THE FASTEST SHIP AFLOAT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6667, 31 March 1883, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE FASTEST SHIP AFLOAT.

Thk past year (sajß a Home paper) has be;n onei of unusual prosperity for th-= ocean steam trade, and especially for the trade betwe n ■ xjngland and America. We shall not, we B have reason to believe, be far wrom, if we * ff S , e , rt that 811011 vcß3e ' 3 as the Alaska, Servia *'Inifc' earQ e3ch v from £ IS,OOO , Jj? £-0.000, nearly one-half of which s profit, lhe voyage consists of a run from Liverpool to the United Stats and tack a ain and Will occupy from four to fivs weeks, j The enormous first cost ~f the hu L -e oieamer which now constitute the ocean Liverpool fleet .s so great that their puren.se is quite beyond the means of pri vate lit ins, aud it ii no secret that the ahips ailing under various well-known house-flags, a d nominally ownsci by private ?ia | ly belong to large syndicates backed uu by imn-rtau' banking establishments. Iu this w»y, in this vay alone, ciia b<=» obtained th=>t almost unlimited commaa 1 of ?zpttai which has prO'juc>?d the fiueat rs ;n the world. We cannot po sibly now attempt to deal in detail with the prospects of last ocean shipbuilding in lSS.'i Ws may cite one ship, however, as au example of the utmost limit that has yet bt-eu reached. JLhis is the Oregon, a new -teauier i.ir inc Guion line. It is anticipated that the will be ready for her trial trip ;.buut muiauinmer. and sue is intended to exct-l in speed the fastest ship now .-.Qo.it, Shu will 'lot bmuch Urger than the AUska, l.uthfr eUiUl „ are to indicate no leas than 13.000 horsepower. She will have but one „e; i>. as vie understand about '24ft i,i diameter, *vitl> a pitch of nearly 40. Stenn wiil be tupwlied by twelve boilers, each wit ■ six ::rt j 6m. diameter, the grates bei..- » lir.ie o-er bit. Ion.:. We piay com pa e n r with the Alaska, which ship has nine boil- rs v ith six furnaces in each, of about t -e saia.' s /*;. I Comparing grate ureas, we fiml t .-it tii I aggregate surface in th-= Oregon will be 15,'2 ! ft., divided among 72 fornixes, while that of the Alaska i-j 1131, divided uiuoag 5t As the Oregon w 11 buru about -•Jib. ol" coal per square toot of grate per h ur, her consumption in 24 hours wih not be much under 300 tons ; and, allowing that each ton of coal evaporates nine tun - of wa er, we find that no less than '27U0 tons of steam will pas* thiough her engines every 21 hours. A tank I00;'t. square, to hold 2700 ton-, o^ water, must be near J 10ft. deep to prevent the water from ov._r the edge If the tauk were 50ft. equate, the water would stand 33ft. 20iu. deep in i r , It the water were supplied to a town, allowing four cubic feet or 25 gallons per hfad per da,-, it would snliiee for a population »f 24,000 touls : GOOO tous of air wiil pass through her furnaces, J representing a volume of 174,720,000 cubic [ a pip® lift. 4m. in diauiet r. | This volume of air would flow at the rate of 13S miles per hour—a strong b.eezo to w-lk against. The total weLht of water evapo rated on the run acres* tho .Atlantic *i l nut be far short of three times that of the wh.le ship's cargo, engines and all. We give th. se figures to enable our readers to form joine dea of what 13,000 horse-power means; .nd we may supplement them hy adding that it i> equivalent to 191,517 tons liftea a foot every luinnte, or the same weight lifted 1440 feet in 24 hours. Assuming th t sho makes L'O knots an hour, or, omitting fraction.-, 202S feet per minute, the thrust of her screw — that is to say the force push ug her ahead through the water—will amount to o>er 1)4 tons, or about as much as 2tl of the mo-t powerful locomotive engines in K: would exert if all were puNiug at her together. Among the ot,.er iiillicult es which crop up wiieu we have to .eal with such enormous p-.wers as th-se ti'urea represent, we mention that of getting toe coal to the fires. We see that in toe case oi the Oregon no k-iS than 3JO tons a day—tile full load for a coil train of ;ii) trucks—will have to he handled ev ry 24 hours. If the ship were at rest, the problem would not b - of easy solution, but it b-co. ea vcy h..rd, indeed, to deal with in a rolling and p-.'ehiui; ressel. All is done, of course, t at can i e done in arranging boilers and b.nkeis to accommodate each other, but it is evident at a glance that out of a total quantity ..f, my, 2500 tons of coal a great d=a. must" estowed at a considerable distance from the furnaces. I "