Wonder Tanker Brunswick Arrives

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 577, 1 February 1929, Page 13

Wonder Tanker Brunswick Arrives

ENGINEERING MARVELS DRIVEN BY ELECTRICITY Ushering in an epoch in the history of shipping in New Zealand, the Atlantic Union Oil Company's tanker Brunswick arrived at Auckland this morn in g. The largest Diesel-electric vessel afloat, the Brunswick is the first of her type to visit the Dominion. This wonder vessel, which slipped quietly into the Waitemata this morning and dropped anchor in the stream at 7.40 a.m., is certainly one of the queerest craft that has ever visited these waters. With her bridge and accommodation situated right aft, instead of in the customary place amidships, thus displaying a great area of deck space, and minus what had become almost inseparable from the very thought of a ship since the days of sail —a funnel, the Brunswick excited a great amount of interest and surprise as she moved to her berth at Western Wharf. The Brunswick has already been to Sydney, Melbourne and Wellington, but her proud master, Captain P. A. Jorgensen, and his officers have not yet tired of showing visitors the marvels of their vessel. Apart from the wonders of the engine room (which the lay mind cannot fully appreciate), marking as they do a new era in the history of marine propulsion, the bridge is the chief object of wonderment on the tank-ship. TINY WHEEL CONTROLS BIG SHIP Tlow a tiny wheel, smaller than the steering-wheel of a motor-car, steers a vessel of 8,947 tons gross, is the feature on the bridge which attracts immediate attention. In the space of a few square yards are concentrated all the controls of the vessel, and standing there the captain is indeed master of his ship. By means of the little wheel he regulates the speed of his ship, without the necessity of having to telegraph it to the engineers down below. Supreme responsibility is thereby vested in the captain, and if there is a mishap or a wreck, as he said this morning, “there is no chance of me piling responsibility on to someone else.”

On the bridge, too, stands another marvel of navigation, the Sperry gyrocompass, and automatic helmsman, enabling the vessel to steer herself on any course that may be set. Once the gyro-pilot takes charge of the steering, any deviation from the course is corrected automatically, and the actual course of the ship is recorded on a dial, thus affording a means of reference. “The gyro-compass never varies more than a sixth of a degree,” said Captain Jorgensen, displaying the graph on which the vessel’s course from San Pedro to Sydney was recorded. “No human being could steer like that.”

If a breakdown occurs in any part of the vessel a bell is rung automatically in the captain’s cabin, and on the bridge. Similarly, he is warned if any of the ship's lights fail at night, A telephone from the bridge enables the captain to communicate with the chief engineer down below, the chief officer on the forecastle and the second mate aft. When it was remarked that this must do away with the time-honoured megaphone, the captain intimated with a wry smile that that was so, “except once in a while, when we want to curse particularly vehemently at the men." CLYDE-BUILT VESSEL

American owned, the Brunswick stands as a great tribute to British engineering and Clyde shipbuilding. Her hull was built by Scotts’ Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Greenock. Messrs. Carels Freres constructed the Ingersoll-Rand type engines at Ghent, while the electrical part of the installation was manufactured by the British ThomsonHouston Company, Rugby. The propelling machinery consists primarily of four Diesel engine-driven direct-current electric generating sets, arranged athwart-ships, these supplying power to a single double-armature propulsion motor direct-coupled to lhe propeller shaft. The four Diesel engines are six-cylinder, four-stroke cycle, trunk-piston, airless-injection, heavy-oil engines of the Ingersoll-Rand type. Each engine develops 750 brake horsepower at 225 revolutions a minute.

The main generators are electrically coupled in series, and although all four are in operation at full power, three, two or one set may be used for reduced power. The main propelling motor is rated 2,800 shaft horse-power at 95 revolutions a minute. It comprises two units, each complete with a separate magnet frame, armature and commutator, the two armatures being electrically connected in series and mounted on a common shaft. LUXURIOUS ACCOMMODATION The accommodation for the officers and crew is of the highest order, the latter being quartered in rooms arranged for two men. Steam heating arrangements have been installed to cope with the extremes of temperature met with when the vessel is on service. Refrigerating plant of the ammonia type is also fitted on the main deck for the preservation of the crew’s provisions. The Brunswick carried out a series of exhaustive and very successful trials on the Cylde. Over the measured mile the ship attained a maximum speed of 11.48 knots on a mean loaded displacement of 17,250 tons. Afterwards an additional 2,000 tons of water ballast was added, the ship reaching a maximum speed of 11.17 knots. The Brunswick was launched in May last year and has already made two trips from Britain to Philadelphia and back. She brought 4,000,000 gallons of bulk oil this voyage, 3,000,000 gallons of which were discharged at Sydney and Melbourne. Prominent shipping men and citizens were conducted over the tanker to-day by the staff of the company, under the Auckland manager, Mr. H. O. Wiles.