The Portland daily press., 1883-10-30
THE FREMONT.
How the New Steamer Works at Sea-
Other Facts of Interest.

"Procrastinator of No. T." a Portland man,
In the last issue of the Marine Journal, has
very interesting article nearly three columns
in length relating to matters and things con-
nected with the Portland Steam Packet Com
pany, but more especially devoted to a graphic
description OF their new steamer fremont
Procrastinator sums up the good traits OF the
company in this paragraph:
No Sunday excursions, no brass bands, no
gold lace, no spread eagleism, no tyrannical
directors, no pot-bellied and red nosed captains
no brass checked clerks, and no rum soaked
engineers, no high salaried officials with fast
horses and faster women to support, but every
thing plain, me thodical, practical and above
ALI honest. Successful from the first, il has
always endeavored to deserve its success, and
as was well said by one of its Godfearng
Presidents, as he counted out an unusually
large dividend: THE Lord has indeed been
good to u.s.
His attention is then directed to the past and
present engineers Of the line He saws:
Many devices (some practical and useful and
some otherwise) connected with engines and
boilers and their management have been pro-
posed or invented by the engineers of this
company, and numbers of their inventions
have been re-invented by others, lignfied by
the attachment OF the word patent, and
heralded throughout the land by their pat
entees ss the latest and best thing out. How
1t makes some of our old engineers grin as
every once ana awhile some crank, who never
boiled water in his life, re-invents some old
idea and the Patent Office grinds it out for him
as good as bran new,
On the boats of this company anthracite
coal was first successfully used with an ordin-
airy blower forced draught The MANY
times re patented steam Jets (both In the
chimney and under the grates) were a genera
tion since here as thoroughly experimental
with and discarded, and it was only few
months since that an original inventor (said
that he was halter by trade) turned up here
with patented steam jet and wanted to put it
on one OF the boilers; guaranteed a saving of
50 aud 10 Fer cent of coal; o, ~ wanted about
5000 for it, Our old engineers, who in their
peyhood days, had been all over and around
the steam Jet business, "smoled smiie,n and
said Shy goshF' Here the we'll known gag at
tachment to the Stevens Valve Motion had
It's origin, but a New York man afterward
patented it and made little money out of it.
Here the rubber back packing, and also the
elastic slab as backing for the hemp packing,
was invented and adopted, and is still in use
Here the use of hard lubricators under COM
preston was brought into use.
Then follows minute description of the
new steamer, (which has in substance previ-
ously appeared in the PRESS and the article
concludes as follows:
The steamer is now running on her route be-
tween Boston, Mass, and Portland, Me, The
distance between these two cities varies
slightly, according to the different courses
which are run, but by the usual running
course 1t is 100 nautical miles. She has made
the distance against adverse tide in Boston
and Portland harbors in 7 hours and 4 min
utes. There is no doubt but that with no tide
to contend with, and favorable circumstances,
she can run this 100 nautical miles in hours
and 45 minutes Her regular running time with
full load, the steam limited to % pounds, and
closing her steam valves at three feet of the
stroke is from 7 IL to hours, according to
tide and weather. The engine makes from 16
to 20 revolutions per minute Her average
consumption of coal for the round trip of 200
miles, is Is tons; this includes coal used for
getting up steam at each end of the route. The
COST when she went on the route fitted and
ready for work. was $4,000. Her full crew
numbers about fifty men. The engineers
crew consists of two engineers, two oilers and
three firemen. She is good sea boat, and be-
coming very popular with the travelling pub
lic She is also success financially, and it
will be but question of few months time
when the company will be compelled by their
increasing business to duplicate her.