ELECTRIC PUMPING EQUIPMENT AND NOTES OF INTEREST ON 
UNION OIL COMPANY OF CALIFORNIA’S TANK STEAMER LA 
BREA. 
By Huco P. Frear, Esg., MEMBER. 
[Read at the twenty-fourth general meeting of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, held in 
New York, November 16 and 17, 1916.] 
The S. S. La Brea is the first tank steamer equipped with independent  sub- 
merged cargo pumps in each compartment, port and starboard, operated by electric 
motors on deck, and also the first to be fitted with reduction gear turbines, so far 
as the writer knows. Otherwise the vessel differs little from many tankers built 
on the Isherwood longitudinal system of framing, and therefore these two items, 
especially the electric pumping system, will receive the most attention. 
The La Brea is 435 feet in length, 56 feet in breadth, and 33 feet 6 inches in 
depth, moulded, and was the first vessel of this particular class built by the Union 
Iron Works Company, San Francisco. The contract was dated May 14, 1915, and 
delivery made February 29, 1916. 
There have since been completed or contracted for, by the same builders, thir- 
teen additional tankers off the same scrieve, all with pump rooms and ordinary 
pumping systems except one vessel for the Pan American Petroleum Transporta- 
tion Company, which will have the same pumping system as the La Brea, but with 
only one pump to each transverse cargo compartment in lieu of two as fitted on the 
La Brea. 
Ten of these additional tankers have reduction gear turbines and three 
triple-expansion reciprocating engines of approximately the same indicated horse- 
power as the shaft horse-power of the turbines. In each case the length of machin- 
ery space, forehold and overall length of the oil compartments, including pump room 
and coffer-dams, are the same. The position of the pump room, coffer-dams, length 
of fuel tank and length of some of the cargo tanks vary more or less to suit the own- 
ers’ views. - 
Of this class, the tanker following the La Brea was the Los Angeles, also for 
the Union Oil Company of California, but fitted with triple-expansion reciprocating 
engines, pump room and ordinary pumping equipment of standard capacity and effi- 
ciency. These two vessels, delivered within a month of each other and owned and 
operated by the same company, offer a most excellent opportunity for a general com- 
parison of their performances on the voyages so far completed. 
For a general description of the La Brea the reader is referred to Fig. 1, Plate 
109, showing a photograph of vessel afloat and Fig. 2, Plate 110, showing profile 
inboard and decks. On account of the limited scope of this paper, attention is called 
