THE WORLD'S NAVIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14492, 5 October 1910, Page 5

THE WORLD'S NAVIES.

COMING REVOLUTION. Commenting on an announcement emanating from Portsmouth, that the Admiralty had resolved to build an experimental battleship to bo motor driven, tho naval correspondent of tho London Daily Telegraph says: — "At present the marine oil-engine is in an evolutionary stage. Engineers, not only in this country, but abroad, are still engaged in the twin tasks of calculation and experiment. The outcome of this work will undoubtedly be tho triumph of the new motive power, and we shall have men-of-war —and merchant ships without boilers, without funnels, and without stokers. "When the motor-ship was first forecasted it was thought that tho gas-power engine might reach success first. Though experiments are still being carried out, it is confidently anticipated that by the time the gaspower producer plant for the propulsion of largo ships has been evolved, the oil-engine will already be seriously challenging the supremacy of steam. "Two months ago the Berlin correspondent of the Daily Telegraph first drew attention to the most important development in engineering which has occurred for many years. The well-known German shipbuilding firm of Blohm and Voss in June last contracted with the Hamburg-American Steamship Company to build a steamship of 9000 tons in which will jjo installed two Diesel oil-engines, each of 1500 brake horse-power. This ship is to travel at the rat© of 12£ knots. A similar vessel is to be constructed with steam-engines, with a view to comparative tests. This order reveals how much progress has already been made in .the evolution of a powerful oil-engine for marine propulsion. It marks progress, but not victory. The swift motor-driven battleship and the motor-driven Atlantic liner are no doubt brought nearer by this experimental installation, but neither has yet arrived. " The battleship-cruiser Lion, recently launched at Devonport, will require turbines with 70.000 brake horse-power to drive her weight of 26,260 tons through,the water at 28 or 30 knots. The battleship Orion,.floated at Portsmouth, even for a speed of 21 knots will have to bo given turbines of 27.000 brake horse-power. There is a, good deal of difference between a cargo vessel of 9000 tons with a speed of knots and a battle-ship-cruiser of 26,260 tons with power for 30 knots. Speed is the weather gauge in naval war, and the Admiralty will certainly not sacrifice it. "Tho marine oil-engine, in fact, is in its. infancy. It has not yet reached the sta<e of Parsons's turbine, when the Turbinia frisked about the water at Spithoad 13 years ago, and it was not until 1904 that the Admiralty, pioneers in. this respect, had-, the courage to introduce the turbine into a. large man-of-war— Dreadnought. In tho interval turbines have been tested in destroyers, then in cruisers, and only at long last was it determined to instal'them in the Dreadnought. "Not at once, therefore, can we look for tho motor-driven battleship or the motor-' driven liner. But both will come in time, bocause tho oil-engine will mean efficiency with cheapness, but its coming will depend not only on the evolution of the oil-engine, but on supplies of fuel being available. When tho revolution occurs, then, indeed, the strangest ships on which the eve of man has ever been cast will be afloat. 'We shall then havo battleships which will be without boilers, and without funnels, leaving ""the whole deck-space free for the guns and for an increased number of guns', and practically without stokers, as the engines will bo fed almost automatically with the heavy petroleum refuse. Increased space will be available for the crew and for ammunition and stores generally. The ship will lie low in the water, with one mast, and no top hamper or smoke pennantto reveal her presence directly she comes on the horizon. Sho will be cheap to run, silent in movement, inconspicuous on the skyline, and uglier than anything which has yet been sent afloat. She will ho an embodiment of power, a mere mobile marine fort, without a vestige of the beauty which made old sailors lovo their ships with an intensity which no landsman could appreciate."