AN UNSINKABLE FREIGHT SHIP

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 47, 19 November 1917, Page 6

AN UNSINKABLE FREIGHT SHIP

TO RUN THE U-BOAT CtATJNTI.ET. It would be a serious error, remarks "Current Opinion," to suppose that the torpedo-boat destroyer is more than a part-way solution of the submarine problem. Neither should it be imagined .tlwt American genius lias devised any single effective instrument or medium that will neutralise the ravaging U-boat. Naval experts are of the opinion that, while the marksmanship of our gun-crewshas been excellent, the only reliable checlt on nnder-water assault lies in either modifying the structural character ol existing caTgo 6hips or in blinding freighter.? of a special type that can survive the blow of a torpedo, or, better, >be immune to foundering if hit twice below the water-line. Such a ship, wo rend, has been designed bv an Italian architect, Umberto Pugliese, who has taken what is known to the shipping world as the turret steamer, itself a modification of the whaleback, as a basis for his unsaleable vessel, and has remodelled it infernally to meet the fpecial conditions imposed by torpedo attack. To be exact, says Robert G. Skerrett, discussing the; Pu£ . lies© .model in the IsevrYork f J?' this Italian engineer has gone further in devising a ship which calls for the submergence of the harbour deck and leaves, when the vessel is loaded, only the water-line. This provides possible caTgo-oarrying capacity. The plan is for vessels of 10,000 to 12,000 ment, capable of carding.JoOO'to 5500 tons of cargo each WP'.J urther S' "Steel is his ohosen building and bv ft® ingenious disposition of tae bulk-freight he ,makes his cargo serve In part as an effective bulwark against the explosive force of either a torpedo or a /I on tin? mine. The ship win effect a craft .of four skins, and these are so interposed along the line of probable assault that it is extremely unlikely that the innermost skin, the one next to the vitals of the craft, would be ruptured. Not onlv that, but the designer has taken additional oains to restrict the area of possible injury, so that the foe wonl have to score more than once below the water-line in order to send the freighter, to the bottom. . "The principal cargo space is so distributed as to form ft defensive wall around the engines, boilers, auxiliary machinery, coal, and the'ammunition for the rapidifire guns. In other words, this arrangement, would in a large measure unite reverse tho normal disposition of the freight. Hatches are pinned directly over tho freight spaces in order to facilitate the easy loading and self-trimming or stowage of cargo. This bin-like arrangement jV further increased by athwart-ship bulkheads spaced every twenty-five feet throughout the vessels total length of four hundred feet. "In this way a torpedo or mine exploding against any of these separate cargo compartments will probably not flood any of the flanking spaces, for the reosoiT that the lino of least resistance >for the explosive gases would be upward and outward through the hatches, whose covers-would yield readily under such an impulse. Pugliese is not Telying entirely upon this line of relief, and further to safeguard tho vitals of the ship the mam cargo holds or/ stowage bunkers are isolated from the boilers and engines ( by threo sturdy longitudinal bulkheads. j One of the strongest recommendations,) advanced in behalf of the t.irretwihip form of hull, and which has brought about its serious consideration by the Federal Shipping Board, is that less steel is required than for a vessel of the same beam and with an of|ual body height above water. Tho weight thus saved can be utilised in generously to the metal needed for the longitudinals that stand between the vitals and the attacking toraedocs. ■ In addition, wo read, the flanking d |s tion of the cargo in the turret section serves to shield the internals of ffie ship from shell-fire— operating .like earthen breastworks to halt projectiles from tho deck guns with which 1 submarines are equipped. - ,