RUSSIA AND THE MOTOR SHIP.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 33, 8 February 1913, Page 12

RUSSIA AND THE MOTOR SHIP.

In appointing a. special commission to enquiro into the question of using oil fuel for steam engines and replacing steam engines with oil engines in the Navy, it seems to have been generally assumed that the British Government has for once in a way played the part of a pioneer. In an article in an English magazine, Mr. Rendell Wilson corrects this assumption, and shows that the honours of the pioneer in oil-driven warships belong not to Britain, but to Russia. According to Mr. Wilson the Diesel oil engine is being very largely used in the Vessels Russia has under construction, and will play a. still larger part in her projected naval build •' ing programme. A motor revenue cruiser of 3500 tons is already afloat on the Black Sea. She was launched early in December, and is the largest and highestpowered naval motor vessel afloat. Two twin-screw motor gunboats are at present approaching completion for service on the Caspian Sea. The utmost secrecy has shrouded the intentions of the Russian Government in respect to the introduction of motor craft, and Mr. Wilson prophesies that it will be found that their relatively small beginnings are the precursors of a new building policy in which Diesel engines will figure very largely. The existence of great Russian oilfields in the neighbourhood of the Black and Caspian Seas has undoubtedly been one of the factors in determining the selection of oil engines for craft for use in those waters, but if the Diesel engine gives as good re* suits in naval craft. as it has done in com« mercial ships, Russia may be expected to go in extensively for oil-driven engines, in the designing of which her engineers will have the benefit of experimental ex> perionce denied to the naval engineers of other nations. SHIPS' NAMES. Some j curious names are collected in an interestjng i article on ship christening in the Shipping Supplement of The Times. The writer thinltß that the ideal name for the liner "ehould be emblematic of strength, grace, and the sea through which she is to plougH ; it should, for telegraphio purposes, not exceed 10 letters, and it should be distinctive." These quaiifica-. tions are rarely all assembled in one name. [ He thinks the ideal name for a British | ship is Britannia, but it is borne by a score of large craft, and hundreds of small ones, and shipowners should not be encouraged to use it. The Arcadian, of the Royal Mail Packet Company, is mentioned as particularly appropriate, and praiße is given to the 10 "Queens" of the Dunlop Line— Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, etc. — partly because such nomenclature is in accordaho© with the old rule that ships are of the feminine gender. A Hull trawling company has gone to Shakespeare for 60 names for its boats, another shipping firm call all its vessels after Scott's novels, and a third takes the names of great public schools. More appropriate is the naming of a fleet of trawlers after insects, trawlers being busy little boats; but it is curious that the names of fishes do_ not eeem to have any attraction for shipowners. Perhaps they are too suggestive. There is a touch of poetry and romance in the "Hoi" Line — Eastward Hot and Onward Hoi— and in White Wings and Silver Wings, though the latter are scarcely happy names for steamers, There are also some fearsome names. Pity the poor shipping reporter compelled to record the arrival of tho Thahdauthapanipuravy, commanded by Captain Mailvaganam Coomaraswamy, or of the Thiro Nada Rasa Sivakama Sunthara Letchemy! GERMAN SHIPBUILDING. "I do not think Germany will ever be ' a greater shipbuilding nation than England." So e&id Mr. M. Boger, one of the directors of the German-Australian Steamship Line, during a visit to Australia. Mr. Boger added: "We in Germany are mainly trying to meet the detnandß of trade. The demand for ships is increasing every year, and we are merely trying to keep pace with it. England is entirely ahead of our tonnage, and I think will always remain at the head of the shipbuilding nations. There ie no atnbitioh on_ our part to equal or excel Great Britain in this respect. Our main desire is to meet business as it Comes along, and we are not anxious to be as big or bigger than others." Asked if there had been any phonomoual increase in the number of shipbuilding yards in Germany, Mr. Boger replied : "On the contrary,, some shipbuilding yards thoro have boon wound up on account of «. sc&roity of orden."