Passengers vs Central Turbine

[PITAI]

Ot was recently stated to me that Titanic's central turbine was shut off due to complaints from the passengers regarding excessive vibrations. Also, did the central propeller ever lose a blade on Olympic? Does this hold true at all? If there's another thread on this, I would be glad to be directed to it, but I couldn't find it. I'm sorry that these questions keep popping up. They're largely from my interactions on YouTube that I engage in while intoxicated. However, they do seem to be productive in some manner given that I get informative answers from this site.

 

[Ioannis Georgiou]

Whoever told you that, he or she made that story up.

The central propeller was one piece and could have not lost any blade.

 

[Jack Dawson]

Hi, I'm no expert, but didn't the Cunard line's splendid Mauretania suffer from some excessive vibrations caused by the turbines early in her career?

Maybe that is what you were hearing about?

Jack

 

[Doug Criner]

Steam turbines can produce vibration, but properly built and installed, much less so than reciprocating engines. I think the known speed made good by Titanic after departing Queenstown proves that the turbine and the center propeller were in operation.

 

[Michael Kestner]

Lusitania and Mauretania did have issues with vibration if I recall correctly, but they had an all-turbine power plant powering 4 propellers compared to 3 on the Olympic class. Perhaps the difference in layout explains the difference in observed vibration.

Of course, the inefficiency of running turbine engines at sub-200 rpms may have had something to do with it too.

 

[Michael H. Standart]

I think you're all going to find that the turbine was not the devil. Turbines just don't put out that much in the way of any vibration if they are well balanced. Propeller cavitation was and even to this day, it still is the devil.