A SINGULAR STEAMER.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 806, 30 November 1882, Page 2

A SINGULAR STEAMER.

A singular vessel in qourge of construction is the Oceanic, now being built at Hastings, on the Hudson. • It is stated to be a kind of marine velocipede on wheels, the hull, not - : being intended to touch the water. The most curious point of the invention is that the support of the ship—the float, as it were—and the propellers are one and the same. The vessel floats on three spheres, made ot sheet steel, one for-

ward and two stern, each of which is fitted with flanges which surround the whole of its circumference, and act as paddles. The spheres are 'so arranged that they can be worked backward and forward, or one worked backward and the other forward simultaneously, so that the vessel may be turned completely round in her own water; and with such rapid power of turning no rudder will be necessary. The whole vessel is made watertight, so that in the event of the wheels or spheres being broken or disabled, or the vessel capsized, it will still possess sufficient buoyancy to prevent it from sinking. The spheres are provided with a flanged keel, to adapt the vessel for use on rails in case of crossing an isthmus, or for being run upon land for repairs. The ship is designed only for passenger traffic, and it is asserted that its peculiar construction gives it increased accommodation, greater safety, and a higher rate of speed than that now attained. The Oceanic will be 324 feet long, and 130 feet wide, the spherical wheels being 24 feet in diameter, and drawing 5 feet when loaded. The trial of a small model of the steamer excited great interest recently on the Harlem River, and it travelled equally well on land. The inventor claims that as much difference exists between it and an ordinary boat as between a waggon

mounted on wheels and one that should rest on the ground and be dragged along its surface by means of wheels attached to its sides. The Nautical Gazette observes that, if successful, the invention must revolutionise passenger traffic by water, as a vessel for a given amount of this traffic could be built for what the ordinary vessel would cost, and would perform double service. These remarkable developements pf shipbuilding certainly promise to make out swift-going steamers a thing of the past, as the latter haved one the clumsy vessels of half a century ago.