Secret engines on the Mauretania

[Mark Chirnside]

Hi Mike!

Yes, the good old Limperator. On the topic of her, she had something funny done to her boilers in 1935. (Useless trivia -- watertubes?)

Hi Steve,

Thanks for another informative post.

To get off the subject a little, I have in my collection someplace details of the rebuild of Aquitania's turbines in Boston during 1942 in which her speed was also increased again.

I think we spoke of this prior.

Do you remember this thread and have the details on it, as I have misplaced my notes at the moment?

I seem to remember that you spoke of some changes in 1940 in a thread on the Titanic Mailing List. A word search could bring that up, but turbines were mentioned.

Those voyages by Aquitania are very impressive. I should think that by 1939 she was faster than when she was new, as there had been so many changes made to her. It seems that she truly did get better with age.

I seem to remember seeing the extract, you sent it to me in a private e-mail after I sent you those scans on Aquitania's 1929 refit.

Out of interest, I have a list of Aquitania's average speeds for 1931 -- would you be interested in them as well? None of them were particularly fast, but they are regular, and of course that was the year when she got battered by storms and lost rivets, got girders cracked and so on.

Best regards,

Mark.

 

[Michael H. Standart]

What funny thing Mark? Were the boilers retubed? Did it work? (Now there's a dicey question for you!)

 

[Mark Chirnside]

Hi Mike,

I wish I knew! Colloidal Fuel trials were held onboard 1935-36; but as regards boilers I recall seeing somewhere about watertubes? I know next to nothing about boiler design.

Best regards,

Mark.

 

[Michael H. Standart]

I'm not exactly a marine engineer myself. I wouldn't be surprised if some of them had to be replaced. The things are always in an environment of extremely high heat and pressure and that's not kind to metal.

Perhaps you can dig something up the next time you drop in on the PRO. Somebody had to do the survey work on the thing.

 

[Mark Chirnside]

Ummm... I'll add that to my 10 page 'to do' list. It comes to something when you are in double figures.

(Now what else about Mauretania and Aquitania's engines shall we talk about?!)

Best regards,

Mark.

 

[Brent Holt]

"This sounds similar to what NASA has done with the shuttle engines in that they have been proven safe and routinely run at 104% of their design capacity. "

Actually, not to get off subject, but the main engines of the shuttle were designed to operate at 109% of capacity from early on. Recent re-designs have cleared the engies for 109% operation. The shuttle is a case of a powerplant coming in at below designed capacity.
Brent