Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1904-10-14
ENDURANCE OFwARsHIPS
(From Scientific AmcrfennN

(FroM Scientific american
The extremely arduous campaigu
In the Far East is putting the war.
ships of both Russia and Japan &c
an extraordinarily hard test, and in
the case of Japan the propellinp
machinery, including engines and
boilers, Is being tried out about as
thoroughly as could we'll be asked.
The strongest interest centers in
the Japanese ships, because of the
very severe steaming test imposed by
their continuous service on the high
seas. Not single ship of the fleet
is able at present to maintain its
original speed, though most of the
loss is due to foul bottoms rather
than deficiency of engines and boilers.
The speed of the 22.knot "Asama''
has sunk to about Is knots, and the
other cruisers, all of which were
high-sped vessels, are supposed to
be good for about Is knots. The
bsttleships "Fuji" and "Yashima''
have fallen in speed from their origi-
nal Is and 10 knots to about IA
knots, the assigned cause being that
1t is not considered safe to urge their
old-type boilers. The battleships
"Mikasa" and "Asahi" and the
armored cruisers "Yukumo," "Azu-
mo-" and "Idzumo," at the time the
article was written, were steaming
fast and well. The battleship
"Shikishima," which is equipped
with Belleville boilers, had no trouble
in her boiler room, but some slight
injury had been done, probably by a
projectile, to her machinery. The
destroyers had all fallen off greatly
in speed under the tremendous strain
to which they had been subjected,
but the general sentiment was that,
bearing the circumstances in mind,
the performances of the vessels had
been satisfactory.
The big armored cruisers "Grom-
oboi" and "Rossia" of the Russian
navy are spoken of as being in good
steaming condition, an estimate that
was verified by their escape shortly
afterward at the close of the battle
in the Corea Strait. The ''Retvizan, :"
which, it will be remembered, was
torpedoed in the first attack on Port
Arthur, had her engines thrown out
of alignment by the shock, which
also developed leaky tubes in the
boilers. 1t is surprise to learn that
the "Czarevitch" suffered no injury
whatever to engines or boilers when
she was torpedoed at the opening of
the conflict, and also that, although
the torpedo hit her rudder, her pro-
pellers suffered no hurt. After being
patched up at Port Arthur she was
able to steam at IA good speed al
though the terrific hammering she
received In the latest engagement cut
the speed down TO or knots an
hour. The cruiser "Pallada" was
struck amidship by torpedo, that
passed through the side and exploded
partly In the coal bunker and partly
within one group of her Belleville
boilers. The tubes of the boilers
were torn out and twisted into an
S-shape. They were subsequently,
withdrawn, Strengthened, aud re-
placed, mostly by the ships own engi-
neers. The battleshlp ''Pobieda" was
hit by a mine In the port boiler room.
There was big thrush of water and
the fires were put out, but no one
was injured. Strange to say, no
tubes burst, and the ship returned to
harbor under her own steam. The
only repairs necessary were to patch
up the hole torn in the ships side
by the torpedo. The main engines
were quite uninjured. Although in
the early days of the war the Russian
destr6yers were inferior in speed to
the Japanese, the hard service to
which the latter have been put has
equalized matters.
The lessons of the war, as far as
the engine room is concerned, are
summarized as follows:
All small ships, especially torpedo
craft, wear out quickly and lose
heavily in speed as the result of hard
service.
The deterioration of big ships is
considerably less; aud in the case of
vessels which, like the "Idzumo" and
"Bayan," were we'll cared for in
the days of peace, the deterioration is
very little indeed.
The disablement Of machinery by
gun fire is quite improbable, the
danger being limited to partial injury.
Cylindrical boilers have proved in
ferior to water-tube boilers of the
Belleville variety. The tubes have
been easily swept at sea, whereas the
ships carrying cylindrical boilers
have had to return to harbor fire.
quently for cleaning.
1t has not proved possible to main
tain full speed for any length of time
in either fleet, although the "Bayan,"
on the occasion of her escape from
the Japanese, is said to have steamed
for nine hours at top speed. One
cause of failure has been the physical
difficulty of getting the coal from the
bunkers quickly enough, whence
lesson is drawn as to the great i'm
portance of coal economy.