DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF PASSENGER STEAMERS. 



By E. H. Rigg, Esq., Member of Council. 



[Read at the twenty-ninth general meeting of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, held 



in New York, November 17 and 18, 1921.] 



To one who loves his profession it is hard to imagine a title which opens up greater 

 possibilities in the way of a chance to contribute a worth-while paper to our Transactions. 

 The subject could well be extended to the dimensions of a large book, so many and so in- 

 tricate are the avenues opened up. Without going to such lengths, it will be my endeavor to 

 review the field as it appears today to one engaged in the design and construction of such ships. 



Our new merchant marine is replete with cargo carriers of all kinds, except perhaps in 

 refrigerator ships, of which there are only a few; it has i-emained for a comparatively few 

 yards to be privileged to build the nucleus of our hoped for post-war passenger fleet in the 

 vessels of the Old North State and American Legion classes ; a fleet also contributed to by 

 captured German ships, reconditioned after the war. 



A paper by Mr. Peskett on the design of steamships from the owner's point of view (T. 

 I. N. A., London, 1914) is well worth reading before commencing a paper such as this. His 

 experience has been ample, and his association with a fleet of the first order lends weight to 

 his views. His paper opens up to view an excellent summary of the conditions to be faced in 

 determining types and sizes. It follows this up by some helpful solutions of given cases, 

 particularly considered cases being the historic Lusitania, Mauretania, and Aquitania; in 

 other words, the development of the Cunard fleet up to the war. 



The important task of satisfactorily drawing up a typical specification and contract is 

 ably covered by the same author before the same institution one year ahead of the above 

 quoted paper; this also gives a clear exposition of that particular and important problem. 

 The designer of passenger ships, especially large ones, should be familiar with the ground 

 covered in both these noteworthy papers ; the Atlantic is no barrier to their usefulness. 



The main items influencing a design are about as follows: Number and type of 

 passengers; availability and nature of cargo; economical speed; safeguards to be adopted; 

 harbor limitations, chiefly draught, but also length; radius of action, distance between ports; 

 type of propelling machinery and fuel ; climates to be traversed ; governmental regulations ; 

 mail contracts and payments. 



Before any figures can be put together these features must all be assessed and their 

 quantities determined. No serious attempt has been made to put them in their relative order 

 of importance, but that given above is roughly correct. Governmental and classification 

 regulations, being fairly uniform, do not, as a rule, influence designs fundamentally in the 

 sense that an American ship would vary greatly from a British or a French one to meet 

 similar demands otherwise; there are dififerences, however, which must be taken into ac- 

 count before actual detailed work is undertaken. 



Recent international conferences on tonnage, bulkheads, freeboard, lifeboats and man- 

 ning and such matters tend towards a uniform settlement of these fundamentals which is 

 altogether desirable. 



