OIL FUEL ON SHIPS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 144082, 29 April 1913, Page 4

OIL FUEL ON SHIPS.

/ FOUR BIG ADVANTAGES.

In view of the approaching visit of the Niagara, tho new 13,500-ton liner for .thq Union Company, a great deal of interest has been aroused.on tho subject of oil-fuel for steamers. The Niagara has been 'equipped with furnaces in which either oil or coal can be burned, and she will be the first steamer q£ any size of this kind to visit the-Dominion, A visitor to Auckland just now is Mr. Nugent Abercrombie, M.1.C.E.,. an English engineer, who has for some nine years been connected with the oil industry in California, IT.S.A. “It is wonder to me,” he said to a New Zealand Herald reporter, "that tho governments of countries where there is more oil than coal supplies have not made it imperative that the coal should be conserved, and oil used on steamers and locomotives, which are together the most avaricious coal-eaters on the earth.

“In America we have supplies of oil everywhere,” Mr. Abercrombie said, ■‘but it is only during the last few years that,the natural resources have been tapped. When tbo United States supplies are done there are unlimited quantities in South America —Peru, Brazil, and the Argentine. Tho fields in South America have only recently been discovered, and as yet there arc difficulties in regard to transport which, while there are more convenient bores, forbid the tapping of theijo supplies. But it is only a matter of time, for 1 believe that tho coal supplies of the world will soon run out. Yon can read for yourself—coal is becoming dearer every day, and, moreover, the best of it has gone, and wo,are getting for the most part ligneous, coals which give 50 per cent, of heat .with 150 per cent, of dirty ash. The supply of coal is going to be a difficult problem, and all tho steamship lines and private railway companies are feeling tho pinch already. I was talking to sonic marine engineers only a day or two ago. They says that the coal they are getting is dirty stuff of poor quality, and is accounting for a lot of slow steaming. “One of tho greatest advantages of oil fuel on ships is the saving of space, for oil can be stored on a steamer in all sorts of places hitherto' unused. For instance tho double, space at the bottom of tho hull, instead, of being filled with water ballast, can ho utilised. “We can.put the•advantages of oil fuel for steamers under four headings,” said Mr. Abercrombie. “First, there is additional speed from the fact that oil makes steam exactly twice as fast as coal in modern vessels; secondly, the saving of cargo space; third, cleanliness; fourth, saving of time for bunkering. t These advantages speak for themselves, I think. Of course, the, installation of oil-fuel equipment on a vessel is a costly matter, but it pays for itself in a very short time.’