Transcription of REPRINT FROM “MOTOR SHIP.” JUNE, 1939
Done by self in the year 2009 from original photocopy after attempts to OCR it failed
THE FASTEST NORTH SEA PASSENGER SHIP
N.V.KONINKLIJKE MAATSEHAPPIJ “DE SCHELDE” VLISSINGEN, HOLLAND.
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THE “KONINGIN EMMA”
THE FASTEST NORTH SEA PASSENGER SHIP
THE FASTEST NORTH SEA PASSENGER SHIP
The Zeeland S.S. Co’s M.S. “Koningin Emma” for Harwich-Flushing Service.
A Trial Trip Speed of 23.9 Knots. High-speed Machinery of 12,600 s.h.p.
The Zeelands S.S. Co’s day service between Flushing and Harwich is carried on by three steamers of about 2,900 tons gross, one of which was built by the Fairfield Co. in 1909 and the other two at the de Schelde yard in 1920 and 1922 respectively.
Although the two later vessels have not yet reached the limits of their useful lives, the owners decided to built two new larger and faster ships, equipped and furnished in a manner that would represent the most modern ship practice in every respect. The order for both vessels was placed with the M.V. Kon. Mij. de Schelde, Flushing, and the first of the ships, “Koningin Emma” was placed in regular service on June 4.
She proved herself to be the fastest passenger vessel engaged in the North Sea service, attaining a speed of 23.9 knots on trials. It is interesting to make some comparisons between her and the three steamers of the “Prague” class, which maintain the L.N.E.R.’s Harwich - Hook service and were, built about 1930, also the Dover - Ostend passenger motor ship “Prins Albert, constructed less than two years ago and representing the fastest cross-Channel vessel in the world.
The main dimensions and tonnage of the three ships are given in the accompanying tables, together with the machinery power, trial trip speeds and machinery room length. The figures are as given in Lloyd’s Register of Shipping for the “Prague” and “Prins Albert” and the machinery power and speed, as well as engine-room lengths, are those published at the time of completion. The short engine-room length of the “Prins Albert” for the exceptionally high power is notable, but in the case of this vessel, which is of unusually light draft, every effort was evidently taken to limit the length, whereas in the ”Koningin Emma” there is a great sense of space in the machinery compartment, and there is everywhere ample room.
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Comparisons between the Harwich – Hook of Holland Steamer “Prague,” the “Koningin Emma” and the Dover – Ostend M.S. “Prins Albert”
“Prague” class “Prins Albert” “Koningin Emma”
Gross registered tons 4,220 2,938 4,135
Length h.p..ft. 350.8 357.0 350.2
Moulded Breadth ft. 50.1 49.1 47.0
Draught loaded ft. 15.2 11.2 13.5
Machinery s.h.p. 10,000 15,000 12,600
Speed on trials knots 21.5 25.5 23.9
Length of machinery space, ft. 75 71 73
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On the basis of horse-power, the shortness of the engine-room in the two motor ships relative to the steamer is interesting.
The “Prague” And the “Koningin Emma “are sufficiently similar in dimensions for the contrast in profile and hull design to indicate how development has proceeded in these directions during the past few years. The “Prague” has two rather long and narrow funnels, a straight stem and square deck erections. The “Koningin Emma” and the “Prins Albert,” has a single relatively low, large, streamlined funnel, a sloping stem and streamlined deckhouses; the streamlining, in fact, resulted from the test which were carried out in the wind tunnels at Amsterdam, it was found that the curves of the deck erections made a distinct difference to the speed of the vessel. That modern hull design in fast ships is more attractive than it was 10 years ago will be admitted.
Present-day ideas in furnishing and decorations have also found full acceptance in the “Koningin Emma”. The large dining saloon, as well as the lounge above, has full views over the sea, and the spacious entrance halls are panelled in light and attractive wood, light oak being largely employed. Although intended as a day boat, she has 52 passenger cabins, for the reason that many passengers prefer to stay on board after reaching Flushing. Moreover, it is intended to employ the ship for cruises on occasions.
The main particulars of the “Koningin Emma” are given in the accompanying table: -
Length overall - - - - - - - - - - 380 ft. or 115.80 metres
Length between perpendiculars - - - - - - 350.2 ft. or 106.63 metres
Beam moulded - - - - - - - - - - - - 47 ft. or 14.33 metres
Maximum draught - - - - - - - - 13ft. 6 ins. or 4.12 metres
Gross register - - - - - - - - - 4,135 tons
Service speed about - - - - - - - - 21.5 knots
Trial trip speed - - - - - - - - 23.9 knots
Machinery - - - - - - - - - - 12,600 s.h.p.
