Steam-ships

by R. A. Fletcher

The “Baikal.”

The Cartagena Dock.

The life of the iron or steel floating dock of whatever type is likely to be far longer, if care be taken of the structure, than might at first be supposed. Rennie’s Cartagena dock, built of iron in 1859, was in such splendid condition when the proposal was made to build a Havana dock that as a counter-proposal it was suggested to send the Cartagena dock there. The Nicolaieff built in 1876, has been uninterruptedly employed ever since in lifting the vessels of the Russian Navy. The Victoria Dock is 310 feet in length, and of the hydraulic-lift type, with a lifting power of 3000 tons, and has nine pontoons or trays of a total length of 2185 feet, and an aggregate lifting power of 17,060 tons; the pontoons were constructed between 1857 and 1876, the largest of them being of 5000 tons. The Malta dock, also of the hydraulic type, is 340 feet in length, with a lifting power of 4000 tons, and was built in 1871. It has two pontoons of 4000 and 2500 tons respectively. The hydraulic floating dock at Bombay, built in 1872, was rather larger, being 400 feet in length with a lifting power of 8000 tons, its pontoon of the same length lifting 6500 tons. These lifts were designed by the late Edwin Clark, M.I.C.E., who introduced floating docks from which the present types have directly sprung. These hydraulic docks are no longer at work.

The carrying of railway trains by ferry-steamers across stretches of water too large to be bridged over is no new thing, there being several such in the United States and Canada. Many of the vessels thus employed are of considerable size. These waters are comparatively landlocked, and the traffic, except in unusually stormy weather, is seldom interrupted. The American ferry-boats are double-ended, so that a train can enter at one end and leave at the other after crossing the water, the ends of the ferry-boat and of the pier supporting the shore lines being constructed to fit exactly. Most of the modern American ferry-boats taking railway trains have two, three, or four sets of rails on their decks, and accommodate their passengers on a deck above, where the saloons and cabins are situated. Where the railway-level is different on the two sides of the water, the boat or the landing-stage is provided with hoisting machinery which raises the train to the desired level, a truck or two or a passenger coach at a time.

The nature of the work these railway ferry-steamers have to perform, and the fact that every one has to be built to suit the special conditions of the ferriage where it is to be employed, make it inevitable that no two of them are alike, except such as may be sister vessels employed on the same station. In Russia the conditions are very difficult. The current of the River Volga is swift, the height of the water-level varies as much as 45 feet, and as the ice is frequently two feet in thickness the work of maintaining the ferry is not to be undertaken lightly. The vessel by which the service is performed was built by Messrs. Armstrong, Mitchell and Co. To enable it to be sent to its destination it was constructed in four parts, so that it would pass through the Marinsky Canal to get to the Volga. The boat is 252 feet long by 55 feet 6 inches broad, and 14 feet 6 inches deep. It has four lines of rails, converging at the bow into two, and altogether can accommodate twenty-four trucks. At the bow is a high framework for a hydraulic hoist which lifts the trucks between the deck and the rails ashore, a distance of 25 feet, the difficulty of negotiating the remaining portion of the difference in the level being overcome by there being two levels of rails on the landing-stage. The propelling machinery, of the surface-condensing type with twin screws, gives the vessel a speed of nine knots an hour. The bronze propellers are unusually strong and heavy to withstand blows from the ice in the river; the actual ice-breaking to keep the passage clear is performed by another steamer.

A ferry-steamer of a different type is that which plies across Lake Baikal in Central Asia in connection with the Transasiatic Railway. As the lake is frozen over for nearly half the year and the vessel has to do duty as an icebreaker as well, the hull has been made extraordinarily strong and heavy. The stem and stern are of massive steel castings. The vessel, which is of steel throughout, is 290 feet in length by 57 feet beam, and the draught of water is rather over 18 feet. The hull bears an outer plate an inch thick and 9 feet wide, placed from end to end along the water-line as a further protection against the friction of the ice. The vessel is also subdivided extensively into water-tight compartments in addition to the usual bulkheads. Over the railway deck are large and sumptuous public and private staterooms. Three sets of triple-expansion engines have been installed with boilers working at a pressure of 160 lb.; there are twin propellers at the stern, and a third propeller at the bow.

This vessel is also remarkable as being probably the most rapidly constructed vessel of her size in existence. Not six months elapsed from the time the order was received until the steamer was built, unbuilt, and packed on board a steamer ready for departure to Russia, this including also the making of the engines. The packages were conveyed as far as possible along the Siberian Railway and thence by sledges to Lake Baikal, where the ship was re-erected.

The only sea-going railway ferry-steamer in existence is the Drottning Victoria, launched in January 1909 from the Neptune Works of Messrs. Swan, Hunter, and Wigham Richardson, Ltd., to the order of the Royal Administration of the Swedish State Railways. She was built to ferry trains across the Baltic, between Sassnitz in Germany and Trelleborg in Sweden, a distance of 65 nautical miles. High sea-going qualities were necessary as the voyage is occasionally a very rough one. The vessel is 354 feet in length by over 50 feet beam, and is propelled by twin-screw triple-expansion engines, supplied with steam from four large boilers working under Howden’s system of forced draught. The trains are carried on two tracks on the car deck, occupying nearly the whole surface of the deck. Above and below this deck is very luxurious passenger accommodation. The vessel has been designed to be very steady at sea, and has unusually large bilge keels fitted to minimise the rolling. Spring buffers and other necessary appliances are arranged to prevent the cars from moving when at sea. A bow rudder is fitted as well as the stern rudder, and both are controlled by steam from the captain’s bridge. The steamer has been divided into a very large number of water-tight compartments, which, with the bulkhead doors with which she is fitted, render her practically unsinkable. She is also to be fitted with a submarine signal installation. The ventilating and heating are ensured by an installation of thermo tanks, enabling fresh, warm air to be forced into all the rooms in winter and fresh cool air in summer. Her speed is over 16 knots per hour, and the journey is made within four hours.

The performances of this boat are being watched with no small amount of interest, as it has been suggested that if she should prove equal to all requirements a modification of this form of steamer might be successful in the cross-Channel service between Dover and Calais, or other ports on either side of the English Channel.