELLOUS STEAMSHIP.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 7868, 20 May 1891, Page 4

A MARVELLOUS STEAMSHIP.

In a report on the trade of Baltimore, issued from the Foreign Office ou April Ist, the British Consul (Mr Segrave) say? that quite recently there has been launched from a Baltimore shipyard a new form of steamship. She is stated to be a seagoing steamship, solely for passenger traffic, having no freight capacity whatever. Her builders assert chat she can neither burn nor sink, and that, even if upset, she has in a high degree the property of righting as she has 41b weight below waterline for every lib above it. Her keel, which weighs 36 tons, acts not only as ballast, but as a ceutre-board, inasmuch as nearly half of its depth protrudes through the hull into the water. In consequence of its extra rigidity the keel makes far safer and far better engine and shaft bearings than those used in the ordinary methods of shipbuilding. The difference between the safety compartmenos of the Howard-Cassard and those of vessels constructed under the existing system lies iv the fact that this Teasel has air as well as water tight compartments* while under the actual system vessels are provided with water-tight compartments only. These safety compartments number 170, of which 136 are on either side of the ship's centre, thua forming, practically, throe ships in one. The motive power consists In an improved compound engine calculated to develop 1600 horse power, which would drive the ■hip at an average speed of twenty-five miles an hour ou a consumption of one ton Of coal. The valve gear is so perfected that the valves may be opcaud and closed in one-twentieth of a sccoud, thus giving double power over engines of Bimilar size. The Howard-Cassatd is 2Sft over all, or 206 ft between perpendiculars. She has 16ft beam, and 16ft depth of hold. She is built of rolled iron plates on the cellular system. It is asserted that if an ordinary steamship be taken from the water, and supported ouly at the stem and stent, she would break in half, while the Howwd-Caeeard, like a tubular bridge with ahull upon it, would support several times its own weight. This vessel is only an experiment, and is only two-fifths of the proposed dimensions of the regular Steamship which U to be built.