ELECTRIC WARSHIPS

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 35, 10 August 1921, Page 6

ELECTRIC WARSHIPS

EFFICIENCY PROVED

DIRECT CONTROL FROM BRIDGE.

A super-dreadnought that can be driven like a tramway-car may savour of freakish innovation. But there will' be a ship of the kind in the British Navy within the next few, years .if one of. our four new capital vessels is erigihed on the "all-electric" plan, as it i 6 reported 'one probably may be. '

■Although the adoption of the electric drive would be one of the biggest revolutions ever made in our fleet, the Uevice is not a novelty. The United States Navy has had it in use for some time past. About a decade ago they equipped two experimental ships. Steam engines were fitted in one and electrical propel-, •ling machinery in the other! A series of competitive trials was then run between the-two.

As an outcome, of these it wae found that the electrically-driven ship had a five days' margin of sea-keeping over her opponent. In other words, she could continue steamiiig for five days longer than the steam-propelled ship whila burning only the same quantity\of fuel. Five days added to any warship's radius of action means a very big gain. Onetonth of that time might decide the fate of an empire. If two fleets, otherwise: evenly matched, met in action, victory would most likely go to the one which, possessed' the greatest; reserve of, steaming endurance.

Having satisfied themselves that the electric drive justified' further experiment, the Americans installed it in the Now Mexico. Now- they are putting it in all their latest ■ warships. The 4fijOOOton leviathans under construction for the United States Navy will all be oil-burn-ing and electrically propelled; Mr. Josephus Daniels, the ex-Secretary of the United' States Navy, himself said that the Navy Board had finally settled that all future capital ships built by the United States should be equipped in this way. ' ' In so far as our own Navy is concerned, 'the fight lies between those who believe that the geared steam turbine is the better, and the more advanced few who wish to give electric propulsion a trial. The British Navy has always been inclined to stick to the thing that has proved reliable. Qther countries use electric power for working gun turrets. We tried this in the Invincible some year 3 ago but returned to hydraulics, and ■to hydraulics we have stuck ever since.

In the ''aJI-eleotric" ship everything, from main engines to boat hoists, is operated by motors. A sort of power station somewhat resembling those used for shore traction pnrposes (in principle, of course) is erected in the fore part of the vessel, and the screws are turned by motors attached to the propeller shafts. ' , .

One great advantage of tha system is that the cables connecting the. motors with the dynamos which, supply the current can be ca.rried along as may be most convenient, and as the "field of force" which revolves the armature and thus makes the ship's , propellers go round is, if one may' so express it, simply a layer of air, it forms' the most ideal coupling conceivable when a sudden strain is imposed.

The navigating officer, can control his propelling machinery from the bridge in a way not possible with a steam plant. In short, in regard to the direct control he has over his Vessel, thel navigator of an "all-electric" ship is very much in the same position as the driver of a tramway -car. '„ /