On Fri, 08 Mar 2024 07:38:41 +0000
Richard Smith <null@void.com> wrote:

<snip>
>Preserved but still in viable service (?)
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Badger
>uses "Unaflow" engines.
>High boiler pressure for reciprocating engine at 470psi
>(/ 470 14.7) ;; 31.97278911564626
>about 32Bar.

Sets sail for the season soon🙂

==LUDINGTON, MI – The S.S. Badger car ferry marked the 71st anniversary
of its maiden voyage across Lake Michigan on Thursday, March 21,
officials said...
==
https://www.mlive.com/news/2024/03/ss-badger-car-ferry-marks-71st-anniversary-of-maiden-voyage-across-lake-michigan.html

There's a link in the article to another that has quite a few historic
photos and a bit more info...

--
Leon Fisk
Grand Rapids MI

"Leon Fisk" wrote in message news:utkim4$32jtl$1@dont-email.me...

LUDINGTON, MI – The S.S. Badger car ferry marked the 71st anniversary
of its maiden voyage across Lake Michigan on Thursday, March 21,
officials said...

-----------------------------------

That's quite a service record. Ocean liners on the North Atlantic run wore
out in 20-30 years.

On 23/03/2024 00:30, Jim Wilkins wrote:
> "Leon Fisk"  wrote in message news:utkim4$32jtl$1@dont-email.me...
>
> LUDINGTON, MI – The S.S. Badger car ferry marked the 71st anniversary
> of its maiden voyage across Lake Michigan on Thursday, March 21,
> officials said...
>
> -----------------------------------
>
> That's quite a service record. Ocean liners on the North Atlantic run
> wore out in 20-30 years.
>

Waverley Excursions – The world's last Seagoing paddle steamer

<https://waverleyexcursions.co.uk/>(and yes, the Scottish scenery is
as beautiful as it looks)

I ran away on her when I was about 7. The engineer allowed me to sit on
the end of the crankshaft and the parallel motion bearings of the
largest cylinders of her triple bank triple expansion steam engines when
moving (slowly).

Then he bought me a whisky in the bar and sent me home.

Peter Fairbrother

"Jim Wilkins" <muratlanne@gmail.com> writes:

> "Leon Fisk" wrote in message news:utkim4$32jtl$1@dont-email.me...
>
> LUDINGTON, MI – The S.S. Badger car ferry marked the 71st anniversary
> of its maiden voyage across Lake Michigan on Thursday, March 21,
> officials said...
>
> -----------------------------------
>
> That's quite a service record. Ocean liners on the North Atlantic run
> wore out in 20-30 years.

25 years service life before scrapping for ocean-going ships: about
equally dependent on at least these two dominating things

* seawater corrosion
Seawater happens to be for steel the "pessimum" composition - if you add
more salt it becomes less corrosive (?). Corrosion is ferocious.

* fatigue
The ship going over ocean waves goes alternatively between "convex" and
"concave" bending - wave peak in middle of ship; ship on waves at bow
and stern.

Both of these are attacking all over the ship, likely in places you
cannot easily see.
Then yes machinery is coming up to needing refurb. - which could be done
- but isn't worth it when faced with the big two of corrosion + fatigue.

There are freighters on the Great Lakes at around 100 years old.
Being on fresh water (vastly less corrosive) and without the coean waves
(no fatigue) this can be so.

Also - apparently - the steam-turbine ships as very quiet and smooth -
if as family of someone to do with the Company you get invited to be
passengers on a voyage you go on a steam-turbine ship.

The bulkers used to be coming in and out of Cleveland when I was working
there.
Manouvring out in the Cuyahoga river, there was some heat-haze above the
funnel (stack). Was hilarious sight on Friday nights when everyone
partying by the riverside and pleasure boats around on the river while
another 20,000 tonnes of cargo went on the move.

Love this story.
Best wishes

"Richard Smith" wrote in message news:m11q81xrlp.fsf@void.com...

Also - apparently - the steam-turbine ships as very quiet and smooth -
if as family of someone to do with the Company you get invited to be
passengers on a voyage you go on a steam-turbine ship.

-----------------------------

They are when properly balanced. Mauritania's weren't and when on a speed
record run the stern cabins were uninhabitable.

Olympic's turbine was significantly worn in a decade.
https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/an-olympic-class-propulsion-system.html

Notice that the turbine produced more power than one recip although its
steam entry pressure was below atmospheric, 9 PSIA / 188F, the condenser
reduced it to 1 PSIA / 102F. The two compound engines reduced daily coal
consumption to about 60% of the smaller, faster all-turbine Mauretania and
Lusitania, which were intended to and did capture and own the speed record,
while Olympic, Titanic and Britannic were optimized for economy at 22
instead of 26 knots.

Titanic wasn't quite at full steam pressure or speed and couldn't possibly
break the speed record. The captain had diverted south of the ice reports
and was following the standard practice of relying on lookouts plus the
bridge watch (which did have binoculars) to see something large enough to
damage the ship, which could turn almost as sharply at full as reduced
speed, but a temperature inversion mirage due to the ice field intruding
into the warm Gulf Stream -may- have hidden the berg until too late, and
also caused their unusually inaccurate SOS report longitude. A mirage that
raised the observed horizon and hid or distorted ships and the iceberg on it
could explain many of the lingering questions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fata_Morgana_(mirage)

https://www.titanicology.com/Titanica/Mistakes.pdf
Compare the size of the errors in longitude to latitude. The sinking
location is that of the tight cluster of coal and boilers released at hull
breakup. Carpathia's claim of great speed was based on assuming the
lifeboats were at the incorrect position an hour further west. Mauretania
burned 1000 tons per day on an early speed run, before improvements.

Intense interest in Titanic, especially after discovery revealed many wrong
assumptions, has made much more detailed information on ship design,
construction and operation of the time available than for other vessels with
less dramatic and unexplained fates. Eyewitness accounts vary substantially
for an event where unlike a crime most had nothing to hide.

Jim Wilkins" wrote in message news:...

Intense interest in Titanic, especially after discovery revealed many wrong
assumptions, has made much more detailed information on ship design,
construction and operation of the time available than for other vessels with
less dramatic and unexplained fates. Eyewitness accounts vary substantially
for an event where unlike a crime most had nothing to hide.
-------------------------

This is an example of both the thorough degree of modern analysis and
inconsistent witness testimony:
https://www.titanicology.com/Titanica/Two-Points-in-Thirty-Seven-Seconds.pdf

6th officer Moody's job was to see and report that helmsman (Quartermaster)
Hitchens did as ordered, as Hitchens was in a shuttered booth that allowed
him to have lighted instruments without disturbing the bridge crews' night
vision. Murdoch the watch officer may have seen the iceberg before the
crow's nest lookouts (Fleet) since it would have extended above the horizon
for him but not them. Much later another officer claimed that Hitchens had
turned the wheel the wrong way at first. It's all a challenging puzzle.

The aft-most observed hull leak was slightly aft of the bulkhead halfway
between the first and second funnels, though water rose a little faster than
the pumps could manage in the next compartment aft.

Putting engines astern would include bypassing the turbine whose propeller
washed over the rudder and boosted its effect. No engine room officers
survived to testify, they struggled until the sudden breakup to keep the
lights on.

"Jim Wilkins" wrote in message news:utml00$3lhsf$1@dont-email.me...

>"which could turn almost as sharply at full as reduced speed,"
The reference:
https://timmaltin.com/2019/03/18/titanic-more-slowly/