COMFORTABLE VESSELS.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 136, 25 May 1911, Page 11

COMFORTABLE VESSELS.

PREVENTION OF ROLLING IN SEAWAY. Few things are more distressing to the average ocean passenger than the excessive rolling of the ship. The prospect that movement may be reduced to insignificant proportions, even in the worst of weather, is likely, therefore, to be received with satisfaction. At the meeting of the Institution of Naval Architects, Heir Frahm described the working of anti-rolling tanks which he has developed at Messrs. Blohm and Voss’s shipbuilding yard in Hamburg, and gave some interesting particulars of their achievements. These tanks were fitted to the passenger steamers, Ypiranga and Corcovado, each 447 feet in length, and each said to be bad rollers, notwithstanding their bilge keels. The result was that they at once lost their character for unsteadiness, and became such quiet, comfortable vessels that the “ fiddles ” were no longer required, even in the worst weather. It is stated, indeed, that the influence on the health of the passengers was verv favourable.

According to Herr Frahm, the Hamburg - American, Hamburg - South American, German East African, and Woermann Lines are

| all having their new passenger I ships fitted with these tanks. In I the Old Country also, the subject |is receiving attention, the stateiment being that negotiations are j proceeding with some of the larg- ; est firms with a view of fitting anti- | rolling tanks in vessels under construction and in existing ships also. (The value of the invention seems i very clearly established in the case of the German East African liner General. Strong winds and a heavy sea made her roll 14deg. when the tanks were out of action. When the smaller tank forward was > used, the heeling angles were at once reduced by 7deg or Bdeg, and when the larger tank aft was also put in action the rolling was reiduced to 3deg in either direction. ; Such tests seem absolutely conclusj ive. i