NOTABLE MARINE ENGINEER.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 107, 11 June 1914, Page 10

NOTABLE MARINE ENGINEER.

News has been received of .the. death at Glasgow, at the age of 73, of Mr John Lyall, superintending engineer of • the Clan Line, one of . the best known and most popular of engineers. He had been ill for- some months, and succumbed to his illness on April 2. Mr Lyall served his apprenticeship as 'aa engineer at Dunbar, and later was in the employment.. of the Phoenix Eni gineering Works, Glasgow, and wifch NMessrs Tulloch and Denny, of Dumbarton. He was selected for specialscrvico I by the latter firm, and later was . appointed to thelrrawaddy Flotilla Company in Burmah, where he; served-as ; engineer; for 13 Lyall was., appointed by Messrs Caird and Co., Greenock, to take out to Java ■'. the new steamer Marapi for.the Nederlands India Steamship Company, and * remained with the latter for four years in charge of several of their steamers. This company offered him the post of "superintending engineer, biit he pre- . ferred to.go Home, and in 1877 joined the Clan Line, superintending.the building of the first steamers of that company, and proceeding to sea as chief engineer in the Clan Lamoht, the last of the six new steamers built for the Clan ' Line. He was, however, not long at sea before Sir Charles Cayzer (then Mr Cayzei ; ) appointed him-as superintending engineer of the company, and it was very much owing to the unremitting care and great ability of Mr Lyall that ~

the splendid reputation of this, line for high-class steamers was established. During the period of his service with the Clan Line, Mr Lyall designed and built over 100 steamers for them, and he was the originator of many improvements in the construction of vessels and their machinery, which are now .in, world-wide use. Mr Lyall first introduced the system of ventilating the double bottoms of ships, and the principle of his brake for steering gear is almost universal in its application. In 1908 Mr was in charge of the salvage operations on the Clan Macdougall, which went ashore near Gibraltar, and after the vessel had been refloated he succeeded 'in dry-doeking her with a full cargo of about 6000 tons on board, and successfully patched the broken bottom of the ship so that she was enabled to complete her voyage to London without disturbing the cargo.