No. of passengers, maximum - - - - - -1,800
Maximum total deadweight - - - - - 750 tons
Hold capacity - - - - - - - - - 2,260 cubic metreS
No. of motorcars carried - - - - - - - 25
Accommodation.
As plans show the passenger accommodation, dining and saloon, lounges, entrances and retiring rooms are all arranged so far as possible towards the midship part of the vessel, where pitching is, perhaps not so uncomfortable. In good weather the sun deck and veranda for first class passengers on “A” deck is available, whilst on “B” deck aft, also on “C” deck are ample promenade spaces for the second class passengers. The first class passengers have an enclosed promenade forward, and not only is this protected from the stress of the weather by Beclawat windows, but can be heated during the winter. The retiring rooms on “D” deck, both the first and second class, have a large number of exceptional comfortable settees, whilst the passenger cabins are located on “E” deck below.
It is evident that the comfort of the second-class passengers has been studied as much as those in the First-class saloon, since the second-class dining saloon and lounge are as comfortable and as nearly attractively furnished as those for first-class passengers. The first-class dinning-room and smoking room height is 9 ft., and that of the promenade deck is 10 ft. The second-class saloons are both 8 ft. high. The second-class promenade deck on “B” deck can be partly formed into a veranda by fitting large collapsible screens, with windows. On “B” deck is the gallery, connected with the pantry immediately above by electric lift, whilst also on “B” deck, is pace for 25 motorcars. On “C” deck are two large special cabins with adjoining toilet-rooms.
All the cabins are provided with running warm and cold fresh water and have mechanical ventilation. Steam heating is utilized in the saloons and throughout the ship; sprinkler nozzles are provided, whilst there is a carbon dioxide installation for the protection of the holds, with a corresponding detector cabinet in the chartroom. The ship carries eight lifeboats, of which six are handled by Schat davits with Thrige winches; the other two lifeboats being carried in normal davits. In addition there are many life rafts.
The cargo is handled by four 2½ -ton Thrige winches with 20 h.p. motors running at 575 r.p.m. There are four Thrige capstans for mooring the vessel and the windlass is also a Thrige electrically operated machine. In the pilot house is a Kelvin, Bottomley and Baird compass, an echo sounder, two Kent clearview screens and a Walker Trident log. A loudspeaker plant is installed for communication on various decks. The telephone system can be connected to the shore when the vessel is moored and T.M.C. loud speaking telephone plant is provided for communication between the engine-room, wheelhouse and other points. The deck lighting system includes flood-lighting lamps for the funnel and special lights for handling cargo, also for illuminating the boat stations.
Machinery.
Machinery.
The design and arrangement 0f high—powered machinery in high-speed cross-Channel vessels of moderate size calls for the exercise of particular ingenuity and care. The space available is small, the passenger accommodation and public rooms are necessarily close to the engine-room and large number of passengers congregate at all points. The elimination of vibration and the deadening of sound, not only in regard to the main but auxiliary machinery, are even more essential than in large vessels and this involved with the problem of the utilization of fast running engines, from which increased noise is necessarily anticipated. It may at once be said that the results achieved in the “Koningin Emma “ in both respects – noise and vibration – are exceptionally good and during trials at which we were present, when the vessel proceeded for sometime at 23½ knots and for a prolonged period at 22 knots, the noise and vibrations were less than those in corresponding steamers of equal speed.
Unlike the arrangement in the Dover- Ostend passenger ships in which there is an auxiliary machinery room separate from the propelling-engine compartment the whole of the machinery in the “Koningin Emma“ is installed in the one engine-room, the auxiliary generating sets being immediately forward of the control stations of the propelling engines and under the direct supervision of the engineer on watch. As there is no electric heating in the ship and the engines drive attached scavenging pumps, the demand for electrical power is moderate and the generating plants are, therefore, relatively small.
