Chapter 1-THE DEVELOPMENT OF NAVAL SHIPS 



Sad to relate, the Wampanog came to an 

 ignominious end. A board of admirals concluded 

 that the ship was unfit for the Navy, that the 

 four-bladed propeller was an interference to 

 good sailing, and that the four superheater 

 boilers were merely an unnecessary refinement. 

 As a result of this expert opinion, two of the 

 four propeller blades and all four of the super- 

 heater boilers were removed. The Wampanog 

 was thus reduced from a superior steam-driven 

 ship to an inferior sailing vessel, with steam 

 used merely as an auxiliary source of power. 



The modern U.S. Navy may be thought of as 

 dating from 1883, the year in which Congress 

 appropriated funds for the construction of the 

 first steel warships. The major type of engine 

 was still the reciprocating steam engine; 

 however, the latter part of the 19th century saw 

 increasing interest in the development of internal 

 combustion engines and steam turbines. 



- PADDLE-WHEEL 

 SHAFT 



147.3 



Figure 1-3.— Side-lever engine, 

 USS Mississippi (1842). 



147.4 



Figure 1-4.— Oscillating engine, 

 USS Princeton (1844). 



Ship designers approached the close of the 

 19th century with an intense regard for speed. 

 Shipbuilders were awarded contracts with bonus 

 and penalty clauses based on speed performance. 

 In the construction of the cruisers Columbia and 

 Minneapolis, a speed of 21 knots was specified. 

 The contract stipulated a bonus of $50,000 per 

 each quarter-knot above 21 knots and a penalty 

 of $25,000 for each quarter-knot below 21 knots. 

 The Columbia maintained a trial speed of 22.8 

 knots for 4 hours, and thereby earned for her 

 builders a bonus of $350,000. Her sister ship, 

 the Minneapolis, made 23.07 knots on her trials, 

 earning $414,600 for that performance. Other 

 shipbuilders profited in similar fashion from the 

 speed race. And some, of course, were penalized 

 for failure. The builders of the Monterey , for 

 example, lost $33,000 when the ship failed to 

 meet the specified speed. 



By the early part of the 20th century, steam 

 was here to stay; the ships of all navies of the 

 world were now propelled by reciprocating steam 

 engines or by steam turbines. Coal was still the 

 standard fuel, although it had certain disadvan- 

 tages that were becoming increasingly apparent. 

 One of the problems was the disposal of ashes. 

 The only practicable way to get rid of them was 

 to dump them overboard, but this left a telltale 

 floating line on the surface of the sea, easily 

 seen and followed by the enemy. Furthermore, 

 the smoke from the smokestacks was enough to 

 reveal the presence of a steam-driven ship even 

 when it was far beyond the horizon. The military 

 disadvantages of coal were further emphasized 

 by the fact that it took at least one day to coal 

 the ship, another day to clean up— a minimum of 

 two days lost, and the coal would only last for 

 another two weeks or so of steaming. 



Then came oil. The means for burning oil 

 were not developed until the early part of the 

 20th century. C^ce the techniques and equip- 

 ment were perfected, the change from coal to 

 oil took place quite rapidly. Our first oil-burn- 

 ing battleships were the Oklahoma and the 

 Nevada , which were laid down in 1911. All coal- 

 burning ships were later altered to burn oil. 



While the coal-to-oil conversion was in prog- 

 ress, a tug-of-war was going on in another area. 

 The reciprocating steam engine and the steam 

 turbine each had its proponents. To settle the 

 matter, the Bureau of Engineering made the 

 decision to install reciprocating engines in the 

 Oklahoma and steam turbines in the Nevada . 

 Although there were still many problems to be 

 solved, the steam turbine was well on its way 



