The record-union., 1899-07-14
The Strongest Ship A4loat.


The Strongest Ship Adoat.
AS everyone knows, one of the
greatest drawbacks to Russia's over
sea developments is the ice-binding of
most of her principal ports during four
or five months in the year. Now Rus
sia moves slowly but surely, and one
by one her enemies somehow get over
come. One of these enemies is ice, and
the British nation can take good aug
ury from the fact that the most potent
of all the weapons-in fact practically
all-with which she fights this foe have
been fashioned in a British shipyard.
OF these weapons the Ermack is by
far the most powerful that has yet
been constructed for the purpose OF
e-fighting> Imagine, to begin with.
a hull of steel, 3O5 feet long, Il feet
broad, AZ feet 6 inches in depth, and
5000 tons displacement, which is cap
able of being hurled on to an ice-pack
10 feet thick with the concentrated en-
ergy of 10000 horsepower, without
getting hurt, and you will have some
idea of what the Ermack really is.
1t is hardly necessary to say that
any other steamer, built in the ordinary
way and subjected to test like this,
would just crumble up and go down
| without having hurt the ice very
much, much as an Atlantic liner would
do if it charged an iceberg at fifteen
or sixteen knots. That is just what
the Ermack is built not to do. And that,
| too, is why, with the exception of one
or two smaller boats of her own class,
she is built differently from all other
| steamers in the world
| If I had been asked before I saw the
| Ermack to evolve an ice-breaker out
| of my inner consciousness, as the Ger
man philosopher did the camel,
should have figured something like the
ram Katahdin. a ship that would ram
the ice, smash it UP, and break it's way
through by sheer strength and I sup
| pose that would be something like the
conception of most of my readers. 1t
would also be. absolutely wrong The
real ice breaker does not break the ice
| up, she breaks it down; and fore and
| aft anlfdships she is so constructed that
| there is not a single angle that the Ice
| can get hold of. Her sides are as
round as those of an apple, and every
surface that she presents to the ice is
| that of an unbroken curve.
| Everyone who has read about whal-
| ing voyages knows what it means for
| a vessel to- get "nipped" in the ice. 1t
means the fate Of a nut between pair
| of irresistible nut-crackers. This, how
ever, would not be the fate of the Err
mack. If she were caught between
| couple of closing masses Of ice she
would just begin to rise slowly and
easily and without so much as shiv-
| er. Meanwhile her powerful pumps
would be set to work, certain of her
compartments would be filled up with
water, and in the end the ice would
have to support weight of about H.
600 tons-or give way. 1t would prob
ably give way The Ermack would
settle back into the water with a noun
tain of srnashed-up ice on either side
of her, after which she would proceed
to business as usual.
In accordance with the best princi-
pies of mechanics, this business is done
by taking the line of least resistance
and weakening the enemy as much as
possible. This is where the long, slop
ing bow and the headscrew come in.
The value of this head-screw. like many
other values, was discovered by acci-
dent The earlier steam ice-breakers
had none. One of them got frozen in
the ice. She tried to bore her way
ahead, but failed. Her engines were
put astern, and, to the surprise of
everyone on board she got out.
OF course, there had to be a reason
for this, and when the matter was duly
reasoned out, it was found that the re-
volving screws churned up and sucked
the water away from under the ice.
depriving it of it's only support, and
left it no alternative but to break down
under its own weight and that of the
vessel, and so to destroy it's own re-
sisting power.
That is why the Ermack has screw
ahead as we'll as three astern. When
she charges. say, an foot ice bank,
her prov will glide up over the ice
driven by her three stern screws, each
actuated by 5000 horsepower, while
her head-screw, driven by equal en-
ergy, will be dragging the water from
under the ice: OF course the ice will
give way. The longer it resists, the
bigger weight will be laid upon it. There
will be no chance of nipping, for that,
as has been shown. is impossible. More
over it would be about as easy to crush
the Ermack as it would be to crush a
solid mass OF steel of her own size, and
nature has not yet evolved an ice-iloe
that could do that.
But how is this enormous resisting
power obtained? Simply by the use
Of the very finest materials. fashioned
and disposed by the highest skill in
the world.-Pearson's Magazine.