The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1889-09-17
FINEST SHIP AFLOAT.
Description of the New White Star Line
Steamer TeutOnic.

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among those who have crossed the
"herring pond" at different times as
to the result of the race between
four of the transatlantic steamers,
which left New York for Liverpool
on Wednesday.
The steamers are the Teutonic of
the White Star Line, the City of
New York of the Inman, the SAKE of
the North German Lloyd, and the
City of Rome of the Anchor Line.
The general impression seems to be
here that the Teutonic, which made
such good time on her maiden trip
out to New York, will prove the
winner. The Teutonic is said to be
the longest, finest and safest ship
afoat, and in view of this the follow
ing details regarding her, taken
from the London Times of recent
date, cannot fail to be interesting:
THE SAFEST SHIP AFLoAT.
The vessel, says the Times, has
been built by Messrs. Harland &
Wolff for .Messrs. Ismay, Imrie &
Co., and may be regarded as abso-
luteiy the safest ship afoat. She is
fitted with twin screws, and the
whole of the machinery, engines,
boilers and coal for working either
screws is shut off completely from
its neighbor by a fore and aft bulk
head, which extends from the after
end Of the engine-room to the for
ward end of the foremost coal
bunker, and in fact intersects the six
largest of the twelve water-tight
compartments made by the ordinary
transverse buIkheads. This fore and
aft bulkhead is pierced by only one
locked door, the key of which is
held by the chief engineer The
doors between the engine-rooms and
the stokeholes are in every instance
duplicated, and the duplicate door is
in every instance under the control
of the captain on deck When lib
Grated they close by their own
weight, but by an ingenious contr1-
vance their descent is freed from
violence. Ascending from the door
is rod surmounted by a piston,
which works in a cylinder four and
a half inches in diameter filled with
glycerine. When the door is al
lowed to descend the whole of this
glycerine has to pass through a
half-inch hole in the piston, and the
sluggish liquid thus prevents a
rapid and dangerous descent of the
massive door.
WILL CLOSE AUTOMATICALLY
There is however another and more
interesting novelty about these doors
In the event of water flowing into
the ship the doors will close auto
matically. AS the water rises in the
bilge it will buoy up a hollow PTS
ton attached to a rod. This rod, on
being pushed up about foot, re-
moves the catch that holds the door,
and it might chance that the first
information of danger in the engine
room would be the automatic clos
ing of these protective doors. The
principal is common enough. 1t is
merely an adaptation of the domes
tic ball cock; but, assuming the
buoyancy sufficient for the work to
be done, nothing could be more GER
tain in its action. The introduction
of the fore and aft buIkhead divid-
ing the separate engines of twin
screw ship has been objected to by
high authorities, on the ground that
if one side were filled with water
the list would be so great that the
vessel would inevitably overturn,
and that what was conceived as a
means of safety would become
source of certain danger. 1t has
however been experimentally demon
strated in this case that if the two
largest compartments on one side
of The fore and aft bulkhead were
filled the list would be only twelve
degrees, and facilities are at com
mand to correct this by pumping in
water on the other side.
TRIPLE EXPANSION ENGINES.
The engines are triple expansion
with three cylinders of 43 inches,
6S inches and ITO inches in diameter,
and they have been constructed to
develop 1900 horsepower. The
pistons have a five-foot stroke, and
the machinery, in accordance with
the Admiralty requirements, has all
been placed below the water line.
The boilers are twelve in number
Some are II feet and some II feet
6 inches in diameter and IL feet
long, with six furnaces in each and,
a CRATE area of 1853 feet. The fur
naces are fed with forced air to a
moderate extent above the fuel and
under the CRATE, and the boilers are |
designed to work up to lS9. The |
initial pressure IN the intermediate |
cylinder is 80 pounds and in the low
about 16 pounds with vacuum of Z.
THE PhopELLERs.
The propellers, which are 81 feet 6 |
inches in diameter, with pitch of 2S |
feet inches and superficial area |
of 12S feet, form subject of special |
interest in this ship on account of |
the unusual manner in which they |
are placed. They overlap each other
to the extent of feet 6 inches, or, in
other words, they each extend over
the center line 2 feet 8 inches. The
centers of their axles are 16 feet
apart, and the port-side propeller is
6 feet forward of the starboard,
measuring from boss to boss. The
port propeller is left-handed screw