CRUISER TO CARGO SHIP.

Northern Advocate, 17 June 1920, Page 3

CRUISER TO CARGO SHIP.

Obsolete French cruisers, instead of being scrapped, are being converted into commercial vessels. The old Dupuy Do Lome has undergone this interesting transformation, and it. is about to be carried out in the case of other old warships of this class.

The Dupuy de Lome, a notable ship in her day, represented a marked avdance cm any French cruiser that had been built up to 1886, the year she was laid down. She was 374 ft. by 51ft by 23ft, and had a displacement of 6270 tons. Her engines developed 14,000 horsepower, and drove her at 20 knots. Apparently she was a little short of steam, for some years afterwards, when her lank boilers were removed, and she was fitted with improved water-tube generators, her speed was increased to 23 knots. The engine equipment was curious. There were thrc> shafts, with the centre shaft driven by the ordinary type of triple expansion engine; but actuating each wing (dial') was a horizontal compound engine. *

In reconstructing (lie cruiser the whole of the superstructure, turrets, and armour plating were removed, 14 of the boilers were dismantled, and the space thus made available was converted into a cargo hold. Of tho three engines, only the central one was left. Most of the bulkheads were also removed. The Dupuy de Lome had the exaggerated rambow characteristic of French naval practice in those days, but over it has been erected a top-gallant forecastle, which affords housing for part of the crew, and which also improves the weatherly qualities of the old ship.

The German naval authorities are converting two large unfinished destroyers into mercantile vessels, and the protected cruiser Gefion, 3770 tons, is being converted into a motor cargo

vessel,