A MODERN STEAMSHIP.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2438, 1 March 1909, Page 6

A MODERN STEAMSHIP.

ARRIVAL OF THE OTAKI

The latest addition to the New Zealand Shipping Co.’s fleet of steamers, in the s.s. Otaki, arrived in the Bay yesterday afternoon from Napier, to load wool for London. This is the vessel’s first visit -to the Dominion, and she arrived in, Auckland last month, proceeding south from there.. Considerable interest attaches to the Otaki’s arrival, inasmuch as she is the first ocean-going vessel ready to, take up service with a combination of the reciprocating engine and the steam turbine. The idea of such a combination is not altogether new, for some years .ago, when the type of engines t-o be adopted by the Lusitania and the Mauretania was under discussion, a well-known Scottish shipbuilder urged, before the Institute of Marine Engineers, the desirability of giving the vessels both reciprocating and turbine engines. The Otaki is a triple-screw steamer, two wing propellers being driven by duplicate sets of reciprocating tripleexpansion engines, which exhaust into a low-pressure steam turbine and provide the power for driving a central screw. In connection with the trials of the vessel, an additional point of interest centred in the fact that the owners were able to draw a convincing comparison between the performance of the Otaki and those of two of their earlier ships, the Orari and the Opawa, under exactly similar conditions, the average mean speed of the Otaki on trial being 15.02 knots, and of the Orari and Opawa 14.6. Tlie liulls of the three vessels, each of which is about 7200 tons gross, arc absolutely identical. The only difference is that the new ship, the. Otaki, lias, in addition'to duplicate sets of reciprocating engines, a turbine to drive a third screw. Hence the effect of the low pressure steam turbine was to give the Otaki at least a half-knot extra in the matter of speed, while itensured a substantial diminished coal consumption. Actual figures in regard to this point have yet to be worked out, but there is reason to think that the combination of engines which the new steamer embodies may result in a- saving of. fuel to the extent of something like 10 pei* cent. The Otaki is the first vessel fitted with a steam turbine to engage in round-tlie-globe service. She is intended for purely cargo-carrying purposes, and' has been built, with this end in view, having only accommodation for the officers and crew and four saloon passengers- The. steamer on the voyage out averaged on the- voyage down the New Zealand coast she was driven at a greater, speed. .