The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 1912. THE STEAM-SHIP'S SUCCESSOR.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 97, 24 April 1912, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 1912. THE STEAM-SHIP'S SUCCESSOR.

The advent of the oil-driven ship Selandia indicates the complete triumph of oil as fuel in ocean-going ships, and as one leading English paper says: “I he Selandia must ho regarded as a dangerous rival to the steamship.” Tho- vessel referred to recently made her trial trip, and on her way from Copenhagen to Bangkok, called at London. Her triumph is mainly one for Denmark, though pai’t- . iy for Great Britain, and something about this new vessel .should have particular interest for Taranaki at the present time in view of the great possibilities of our oil-fields. The Selandia was built and engined by Messrs Burmeister and Wain, of Copenhagen, for the East Asiatic Company—but several of the important auxiliaries were of British invention and manufacture. The windlass, chain cables, anchors, standard compass, telemotor, steering engine, bridge and engine-room telegraphs, ateel wire hawsers and reels, and lavatory fittings were all made in this country. Except in the galley, mo coal is used qii board. A, further British contribution is an oil-fired donkey boiler for heating and steamoxtinguishing in the holds, and also for working a steam-driven air-com-pressor. She is designed as an awn-ing-deck ship, and her principal dimensions are; 370 ft. in length, 53ft. in beam, 30ft. in depth, and of about 7100 tons d.w. Apart from the great beam tho hull shows no material divergence from the ordinary design. The propelling machinery consists of two eight-cylinder Diesel motors, each c c 1250 i.h.p., and driving twin screws. There are also two auxiliary. Diesel motors of 250 i.h.p. each. The deck engines are throughout electric. All cargo winches are electrically Iriven, as also arc the windlass and the steering engine. Of deck erections, there is a large one amidships, which is intended for passengers, and the accommodation has been carried out in a specially fine yacht-like style. The engine-room is 6ft. shorter than would be required for steam-engines, yet it is more spacious on account of the compactness of the machinery. it only takes ten seconds to execute an order from the bridge with either engine. The net tonnage of the SeLindia is 3173, and the gross tonnage 4968. The double bottom, together with two wing tanks, carries 1000 tons of fuel oil. Per twentyfour hours the consumption of oil, including auxiliaries, with the engines running 140 r.p.m., and indicating 2500 h.p., is 10 tons. The cubic capacity of the cargo space is 375,000 for grain, or 315,000 bale space. The between decks, except for the en-gine-room trunkway, are clear fore and aft, an enormous ventilating advantage, either for the carriage ol troops, horses, or cargo. The loaded drait is 23ft 6in. it is intended to iill all her oil tanks at Borneo each voyage. The price of the oil is expected to range from 30s to 35s per ton. Tho vessel will carry sufficient oil to enable her to do the round voyage from Bangkok to England and back without rc-oiling anywhere. Only ten minutes’ notice is required by the engineers to be ready to leave a port. The vessel lias an engine-room stall of eight engineers, one electrician.

aiul two boys lor cleaning up, A similar steamship would average fortyseven to fifty tons of coal, and would require twenty-four men in the en-gine-room department. Ire wear and tear of the engines is expected to lie much less than that oi the steam engine, and there will be no deterioration of the steel work forming the coal hunkers, as is the ease in a steamer, to contend with. According to the “Telegraph” it was reported on hoard the Selandia that, apart from the two vessels building byMessrs Burmeister and Wain, at Copenhagen, there wore very few others. The Jutlandia, building on the Clyde, and expected to undergo her trials early in April, is one, the only other known vessels being a large oil-tank ship, which is completing at Kiel, and a vessel under construction' by the Xurenberg Company. The Jutlandia is a sister ship to the Selandia ; the third vessel, the Fiona, now under completion by the builders of the Selandia, is expected to be ready for her trials in May. Naturally the Home papers are devoting a good deal of attention to this dangerous rival to the steamship, and the exit of the funnel, the “Westminster Gazette” remarking: “Steam, like gas, has shown marvellous recuperative power. Often threatened, it has maintained its supremacy. With the development of super-heating the ’steam locomotive has again distanced its rivals. How long it will be able to do so, however, is the most interesting speculative problem of the engineering world.”