OIL FUEL FOR MARINE ENGINES.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume II, Issue 122, 8 May 1912, Page 3

OIL FUEL FOR MARINE ENGINES.

OBSOLESCENCE OF STEAMSHIPS.

The motor ship Sclandia, the Danish passenger vessel of 700(. tons, (which lately left London on het maiden trip, is now passing through the Red Sea, and the very latest nows, which arrived this week by wireless, is that up to the present her engines have worked admirably. She had £8 hours of very bad weather in the Bay of Biscay, and went through satisfactorily. Yesterday, at tlie Institution of Nava Architects, Sir Marcus Samuel. th( leading authority on oil supply ir England, said that lie and bis colleagues. as the owners of a fleet o’ 70 vessels, were so thoroughly con vinccd that oil engines were going tc supplant steam engines that they had made up their minds that they would never build another steam driven ship. There was a smaller motor ship afloat before the Selandia, the Vulcanus. of 1000 tons. The consumption of oil by the Vulcanus was only 11.5 per cent, of the consumption of coal that would have been necessary to drive her by steam. It took 18 months to twe veers to build an oil-driven ship ir England at present. There would be no need to scrap steamships or steam becoming obsolete. Sir Marcus Samuel said, since steamships coulc be adapted for the Diesel engine. The figures relating to these cildriven ships arc so extraordinary that it is impossible to believe that thev can remain for long in the experimental stage. For example, the Sclandia stows her fuel in her double bottom, and yet she is said to carry enough for a journev of 30.000 miles. Reversing from full speed .ahead t< ; nil speed astern can be carried our ii •20 seconds. Her oil consumption i‘ less than 10001 b an hour. To-day it is announced that the Great Central Railway is experimenting with oil driven passenger coaches, canable o! running 40 miles an hour. The cat can haul two trailers, and is driver on the "Pcticini” electric motor prin. rinle.