In 1951, one of the four diesel engines of the diesel-electric powered tanker Auris of the oil company Royal Dutch Shell was replaced by a gas turbine. When the construction of the coastal freighter Cantenac at the Augustin Normand shipyard in Le Havre began in 1953 , the Auris was still in the test phase before a complete conversion to gas turbines in 1956. The Cantenac was completed in January 1954 and sold to the shipping company Worms & Cie., Also based in Le Havre . delivered. In 1955 the ship was extended. In 1961 the company acquired Gazocean the Cantenac and named it after the same chemist in Marcelin Berthelot order. Gazocean had the ship in Le Trait converted into an LPG tanker with seven tanks and around 1100 m³ cargo tank volume and equipped with a conventional drive system with a SEMT Pielstick twelve-cylinder four-stroke V-engine. In 1968 the tanker was transferred to Oceangas Hellas in Piraeus and renamed Socrates . In 1971 the Socrates was transferred to the company Antarctic Gas in Panama and in 1981 it was finally sold for demolition.
Sister ship Merignac
According to the plans of Cantenac , the Augustin Normand shipyard also delivered the sister ship Merignac to the Worms shipping company in August 1954 . It was also extended in 1955 and sold in 1958 to the Mutualista Açoreana shipping company in Lisbon, which used it as a Corvo . The gas turbine system remained in operation on the Maia until the early 1970s, when it was replaced by a Polar twelve-cylinder four-stroke engine. In 1974 the Mutualista Açoreana company renamed the ship Maia . In 1976, the drive system was removed from the Socarmar shipyard in Seixal and the vehicle continued to be used as a barge. In 1998, José Moreira & Irmão from Várzea do Douro acquired the Maia , had it fitted with a drive system again at the Mochões shipyard in Alfeite and converted into a shovel hopper excavator. The excavator was used on the upper reaches of the Douro and was still in operation in 2011.
technology
The propulsion system of the two sister ships, which was new at the time, was developed by the Société d'Etudes Mécaniques et Énergétiques and consisted of two free-piston gas generators of the type GS 34 and two gas turbines from the manufacturer Alsthom . The two gas turbines were also equipped with a reverse turbine stage for maneuvering and each acted on a single fixed propeller via a common reduction gear. The systems of this type were distinguished by a significantly better degree of efficiency compared to conventional gas turbines. Both ships were later fitted with conventional four-stroke diesel engines.
literature
Gas turbine propulsion on coastal freighters . In: Ship and Harbor . Volume 6, Issue 2. CDC Heydorns, Hamburg February 1954, p.78/79 .
