A REMARKABLE STEAMSHIP

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4259, 19 January 1901, Page 7 (Supplement)

A REMARKABLE STEAMSHIP

The Igreat English firm of Sir-William Armstrong, Whitworth. and Co. has built upon Lake Baikal one of the most remarkable steamships -in the world to ferry the Siberian trains across the lake, and in winter to- break the ice at the same time.- This was brought but in pieces from Newcastle-on-Tyne; and put together by English engineers, wb or ha ve been living in this remote and lonely spot for over two years. The Baikal, as the steamer is called, is a magnificent vessel of 4000 tons, with twin engines amidships of 1250 horse-power, each, and a similar engine forward, to drive the sprew in the bow; .for the principle of the new type of , ice-breaker is to draw out the water from under the ice ahead by the suction of the bow screw, - when the ice collapses by its own weight and and a passage is, forced through the broken mass, by the impact of the vessel. The Baikal has extensive upper works, and these contain luxurious saloons and cabins. Upon her deck she ■ will carry three trains-r-a passenger train in the middle, and a freight train on each side. Her speed is thirteen knots, and on her trial trips she'has shown herself capable of breaking through s solid ice-thirty-eight inches -.thick,/ with five'inches of hard snow oii' the top—such spew is , much more difficult to ,pierce than ice—and has forced her,iyay, through ,two'thicknesses of ico; frozen, .together,- aggregating . from fifty-six ,to sixty-five summer.’ her bc.w-propeller shouiu be removed, and large-propellers substituted for her smaller winter ones; but - 'so far the railway - authorities;have’ taken' no ,‘fiteps t'e'build a dtfpk Upon,', the Jlake, without which neither .of these, important changes can be effected, nor the' steamer herself repaired if any mishap should damage her hull. • Lakw Baikal, is-frozen from the, middle -of.-December- ta .the ehd of April; and there'is also -talk of laying a railway across upon the ice, as is done each year from St. Petersburg to Kroonstiadt; but probably all depends upon the success of the ice-breaker next winter.—From “Russia of To-day, 1 ' by •Henry Norman, in the November “Scribner’s.”