Charlevoix county herald., 1920-12-17
CARGO SHIP RUN
!. BY ELECTRICITY
Eclipse, Soon to Go Into Service,
First American Ship Driven
by'Such Power.
COST OF OPERATION IS CUT
Reduced Consumption Of OIL and
Number Of Crew Slashes Expense
In HaIf-Admiral Benson Strong
for Electric Drive.

Washington.--The first electrically
propelled cargo vessel to fly the
American flag will be placed In serv-
Ice at this port within the next few
weeks by the United States Shipping
Board. The vessel will fly the house
flag of the International Mercantile
Marine company and will be used by
that concern in transatlantic trade.
The Eclipse, as the ship has been
christened, will mark the introduction
of electricity as motive power for
merchant ships, the use of this power
In the past having been confined to
naval vessels.
The shipping board is already so
confident of the success of the Eclipse
that construction of several other
frelghters similarly powered has been
started. The Eclipse is of 1900
lightweight tons, 40 feet long and
56 feet beam. Her electrical prOpul-
sion machinery was built by the Gen
eral Electric company at Schenectady,
and installed by the Vulcan Iron
Works of Jersey City.
Driving a ship by electricity means
revolving the propeller shaft from
motor. To supply the power to turn
this motor generator must be oper-
ated somewhere else in the vessel, just
as generators in power houses make
current for street railways. On board
ship these generators may be driven
by an economical steam turbine or by
a Diesel engine.
Cost of Operation Cut in Half.
The records of the electrically driv.
en- New Mexico of the United States
navy, show that oil consumption is
lowered about one-third by the use Of
electricity as motive power and the
cost Of operation is cut in half, prin-
cipally as result of the reduced num-
Der of men necessary in engine room
crews.
1t is not only possible for an officer
to operate an electric ship" with
small levers from the bridge, but, If
need be, virtually the entire engine
room mechanism can be handled by
one man. Among the many advan-
tages attached to electricity as sea-
power are the added hull space for
cargo and the greatly reduced fuel
consumption.
The first application Of the electric
drive principle was made on a vessel
resembling closely the merchant ship,
although the first really successful
craft to use this power was the naval
collier Jupiter, launched in 1912. 1t
was this ship that proved conclusively
that electricity could be used success
fully in seagoing vessels.
When Admiral w. S. Benson was
chief of naval operations he encour-
aged the adoption of the electric drive
for naval vessels. After he had retired
from the navy and was appointed to
his present position as chairman Of
the shipping board his interest was
enlisted again in the electric drive as
the most economical method Of oper-
ating merchant vessels.
Economical, Says Benson.
The admiral is the first chairman Of
the shipping board to come out in
favor of an electrically operated
merchant fleet.
81 am convinced" he said, "of the
possibilities of electricity in our mer-
chant marine.
"We have demonstrated on our bat
tleship that the electric drive is more
economical than the ordinary drive.
We must save every gallon of fuel
oil that we possibly can, and when
say coal I say 1t with a good deal Of
regret, because our competitors will
contend that we must go back to coal
burning; that we cannot get oil in all
parts of the world, or that it doesn't
pay, or something like that. If we
ever give up fuel-Oil, unless we can
get something better, we might as well
take to the woods, and cut timber
for our fuel. We can't compete with
foreign competitors on any other
than an oil-fuel basis"