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September, 1920 THE MARINE REVIEW 489 BIG LINER AQUITANIA WHICH HAS BEEN CONVERTED TO AN OIL BURNER She has just set a new record for liners. by covering 129 miles in 3 hours and 42 minutes, an average which time, it is believed, can be bet- tered as she speeded up to 25 'knots on her trials. It required several days to bunker this ship when she burned coal, but now she can be bunkered in six hours. At the same time there are no cinders or smoke to make. the passage disagreeable to the passengers when on deck. One important result of oil burning installations is the solution of the firemen or labor question on_ ship- board, the required number of fire- men. being reduced by over 70 per cent on the oil burning ship. A fur- ther advantage is that the power de- veloped is directly under the control of the engineer and is governed entire- ly by the size of the. burner tip, the _ Pressure at which the pump is opér- ated, and the temperature of the oil. In the case of the Otympic, the speed of the ship was entirely dependent on the class of firemen obtainable, On oil feed, the speed of the ship is the limit of the engine moe: Possible to be delivered by the i es, and this speed is maintained nstantly, Thete are only four fire- men on each watch, a reduction of over 70 per cent f & lies rom the old com- Carries More Cargo Although of minor importance, the LYMPIC w : ae _ be able to convert her ig ae ce to cargo. Adequate fuel a the double sides, as only will he -- of the old bunkers carried sor "aaraede to do the same work, oS act that 6 tons of oil will W equal work to 10 tons of coal. and grade of coal' record by more than a knot One of the reasons for oil burning on shipboard coming to the front is the recent application of the mechan- ical low pressure oil burning systems, of which several have been designed. The White system is used on_ the OLyMPIc, it being decided that it was capable of giving the desired results in burning the heavy Mexican oils. With this system, no brickwork what- ever is needed in the furnaces, which was formerly considered essential, and against the use of which there are serious objections in the Scotch marine boiler. As is well known, with coal-fired boilers there is always considerable loss of steam every watch, through burning down and cleaning of fires. In the AguirANnisA, there are 168° fur- naces... 'Assuming that 28 fires. are cleaned every watch, approximately 8000 horsepower is lost every four hours. With oil-fired boilers, no such loss is incurred, as the oil can be supplied continuously to the burners, and the heating maintained so that a constant steam pressure is kept up. This will have the effect of improving the speed of the vessel. As the tem- perature of the boilers is maintained at a constant figure, the bill for boiler repairs will be considerably reduced. There will be no ashes to remove, and consequently no dust and inconvenience to passengers from that source. The absence of noise and dust when bunk- ering is also not to be overlooked in a vessel of this type and size. One of the advantages claimed for the tse of of "fuel mm slips 15: the additional cargo space available, due of 27.40 knots an hour, surpassing the Mauretania's ee. Mita *. to the fuel being carriedin the ship's cellular double-bottom ~ tanks: ©The AQUITANIA, however, is "fot -a- cargo carrier, and it was not a_ practical proposition to utilize the orig- inal coal bunkers for cargo purposes. As no great advantage was to be gained by using the double-bottom tanks for storing the oil, it was decided to re- construct the coal bunkers for oil carrying. Where Oil Is Carried In this ship, with a beam of 97 feet, with three large double-ended boilers arranged abreast, there remains a space of about 18 feet amidships, gradually reducing to 6 feet at the forward end of the boiler space, which formed the coal bunker on each side, and in this space, extending the full length of the boiler space, a matter of 369 feet, the oil is carried. These side tanks do not,form one continuous group on each side, but are broken into two groups, port and starboard, by Frahm's anti- rolling tanks, which take up 32 feet of the length. In addition to these side. bunkers, large athwartship bunk- ers, arranged forward of No. 1 boiler room, between Nos. 1 and 2, and _ be- tween Nos. 2 and 3, have also been made suitable for oil carrying. The large storage capacity in these side -tauks and cross bunker tanks, how- ever, did not prove sufficient to enable the ship to perform the double trip without requiring replenishing, so six of the double-bottom tanks have been made suitable for oil, to enable the 7600 tons of oil required to be shipped at New York. Of the total quantity,