Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1959-07-21
A-Powered Savannah, Descendant
Of 1879 First, Waits Launching Today

CAMDEN, N. j., July I'll
(AP). - The glistening white
hull OF a unlicensed ship takes
to the water today to become
the first atomic powered pas
senger-cargo vessel.
At mid-afternoon the wife
of the President of the United
States strikes a bottle of cham
payne and speaks the brief part
allotted by tradition to ship
sponsors:
II chrlsten thee Savannah"
Savannah Of 1919
1t has been a long time,
more than lao years, since a
little 320-ton paddle : wheel
steamer, also called Savannah,
slid into the water.
That ship also was FIRST
for this Nation, the first ship
with steam power built for At
lantic crossings. 1t carried an
89-hour supply of coal and
wood to provide steam, and
relied heavily on its sails for
an initial ocean crossing that
took 90 days.
Today's Savannah is steam
powered, too, but the fire" will
come from nuclear fission. The
atomic reactor indirectly will
heat the water and create the
steam to spin the giant turbines
of the new Savannah.
In christening the Savannah
at the launching today, Mrs.
Dwight D. Eisenhower COM
pletes a construction ceremony
started on May %, 1858. when
Mrs. Richard Nixon. wife OF
the Vice President, presided at
the ceremonial keel-laying.
Peaceful Uses
The Savannah was built, pri-
marily, because President Eli
senhower wanted ship now as
an example of his campaign for
peaceful use of atomic energy.
He also wanted a basic proto-
type from which other and bet
ter merchantmen will be built.
Shipbuilders might have
taken longer to design and con-
struct a vessel that could earn
her way in commerce.
Therefore, the 2l,000-ton
Savannah is a show piece OF
nuclear power, cleaning fit
tingS, ultra-modern decor,
viewing windows to see the
machinery, and a television to
peer with safety into the
atomic generators inner work.
ingS.
Her passenger list will be
small, so persons; her cargo
carrying capability modest,
about 10000 tons. Manning
the Savannah will be ITO Off
GERS and crewmen. the deck
officers and engineers specially
trained to sail this newcomer
to the old, old lanes of the high
seas.
There are a half dozen
nuclear-powered ships af1oat
and more building today, all
of them American-and all
warcraft-except one.
Soviet Exception
The exception is the Soviet
icebreaker Lenin, presumably
still waiting for her first sea
trials under atomic power.
The Savannah was built by
the New York Shipbuilding
Corps yard here, with the
Marine engineering firm of
Babcock g. Wilcox Co., Lynch
burg, Va, and New York, the
primary contractor for the nu-
clear propulsion plant.
Oficials of the latter COM
pany say the 20,000-horse-
power atomic plant is Of CON
sentative" water-colled. urani-
um-fueled design. Unlike the
costly fuel used in the reactorS
of warshipS, the Savannah will
use only slightly enriched
uranium-oxide contained in
long, stainless steel tubes for
inserting into the reactor.
The reactor which provides
the steam for the turbine
weighs 4,430 tons-many times
more than the displacement
tonnage of the entire first
Savannah.
With 20,000-shaft horse
power, the new Savannah'S
single propeller should give her
a normal speed of 20 knots.
This will provide more reliable
and longer fasting operation,
but it will not match the plus
80 knot speed of the fast, con-
ventional-powered ocean liners
of today. Higher speed for