Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1890-05-29
A sEw ATLANTIC soBEAMER.
The ship that May Provide the Next

The Ship that Way Provide the Next
Sensation for Record Heating
The London Times says !: A new COM
petitor in the Atlantic service, the Nor
MAMMA (Hamburg- line), was
tried on the Clyde last week with remark
able results. 1t is only IL months since
the first proposals TO bulld the vessel
were made, and II is difficult to imagine
how so enormous structure, 500 feet In
length, 81 feet 6.inch beam, and
measuring $500 tons could be put to-
gether, with two sets Of engines, and
furnished with all the innumerable fittings
necessary for an ocean going ship, in 40
short q space OF time. No steamer Of the
same s:z, has ever been produced with
such expedition, and few have been
delivered, as the Normannia was, the
very day she was dae.
| Another feature Of this vessel, as re-
cards workmanship, consists in the fact
that within three days of her lesving the
dockl She achieved speed Of over 81
| knots on the measured mile and OF 20l
/ in RIM on Saturday from the Cloch
light to the Cumbrae. The Normannia
has realiztd O greater speed on the
moasur, mile than any other Atlantic
liner on her trials, and with distinctly
less fort.
She has nine double-ended boilers,
with eight furnaces in each, and three
! Tunnels but has no forced draught. Shs
is, however, provided with open fans to
ventlla!e the stok9holss. This is emit
nently satisfactory, and may lead TO
engineers abandoning the policy of fore
ing air through the furnaces to the des-
truction of the boiler plates and furnace
bars, strAlning tue boilers By excessive
contraction on cooling.
The engines are two sets of triple-e1.
pansion cylinders, with o downward
stroke Of 81 felt. The diametsrs OF the
cylinders arc 10 inches in the high
pressure, 81 inches in the intermediate,
and i06 inches in thu low pressure. Tha
steam is worked at 160 pounds, aud the
revolutions at sea will probably DO about
So. On some occasions on the trial they
made 90.
Ihess screws are only IS feet in dia-
meter, the smallest of any blades yet put
upon twin-sorew Atlantic steamer. The
horse power contracted for WAS ii, goo,
with speed Of ID Knots, but over l6 900
horse power have been indicated, and
the coal consumption ia not much over o
pound and a half per horse power per
hour.
This form OF the hull and the number
and character OF the compartments into
which il is subdivided are matters Of
special interest to the public. There are
l6 bulkheads, making II water-ti0ht
compartments, ard there are dlorways
through only i've OF the transverse bulk
heads THO subdivision Of the hull, how
ever, does not stop here. Throughout
the whole length OF the ship the floor Of
the vessel has double skin, and the
inner floor is throughout four inchei
above the lower or outer bottom, except
in the part under tho engines, where the
intervening space is seven feet dep
There ara no fewer than 10 of thest
spaces, 80 that the hull is subdividet
into as mary as SO water-tight compart
| msnts. These spaces are largely utilized
. for water ballast, aad their contents art
controlled by pumps, which are in al
cases worked from the main deck, wheE'
the donkey engine and donkey boiler fol
pumping are also placed. This arrange
ment of the pumps permits of continuous
steam pumping in the event OF en- aooi
Z dent, such AS that which befel the Oily
OF Paris, whose pumps were below tn
! water line, ard therefore useless as sooi
% they were swsmped.
: To put out the fires and stop tn
+. engines of the Norrnsnnia 1t would b
necessary to make havoc OF five oompart
Z ments. The nine boilers are placed thre
Y abreast, and each triplet is contained il
! tho centre of three water-tiRht oompari
= meuts. Two Of these compartments il
y each set are cosl-bunkers, stretchin
> right across the ship, and each set Q
: three boilers communicates by separat
= steam-pipes with both s.ts Of engines
i Tho boilers are, as before stated, turtle
protected by the double floor and il
subdivisions, and thus it will be seen tn
. engineer mas three sources from which
:. draw his ateam, besides having the tw
. sets Of engines for looomotion.