"PER OCEAN EXPRESS."

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1528, 9 April 1887, Page 3

"PER OCEAN EXPRESS."

This, or something like it, bids fair to be one day, and that ere long, the superscription upon our correspondence and the directory instructions upon packages and consignments the swift delivery of which is desired. How swift that delivery is likely to be only the few who are conversant with the great strides which arebeing made inthe improvement of naval architecture have any idea, and even these will, for the roost parr, be surprised to learn that already stepsare m progress for the initiation of a pioneer steam service across the Atlantic, the ordinary speed of the vessels composing which will be not less than twenty-five miles an hour. Yet such is the case, a company appropriately named "The Arrow Steamship Company " having been formed m New York, which has acquired patents for improvements m the building of steamers which will enable it to establish a service having the high rate of speed mentioned. The first steamship of the projected line " The Pocahontas " is indeed already m coarse of construction at the company's shipyard Alexandria (Pa.), and by November next she will be afloat. A very full and interesting description of this ocean greyhound is given m the " Australasian and South American journal " for March, to which we are indebted for the following particulars : — •* The ' Pocahontas ' is the result of twenty-one years of patient study, creative thought and exhaustive ex- > periment by an American engineer — Robert H. Fryer, of New York — is brought into being by American energy and capital, is wholly of American material, put together with American . skill and by American methods, and is destined to make the American flag supreme upon the high 'seas. She is not intended to be a freight carrier. She is not fitted for that use, any more than a blood racehorse is to drag a dray. She is built to carry passengers, mails, express matter, and treasure. To that important service she brings such capacity for speed as is beyond thd rivalry of any other vessel afloat, and with it absolute safety. She cannot be sunk ; she cannot be burned ; and her regular working speed will be twentyfive miles per hour. In form she has the sharp lines of a racing ' shell ' instead of the oval : tub-like shape of other ocean steamers ; m material she is actually the first wholly steel and iron ship, all the others being metal tanks filled m with wood ; m architecture, she is built with the inflexible rigidity possible only to an entirety of the strongest possible truss construction ; m power, her engine is capable of developing more than twice as much as any other on land or sea. AH the dead weights of machinery, boilers, and coal are placed m the bottom of the vessel, and while m the most advantageous positions for access and inspection, as well as performing their several . functions, also serve as ballast which never shifts and never requiresreadjusttnent, as m the case of water ballast, which is sometimes a source of danger through misadventure. There are no bed plates proper for the engines, but they are carried on the backbone or internal keel of the ship m places designed for them. This keel consists of wrought iron plates, vertically disposed and bolted together m a solid inflexible mass 510 feet long, 5 feet 6 inches deep at the bow, 10 feet 6 inches deep at the stern, and 12 inches thick, weighing altogether 750 tons. Upon that backbone the 'Pocahontas' has, saddled and firmly bolted and riveted m place, sixty-eight transverse Bteel walls, from three-fourths inch to one and a half inch thick, each of the full size and accurate shape of a cross section of the vessel at the exact point for which it is designed. These transverse walls have openings cut through them for the saloons, passageways, tunnels, and other spaces that it is desirable to have extend longitudi..pgtfy m the vessel. As they are 7 feet 6 inches apart they make the side walls of the staterooms and at many points, with the aid of such special local strengthening as may be required, they constitute important parts of the frame of the great engine and the six auxiliary engines — for specific usesemployed aboard. The » Pocahontas,' supported by her extreme ends over a chasm, would be stronger than any . bridge of equal length" m the world. Were she upborne by a rock under her centre, neither end would sag the computable fraction of.a line. Furthermore, by this method of construction she is wholly made up of not only water-tight but air-tight compartments^ From four to nine vast and weakly walled compartments below the waterline are the basis upon which rests a boasted but quite non-existent security m the best of the great modern steamships now m service. But the 'Pocahontas' consists of 1,060 compartments, of which 500 are below the water-line, and of the latter every one ■ is fitted with a man hole, is big enough for a man to work m, has a diaphragm and pneumatic piessure connections by , which water — should any enter through leak— -can be instantly blown out and kept out, and any or all can be instantly filled with water ballast or discharged from it. Wtre fifty of her compartments ripped open by dashing against a rock, she would continue on her way . on an even keel; were it possible to cut her completely through, each severed portion would float, right side up. The engine destined to propel this exceptional mass is proportionate to it m power, and is such a one as if placed m any other vessel afloat to-day, if it did not go through her bottom at once, would rack her to pieces m a very little time, when its energies were developed. It is of the compound type, with a high pressure cylinder 75 inches m diameter, and a low pressure cylinder 150 inches m diameter, with a six-foot stroke. Calculated by the ' Johh bourne rule— which is authorita-fare-*were she cuttiug off steam on the

half stroke she would develop a force of t.9,496'38 horse-power. Taking steam at full stroke on the high pressure cylinder the energy developed would attain to 27,986*64 horsepower. Of course, m ordinary service there will be no necessity for her working up to any such stupendous power, which is greater than that of any existent engine on land or sea, but Ihe force is there all the same, ready for emergencies, and if wanted, can be employed with absolute safely. Her propeller is 24 fest m diameter, and she has twenty boilers, twelve before and eight aft of the engine room, any one or more of which can be cut out of service without affecting the efficiency of the others. Her length is 540 ft over all, and her greatest breadth 40ft. She has also a transverse propeller fitted m a circular tunnel which extends through her below the water-line, by the use of which appliance she can change her course as quickly as a fish, and turn m her own length and without headway. The fittings of her saloon and staterooms are most elaborate and luxurious, and the 'Pocahantas' will, . without doubt, be m all respects not only the swiftest and safest but the most comfortable passenger steamer afloat. Her cost will be 600,000d015. but it is estimated at the highest calculation of expenses, and lowest computation of receipts based upon thorough knowledge and analyzation of the passenger and express transatlantic business of ten years past, that the net profit of running her will be at least 30,000d015. on each passage across the ocean, and as she will easily make thirty-three crossings m the year, her aggregate profits will amount to 990,000d015. per annum. By earnings alone it will be perfectly practicable to pay large dividends, and at the same time bear the entire cost of construction of a line of twelve vessels within four years from the date of the launching of the 'Pocahontas.'" These seem very glowing anticipations, but if they are soundly based and prove capable of realisation, then indeed we ahall see an entire revolution m ocean traffic, and the slow going steamers of to-day will disappear before these greyhounds of the deep, as the stage coaches of our forefathers have disappeared before the locomotive. Then, indeed, will the ends of the world be brought close together, for a 25 miles an hour service means bringing Auckland within three weeks of London.