Index to above Engine-Room Plan
1. Main Engine. 2. Generating Sets 200 b.h.p., 145 kw., 480 r.p.m. 3. Manoeuvring compressor, 400 cubic in. per hour, 110 b.h.p 4. Opposed piston air compressor, 210 cubic in. per hour. 5. Emergency Air compressor, 25 cubic in. per hour. 6. Starting air reservoirs 12 cubic in. 7. Air reservoir for auxiliary engines. 8. Fresh water cooling pumps, 440 tons per hour, 34-48 h.p., 1400-1700 r.p.m. 9. Harbour service fresh water cooling pump 10 tons per hour. 10. Fresh water coolers. 11. Lubricating oil pump. 12. Standby lubricating oil pump 202 cubic in. per hour, 55 h.p.. 550-950 r.p.m. 13. Lubricating oil cooler. 14. Lubricating oil pump for auxiliary engines, 3 cubic in. per hour. 15. Lubricating oil centrifugal purifier. 16. Lubricating oil stream-line filters. 17. Fuel oil transfer pump, 25 cubic in. per hour, 6 h.p., 1,000 r.p.m. 18. Fuel oil service pumps, 1 1/2 h.p., 3 cubic m. per hour. 19. Fuel oil centrifugal purifier. 20. Sea water circulation pumps, 225 cubic in. per hour, 11-15 h.p. 21. Drinking water pump, 5 cubic in. per hour. 22. Hot fresh water pumps, 5 cubic m. per hour. 23. Emergency bilge pump, 65 cubic m. per hour, 8-11 h.p. 24. Sanitary pump 65 cubic m. per hour, 8-11 h.p. 25. Bilge pump 65 cubic m. per hour, 8-11h.p. 26. Oil-fired boiler. 27. Feed pumps, 1 1/2 cubic m. per hour. 28. Condenser. `1\ 29. Switchboard. 30. Scavenger pump silencer. 31. Emergency Diesel Generator 32 k.w. 32. Fuel oil tank for boiler. 33. Fuel oil tank for main and auxilaiary engines. 34. Hot fresh water tank. 35. Cold fresh water tank 36. Exhaust gas silencers. 37. Spark arresters.
Propelling Engines.
The propelling engines of the “Koningin Emma“ built by the De Schelde Co., are like those of the “Prins Albert” of the Sulzer design and in fact, having similar dimensions, namely, with a cylinder diameter of) 580mm. (22 7/8 ins.) and a piston stroke of 840mm. (33 1/8 ins.) They have 10 cylinders (12 in the case of the “Prins Albert” and at 250 r.p.m. the output is 6,300b.h.p. with a mean indicated pressure of 6.3 kg. per sq. cm. (5.1 Kg. Per sq. cm. mean effective pressure), the mechanical efficiency being about 80 per cent.
At the other end are two tandem scavenge pumps driven from cranks, whilst each engine drives a Stothert and Pitt lubricating-oil pump for the supply of oil for lubricating the bearing and cooling the pistons. The piston speed of the main engine is approximately 1,380 ft. per minute or about 7 meters per second.
The attachment of the scavenger pumps in direct line with the cylinders represents a different arrangement from that employed in the “Prins Albert” where each cylinder has a corresponding scavenger pump driven by means of a beam from the crosshead. One reason, no doubt, was that with 12-cylinders engine a further two cylinders for scavenging would make a difficult design, besides which a saving in length of the engine room was specially important in the M.S. “Prins Albert”. The piston design is modified, as there is a guide ring about 4 ins. deep below the usual piston rings, this being of cast iron, although we understand that, in similar engines that are being built for the large Rotterdam Lloyd passenger line with 32,000 s.h.p machinery the rings will be chrome hardened.
The reduction in weight is important in engines for fast ships of this type and the bedplate and frames are of cast steel in order to lighten the machinery, whilst the covers are of steel, the cylinder liners being of cast iron as usual. For cooling the pistons, lubricating oil is employed, fresh water being utilized for the cylinder jackets and covers, also for the fuel valves and the cylinder of the auxiliary Diesel engines and compressors. Balance weights are fitted to the cranks and the crankshaft is not bored for the passage of the lubricating oil to the big ends. At 250 r.p.m. there was not a tremor of vibration at any part of the engines.
As is usual with Sulzer engines, the reply telegraph automatically sets the gear for ahead or astern running, as the case may be, and the two control levers are for starting the engine and for varying the speedrespectively. All the controls are at the forward end and there is a gauge board with five gauges, for the exhaust-gas temperature, the scavenging air, starting air, lubricating oil, piston-cooling oil and cylinder-cooling freshwater pressure respectively. At 250 r.p.m., after a period of continuous running, we noticed that the lubricating-oil bearing pressure was 1½ kg. per sq. cm, that of the piston-cooling oil being 4 kg, per sq. cm_ the fresh water 1½ kg. per sq. cm., and the scavenging air .2 kg. per sq. cm. The exhaust-gas temperature averaged 380 degrees C.
