A ONE-MAN SHIP
Without using a ship’s telegraph or giving a single order to any other individual, one man will be in com plete control of the world’s largest Diesel-electric ship which is to be built on the Clyde at the yards of Scott’s Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Limited, Greenock. She is to be an oil-tanker of 12,500 tons, by far the biggest Diesel-elec-tric ship yet ordered. The engines, instead of driving the propeller direct, will do so through a remarkable electric mechanism, which is to be built by the British-Thomson-Houston Co., Ltd., of Rugby. Full control of the ship is invested in two pieces of mechanism on the bridge. By moving a small lever forward the captain sends the ship forward at anything up to 11 knots. By pulling the lever back he reverses the vessel, and by leaving it vertical stops the ship. Steering—depending on the only other control —is by “Metal Mike,” as we call the gyro-compass-gyro-pilot. The man at the wheel used to be known as "Mike,” hence the term "Metal Mike.” On the principle of the child’s gyroscopic top, the slightest movement of the ship off her course closes a circuit and brings her back again. Apart from the man in charge, the rest of the crew are concerned only with oiling and maintenance jobs. *
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Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 38, 7 May 1927, Page 19 (Supplement)
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220A ONE-MAN SHIP Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 38, 7 May 1927, Page 19 (Supplement)
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