Le Rhône
Le Rhône was a turbine - Raddampfschlepper in 1931 for use on the Rhone from Lyon to Port St. Louis was used. The ship was built under the supervision of Escher-Wyss at a French shipyard for the Compagnie Général de Navigation in Lyon. The machinery was supplied by Escher-Wyss. Because of the low water periods on the Rhone, they were looking for a lighter tug with little draft. Since a machine system with turbines was lighter than the conventional steam engine and also cheaper to maintain and lower in consumption, the shipping company decided on the turbine drive.
construction
The steel hull was 65 m long, 6.72 m between the wheel arches, 15.87 m wide with wheel arches and had a draft of 1.09 m with 20 tons of fuel. A steam winch and an anchor post , a special feature on the Rhone, were built into the bow . Two steam-powered cable winches for the towing ropes were set up behind it, and a third rope could be attached to the towing bracket in the middle of the ship so that the tug could drive with three attachments. Above the wheel arches was the wheelhouse with two engine telegraphs with speaking tubes and a steam steering engine as well as a searchlight for night travel. The wheelhouse was easy to dismantle during high tide to allow the bridges to pass through.
On the quarterdeck was a deck saloon with a toilet and two kitchens for the captain and the machinist. The crew kitchen and a shower were located on the port wheel box, and two toilets and an equipment room on the starboard side. All rooms had electric lighting and central heating. The accommodations for the crew and two cabins for the management were located below deck.
Machine system
The machinery, consisting of high and low pressure turbines , gears and condenser , was installed amidships. The high pressure turbine operated with a steam pressure of 16 to 18 bar . Two Niclausse system water-tube boilers with economizers and superheaters deliver 21 bar steam pressure. Both turbines were built with six equal pressure stages for forward travel, the low pressure turbine with two equal pressure stages for reverse travel. The high pressure turbine reached 7500 / min, the low pressure turbine 5800 / min. These speeds are reduced to a maximum of 45 / min for the paddle wheels via two gears. The output of the system was 1050 HP in normal operation, with a maximum of 1500 HP. During the test run with three barges (900 tons) in the appendix on the high water leading Rhone, an average speed of 5.56 km / h with an output of 1270 hp was achieved.