A MARVELLOUS STEAMSHIP.

Western Star, Issue 1570, 13 June 1891, Page 1

A MARVELLOUS STEAMSHIP.

In a report on the trade o£ Baltimore, issued from the Foreign Office on April Ist, the British Consul (Mr Segrave) says that quite recently there has been launched from a Baltimore shipyard a new form of steamship. She is stated to be a seagoing steamship, solely for passenger traffic, having no freight capacity whatever. Her builders assert that she can neither burn or sink, and that, even if upset, she has in a high degree the property of righting herself as she has 41b weight below the waterline for every 11b above it. Her keel, which weighs 36 tons acts not only as'ballast, but as a centre-board, inasmuch as nearly half of its depth protrudes through the hull into the water. In consequence of its extra rigidity the keel makes far safer and far better engine and shaft bearings than those used in the ordinary methods of shipbuilding. The difference between the - safety compartments of the Howard-Cassard and those of vessels constructed under the existing system lies in the fact that this vessel has air as well as water tight compartments, while under the actual system vessels are provided with watertight compartments only. These safety compartments number 170, of which. 136 are on either side of the ship’s centre, thus forming, practically, three ships in one. The motive power consists in an improved compound engine calculated to develop 1600 horse-power, which can drive the ship at any average speed ot 25 niiics an hour on a consumption of one ton of coal. The valve gear is so perfect that the valves may be opened and closed in one-twentieth of a second, thus giving double power over engines of similar size. The Howard-Cassard is 222£t over all, or 206 ft between perpendiculars. She has 16ft beam, and 18ft depth of hold. She is built of rolled iron plates on the cellular system. It is assorted that if an ordinary steamship be taken from the water and supported only at the stem and stern she would break in half, while the Hoivard-Gassard, - like a tabular bridge with a hull upon it, would support .several times its own weight. THis vessel is only an experiment, and is only two-fifths of the proposed dimensions of the regular steamship which is- to be built.