OIL FUEL ON SHIPS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 74, 1 August 1913, Page 4

OIL FUEL ON SHIPS.

'Hie presence of the British Imperial Oil Company’s steamer Havre in Wellington Harbour marks an interesting chapter in the rivalry between oil and coal as a sea-going fuel says the Wellington “Evening Post.” This quaint looking vessel, with its funnel right aft, is an oil ship in every sense of the word : it is an oil-burner as well as an oil-carrier. Eight hundred tons of oil fuel ware pumped into the Harve at Singapore—her point of departure and, although Wellington is the third port she lias visited on the voyage, sufficient fuel remains to generate a speed of fourteen knots an hour, if necessary, on the return trip. That is her maximum speed, but ordinarily she travels at the rate of ten knots. Eighteen months ago the Havre was an ordinary tramp steamer burning coal, employing quite a number 01 firemen and trimmers. To-day out man is sufficient for the wJioio of the stokehold watch, and he is not overworked. The chief engineer (Mr E. T. Hyland) spoke enthusticaily to a “Post” representative concerning the advantages of oil-fuel over coal. Summarising these, he said that oil represented a great saving in labour and handling at the ship’s side; a full head

of steam was always maintained with great regularity ; oil occupied far less space that coal, and in the case of the Havre was carried in (the ballast tanks and used as ballast, and in the coffer dams; it was cleaner, and produced no ashes. In amplifying these statements, Mr Byland said that during the whole of her twenty-five days’ run from ,Singapore to Dunedin the ship always had a full head of steam. Her daily consumption of oil was 11-J tons, compared with 21:tons of coai per diem consumed on the vessel’s 1 last run from Newcastle. When the fires wpre properly under way mi

smoke was emitted from the funnel, only a slight haze being discernible. The furnaces burnedi : .very evenly, there being practically no variation, unless this was desired. Mr Hyland gave a demonstration of the simplicity of the apparatus, and the marked absence of labour in stoking the fires. The oil is pumped from the storage receptacles, and is heated to 163 degrees before it is put through the filters. I'Tom the filters it makes its way into the fires at the rate of 10 gallons per hour in the case of each burner. The aperture through which it is ejected into the fire is scarcely much bigger than a pin’s head, and the oil burns like gas. The Havre is fitted with Howden’s patent forced draught, and by this means the oil is air-heated up to 500 degrees by the time it reaches the fires. ■ This apparatus is, said Mr Hyland, fitted on only two British steamers—the Havre and her sistership. The vessel’s stokehold ivas as clean as the average engine-room, and the economy in space was at once apparent. All that the firemen on watch lias to do is to occasionally clean the burners, of which there are two to each of the six fires. The filters, however, catch practically all tbe dirt. The boilers can bo converted so as to burn coal in place of oil, in one and a-quarter hours.