A NEW TYPE OF STEAMER

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 12 June 1926, Page 7

A NEW TYPE OF STEAMER

A ship of unusual interest, the King George V. ,was launched on the Clyde on April 29. She is merely a passenger vessel, of no great size, intended for use on the river and firth into which is put, but sue is fraught with possibilities, says the Times. It was the King Edward, a vessel of the same'- type, built a quarter of a century ago for the same owners by the same builders at the same yard, and in association with Sir Charles Parsons, who is again behind the present venture, which definitely introduced the era of the marine steam turbine. The new vessel represents the latest challenge of steam to, the oil engine as an instrument for the propulsion of ships, and she will show, it is lioped, that the turbine supplied with steam at a much higher pressure than has hitherto been used at sea can hold its own with the Diesel equine in respect of economy in working. If this hope is fulfilled the consequences may lie farreaching. ‘‘One result may be to give coal, the one fuel of which we have abundant sip res at home, a new lease of life as a source of energy for driving ships," the Times continued. “Anything (lint will foster tiie use of coal as such and lessen our dependence on oil imported from oversea is to lie welcomed in the national interest. A mot-or-ship without oil is a helpless hulk ; on the other hand, a steam vessel with oil-fired boilers can in case of need he converted to use coal, and thus can he kept in action, though perhaps with some loss of efficiency. It. is an open secret that during the Great War there were occasions on which (lie ships of our Fleet, with their boiler furnaces burning oil, were in serious straits for the fuel necessary to enable them to put to sea ; if all or even a majority of our merchant ships had been dependent on oil-engines, (lie importation of essential supplies of food and material must have been much more gravely jeopardised than it. wits, because in the absence of oil fhe vessels on which we relied would have been unable to move.”