THE ATLANTIC FERRY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18547, 3 November 1923, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE ATLANTIC FERRY.

HOW SPEED WAS GAINED. BY BABXACXE. Lord, send a man like Robbie Burns to _ eing the Song o' Steam! , To mutch wi' Scotia's noblest speech yon orchestra sublime . . ~ .. . Whaurto-uplifted like the just—the tail rods mark the time. , ~ , .; Tho crauk-ihrows give the double bass, the feed-pump sobs an' heaves, , . An' now the main eccentrics start their quarrel on tho sheaves: , , Her time, her own appointed time, the roc - ins link-head bide*, . ~ .„_ Till—hear that note?— rod's return whings glimmeria' through the guides. McAndirew's Hymn (Kiplm*)A "ferry " is the only term which can adequately describe or do justice to that immense volume of traffic passing between the Old and the New Worlds. Over this sea laneaverage, about 3000 miles longis carried the moving population, not to mention freights, of two continents--1 Europe, with its population ol roughly I 474 millions and North America, with its i 130 millions. This brief summary will I give some idea of the magnitude of the. service, the migration of Europe's crowded millions. Westward, Ho! and those pushing, restless populations, crossing castward and back again. It is interesting to follow the times taken by the fastest boats as the years pass by (with steam pressures at the beginning at 15lb and rising to 200) beginning with the p.s. Sirius, 703 tons, the first English-owned steamer to cross in 1838—85 years ago. She took 17 days to make the'passage. We do it now in four and a-half days. In 1839, Mr., afterwards Sir Samuel, 3unard, a Canadian by birth founded the famous Cunard Line, "the pioneer boats being Britannia. Columbia, Arcadia, Caledonia, 1156 tons, 201b steam pressure, 9 knots, length of passage, 12 to 14 davs. In 1856 the same company built the Persia and Scotia, 3870 tons, 13i knots, with paddle wheels 40 feet in diameter. These boats were the last of that type owing to the propeller coming into use. • Nothing noteworthy was done until 1874 when the City of Berlin (Guion line) made the trip in 7 days 14 hours, replied to by the White Star Co.'s vessels Britannic and Germanic, 7 days 11 hours. These two vessels are famous as setting a standard of hull design and moulding followed even to the present day. They were built by Hsrland and Wolff, Belfast. So the contest went on, company after company launching new steamers in the attempt to capture and hold the speed record. In 1881, tho City of Rome (Inroan), 6 days 21 hours, for the first time brought the passage to under a week. Then the Alaska (Guion) took .62 days. (It was this boat which originated the term greyhound), Oregon (Cunard) 6 days 10 hours, the famous pair, Etruria and Umbria (Cunard) 6 days 20 minutes and the Teu.onic (White Star), 5 days 16£ hours. This beautifully modelled old ship was sold for breaking up only a tew ( months back. In 1888 the City of New York (Inman), first of the twin screw boats, did ii\c. trip in 5 days 14 houm. Campania (Cunard), still a favourite passenger boat. 5 days 13 hours. In 1890 came the Deutschland (Hamburg-America), 5 days 7£ hours. This boat held the blue ribbon for seven years against all comers. Then, subsidised by the Admiralty, the Cunard Company again entered the lists and produced the Mauretania and Lusitania, 4£ days. 44,000 tons displacement, 70,000 h.p.,*25£ knots ocean speed, 27| over the measured mile. Although built as far back as 1906 th«» Mauretania is still the swiftest ship in the mercantile marine. 7er coal consumption is about three-quarters of a ton per minute and that of the pioneer boat Sirius was li tons per hour. This tremendous coal consumption is illustrated in another way. The Deutschland's engines : , register 35,000 h.p.—23£ knots; to get a steady ocean speed of 25£ knots the Mauretania carries double the power. ; ■ Building the Mauretania The Mauretania and Lusitania were to be record-breakers. Everything was to be sacrificed to speed and their builders (Swan. Hunter, Wigham, Richardson, of the Tyne) spent two years and at large sum ,of money making the many thousand experiments entailed in > the solution of the problem facing them. Wax models embodying the proposed lines of hull were made and these were tested in the towing tanns, the pull at various speeds being registered by delicate instruments. Then the problem of the best position for the four propellers they were to carry had to oo solved. To do this power models were built and run under various conditions. Over 5000 records were taken. Eacn boat cost 14 million pounds. Speaking of the Mauretania, the huge steamship one might say was born in the drafting rooms of her" builders. From thence her lines were laid down on an immense blackboard " floor, the curves or her ribs etc., being plotted out in chalk lines. To these huge bars and plates of white hot metal were dragged by machinery and. with the aid of hydraulic machines and the sledge hammers of ex pert workmen, made to conform exactly to the curves drawn. And ,80 the great ship was gradually b«ilt up every line and curve of her conforming to design. The shell weighed when completed, with" screws and shafts fitted, 16,800 tons. To launch her 32,5361b of tallow, 113 gallon* of train oil and 34641b of soft soap were used. As instancing the work entailed in building such a vessel. 700 tons of rivets were used and 250 miles of wiring were laid in her electric installation, including a telephone exchange. Again, as illustrating the enormous size of her engines, a long room 12 feet wide with 12 feet studs would nicely " box in " her low pressure turbine. As illustrating the immense j heights entailed in building these great j ships, if the Mauretania and the clipper i ship Cutty Sark were placed side by side in dry dock the lofty main skysail yard of the ship would be about level with the top of the funnel. Attain, place the White Star boat Oceanic, 62,000 tons, alongside the Ferry Building and the rim of her smoke stacks will be level with the weather cock above, 175 feet up. The Escapade of the Turbinla. It was in 1897, that this tiny craft, 44£ tons, astonished the world and set all naval people a-talking. The occasion was trie Jubilee of Queen Victoria. Drawn up at Spithead in review^ order lay miles and miles of warships. ' Into these, sacred precincts crept a shy little mouse cf a craft. She had nothing to distinguish her from dozens of others. After ' her came the watch-clogs, the 27-knot destroyers bent on her summary ejection. A wee shy mouse no longer she leapt into life, and. with the navy jacks tearing after her, kiyi, ki-yi,-yi,-yi, under the impulse of her humming turbines she flew down the long lanes between the wondering warships at over 40 miles an hour —to the utter discomfiture of the swift destroyers chasing her. They might as well have chased a sea shadow. Thus Mr. Parsons advertised his invention, the steam turbine, the machine which, was in the near future iu revolutionise sea speeds. The huge Mauretania. so to speak, is this wee ship's eldest daughter. Maury's Steam Lanes. The enormous congregation of traffic on the Atlantic carried with it its own special dangers. A brilliant young officer. Matthew Fontaine Maury, in charge of the hydrographic branch of the U.S. navy, conceived the idea of laying down steam lanes, their position varying with the seasons, summer and winter. These lanes were designed to give the shortest dia tance consistent with safety, the prevailing fog areas and the lowest range or me drift of icebergs being taken into consideration. By a convention agreed to by all the competing steamship companies these routes were adopted, 1 (the pressure of insurance companies etc., had much to do with the unanimity displayed) and thus the broad Atlantic, is manned j out, one lane carrying the caft-bound boats and the other, those going west, thus re- , ducing the chance of steamer collision to j I almost nothing.