The exhaust from each engine passes to a Schelde-Burgess vertical silencer, thence through a spark arrester and out of the exhaust pipe in the funnel, Air for scavenging is drawn through a horizontal Burgess silencer in each case, the air being taken from the engine-room, but the inlets to the scavenger-air silencers are close to the point where one of the engine-room ventilating fans delivers air into the engine-roam from the deck. The silencing effect in both instances is, as already stated, very satisfactory, and the whole of the engine-room, walls and casing are fitted with Burgess Acousti-pads, so that the noise penetrating through them is quite small.
It may be suggested that the large amount of heat in the exhaust gases might have born utilized for raising steam, but it was decided, in view of the special nature of the vessel's service and the comparatively short period of continuous operation, that the introduction of exhaust boilers was not warranted. An oil-fired. boiler is installed in the engine-room. and it is equipped with a Laidlaw-Drew automatic plant, so that the pressure is continuously controlled.
It is not proposed to give details of the auxiliaries these are indicated on the engine-room plan - see below - and their various capacities are noted. It may be remarked that a considerable amount of the auxiliary equipment, and a number of the pumps are of British Manufacture, the emergency angle {Guess time again} pump and sea-water circulating pump being Drysdale machines, the drinking-water pumps of the Hayward Tyler type and many of the motors driving the pumps of Laurence Scott design. The other motors and the generators were built by Smit Slikkeveer, whilst a good proportion of the switchgear is of Brookhirst manufacture. Two large horizontal Serck lubricating-oil coolers are installed and two fresh-water coolers of similar manufacture_
The stand-by lubricating-oil pump is an IMO design, whilst an interesting unit is a combined horizontal opposed piston oil-engined compressor, which is located in the port wing forward. This will be utilized inharbour, or in the event of necessity it may be run when the ship is under way to assist the electrically driven compressor. The two opposed pistons form the combustion chamber on their inner approach, whilst on the outer side they compress air, whole unit being enclosed.
The auxiliary generators comprise three units of 145kKw. Coupled to six-cylinder 220 b.h.p. Four stroke engines constructed by Sulzer Bros. They run at 480 r.p.m. The two centrifugal separators for fuel oil and lubricating oil respectively are de Laval machines, the fuel separators being arranged in conjunction with Vespa electrical heater. The engine is ventilated by means of two Aertex screw fans, the pressure being 44 mm. Water gauge and the capacity 3 cubic m. per second.
The spares carried in the engine-room include a cylinder liner and a piston. Spare parts can naturally be minimized in a vessel of this class which trades across the North Sea, based upon the port the engines where constructed.
Port side of one of the main Schelde-Sulzer engines
Tanks.
The fore-peak tank has a capacity of 50 tons of ballast water and aft-peak tank 100 tons. There is an 80-ton ballast deep tank aft of Nos. 1 and 2 cargo holds and two 30 tons ballast-water tank under the engine-room. Aft of the engine-room, in the wings, are a 50 tons deep tank on each side for fuel oil and to port another tank with a capacity of 67.5 tons, whilst to starboard is a 78 ton drinking-water tank. Under the engine-room, is a lubricating oil tank capable of holding 18 tons, a 10-ton fresh-water and four ballast-water tanks. Two are forward of the lubricating oil tank and hold 45 tons each, and two aft of this tank holding 30 tons each. A 20-ton drinking-water tank is provided.
In similar circumstances the fuel consumption of the main engine will be 167.5 kg. per s.h.p. hr. (0.37 lb), and it may be estimated that the fuel required for propulsion will be well under 1¾ tons per hr. at 21½ knots.
In the engine–room all the various pipes are coloured at the flanges, according to the services, while practical the whole of the machinery and the interior of the engine-room is painted with aluminium-coloured paint, which gives a very light and clean impression.
During the trials, at which we were present, the vessel maintained her service speed for several hours and maximum speed for a substantial period. The running was in every way satisfactory, and we have no doubts that the “Koningin Emma” will prove an extremely attractive and popular ship for travellers between this country and Holland.
ENGINE-ROOM PLANS OF THE "KONINGIN EMMA"
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