SHIPS AND THE SEA.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 23, 28 January 1911, Page 14

SHIPS AND THE SEA.

'AN INGENIOUS INVENTION. The iceberg detector is the latest inurnment that swenoe has evolved for the better protection of life at sea. In tho near future it is probable that every lmer or passenger ship sailing in waters where ice may be expected to bo m £ fc • WlL beJ l? c? Wth ***> apparatus! Ihe imberg detector is the inTention of Professor Barnes, of the M'Gill University in Canada, and it takes the form o£ a particularly delicate electrio thermometer, which records changes in temperature up to so nunute a point as one-thousandth of a degree. ¦* This instrument will be carcied attachett to a ships hull, but under water, and it will record the temperature of the water on a dial, whioh may be placed in any convenient spot in the ship—tho bridge the charferooHi, or the captain's cabin ' By watching the temperature of the. water, as recorded on this dial, the ship's navigators will be able to tell when an iceberg is being approached, and also to compute with considerable accuracy its distance from the ship. So gigantic is an iceberg that it will cool the water around it for a distance of several miles, and the iceberg doctor, in favourable ciroumstanoeß, will begin to give its warning at a distance of ten miles. Should ice be m the vicinity-*he temperature will begin to fall, and will continue to do 60 in a uniform manner, the temperature dropping near and nearer to freezing point as the berg is approached. Since the fall in temperature is regular, it is easily computed after a very short time by the rate at which it is falling and the speed at which the ship is traveling hovf long it will be before the ioe is reached, and, consequently, how far away the danger lies. It is is only when ice is being approached that the fall of the temperature of the sea drops uniformly. The normal variations of the water are irregular, so that a sudden drop, unless maintained with regularity, need give no cause for alarm to those responsible for a vessel's safety. This instrument wilj- be of the utmost value to navigators, for icebergs are numbered among the most terrible dangers of the ocean. Icebergs are often a mile or more in circumferenoe and tower several hundred feet above the water level A colhsion with such an obstacle is necessarily traught with terrible consequences, and the danger of icebergs is greatly increased by the fact that fogs frequently collect in their vicinity. CHINA TEA SHIPS. .The clipper ships which used to race Home from China with the new season's teas have long since given place to steamers. It was once thought they could never be superseded. To carry tea in anything but a wooden-built ship was considered a sure method of spoiling its flavour. lo substitute steam power for sa.il was, it was alleged, equally undesirable in this trade. But tho change came all the same. It was the Glen Line which, it is Baid, first brought Home China tea in one of its steamers, and thus put a period to the clipper ships and their records. The Glen JLuno is still busily engaged in trade with ;¦ „ *J b '&si> and now comes tho report that Messrs. Elder, Dempster, and Co whose chairman is Sir Owen Philipps, has secured a controlling interest' in it. The line at present consists of seven steamers representing an aggregate of some 32,00 tons. The boats are of good speed and well adapted for their particular employment. So far Messrs. Elder, Dempster, and Co. s interests have not extended to the Eastern trade, but through the u1.1"?u 1. 1"? ne the Royal Mail Company (of whioh Sir Owen Philipps is also chairman) has relations with China and Japan. P. AND O. PROGRESS. j Several circumstances combine to render i thee and O. Co.'s annual report particularly interesting. There is the purchase, for example, of the fleet of the Blue Anchor Line, and the association of the I company's future with the Capo route to I Australia, as well as with that by way of buez. Five steamers, aggregating 30,000 tons, have been acquired, at a cost, of approximately, £250,000. A sum of £25,000 has also been paid to Messrs. Lund, .the former managing owners/ for goodwill j and compensation. It is made clear that tho directors of the P. and O. Company have no intention of giving special atten- J tion to the Cape trade. Oh the oontrary, I they expressly state that the purchase Is i made to enable the company to participate in emigration business with Australia which is rapidly developing at the present tune. \ As ?? yidenco that it means /business in this direction, the company is building a couple of 11,000-ton steamers, with extensive acommodation for third-class passengers and emigrants. It will thus have betoro very long a fleet of seven vessels, totalling upwards of 50,000 tons, engaged m ™ branch service to Australia. This will be a very substantial beginning of an enterprise which, from a business point of view, will doubtless prove to have ample justification. The new departure naturally involves a considerable increase of the P and O. floet. Whon, in addition to the couple of new liners for the Cape route, the two new 12,500-ton mail steamers, Medina and Maloja, are delivered, the shipping sailing under the P. and O. fiW will total no loss than 454,000 tons. The four new steamers are apparently to be twin-screw boats with reciprocating engines. At least, nothing is said about the lA se-, of m ? low-pressure turbine.—London Daily Telegraph.' ROLLING OF SHIPS AT SEA. The Lokalari Zeiger states that at the Congress of 'Shipbuilding Engineers the Emperor congratulated the Hamburg engineer, Herr Frahm, the inventor of a Pitching tank" to prevent the rolling of smite, aqd expressed the hope that the system would soon be introduced on board all vessels. Herr Frahm read a paper, demonstrating upon a model the effects of the invention, which consists of "U" shaped tanks extending from pe*t to starboard through the ho}d. The water in them rises and falls as the ship rolls, co as to neutralise the rhythmical movement of the latter. The tanks have been tested on the two Hamburg-Amerika liners, Ypiranga and Corcovado. These vessels, plying between Buenos Avres and Hamburg this summer without tanks, rolled to lldeg. on each beam. This was reduced to 2deg. when the tanks were in operation. The Hamburg-Amerika line has directed tanks to be placed in tho steamer of 60,000 tons recently ordered by them for their New York service. THOUSAND FEET SHIPS The Cunnard Company has not ordered a ship a thousand feet long, but its chairman is evidently of opinion that it may do so one of these days. In a speeoh just made at Liverpool (says the London Daily Telegraph), Mr. Booth laid it down.that, as any trade grows, the larger the unit of transport employed, the more profitable it is likely to be. That is a simple prinoiple which sufficiently explains the great growth in the size of , ships. Mr. Booth says there is no ca&o within his knowledge to which the rule does not apply. Therefore he sees no reason why it should cease to hold good at any particular limit—loooft in length or 70,000 tons, for example. The realisation of such ships depends, Mr. Booth holds, not upon the naval architect or tho marine engineer, "but upon the harbour authorities of the world. This, of course, is the view which Lord Firrie has consistently a-dvocated, and so far he has more -or less converted Liverpool, Southampton, and Belfast. Mr. Booth, lor his part, thinks harbour authorities will be forced to go ahead, whether they like it or not. That, at all events, is his reading of tha past. !