RMS Oceanic (ship, 1928)
 Drawing of the Oceanic
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The Oceanic (III) was a passenger ship commissioned by the British shipping company White Star Line from the Harland & Wolff shipyard in 1928 for transatlantic traffic between Europe and the USA. Construction of the ship began on schedule, but had to be stopped about a year later due to the Great Depression in 1929, as White Star could no longer finance the project. The Oceanic would set new standards for the global passenger ship with their size, their structure and the nature of its drive: they would have been the first ship with more than 300 meters (or 1,000 feet) in length and had with her projected huge diesel-electric drive system a significant Development step towards modern ship propulsion means.
history
In 1927 the White Star Line was taken over by the British shipping company Royal Mail Line . Its director, Lord Kylsant, was a staunch supporter of diesel engine propulsion on ships. Since White Star had been planning the construction of a new, large liner at that time, Kylsant saw his chance to prove the suitability of the diesel drive for large ocean-going vessels - up to now, steam turbines or piston steam engines had always been preferred for such designs . The use of this new type of drive system was therefore considered a great risk, as it had never been tested before. The first design studies had already been carried out in 1926 and the public had been informed of the White Star Line construction project. Officially, the ship was supposed to replace the aging Homeric . When giving the name, the decision was made to use Oceanic for the third time in the history of White Star : The shipping company's flagship had already borne this name twice, with the Oceanic from 1871 and the Oceanic from 1899. The construction costs should amount to around £ 7 million (2010 equivalent: £ 317 million or € 380 million).
Draft and whereabouts
The design of the Oceanic included numerous pioneering features at the time: it was to have a modern cruiser stern and its three funnels were to assume an elliptical shape at a relatively low height. Conventional, however, were the two ship masts and the “classic” straight stern . In addition to the dimensions (307.8 m length, 36.6 m width and more than 60,000 GRT volume), the characteristics of the diesel-electric drive system were particularly groundbreaking: This should consist of a total of 47 6-cylinder diesel engines, which together generate around 275,000 hp could. This power was then to be fed into four electric motors, each 7.3 m in diameter, which in turn each supplied one of the four propeller shafts. Together, around 200,000 hp could then be used to propel the ship, which would have enabled cruising speeds of 30 knots and more. The total weight of the propulsion system was more than 17,000 t, which roughly corresponded to the water displacement of a heavy cruiser . With the exception of the United States of 1952, which was operated with conventional turbines and was able to generate 240,000 hp maximum power, the Oceanic would have been the most powerful transatlantic passenger ship ever built. Furnishing of the ship it was said that it ( "fitted and furnished in the most luxurious manner" equipped and furnished in an extremely luxurious manner should be).
After the keel was laid on July 28, 1928 at Harland & Wolff in Belfast , construction initially proceeded quickly. With the rapidly worsening economic crisis, however, progress slowed down and then culminated in a complete construction freeze on July 23, 1929. On September 6, 1929 it was officially announced that there would be no resumption of work until a final decision on the type of drive had been made (there were apparently - especially in the financially difficult situation - massive concerns about the technical risk with the diesel system). Finally, the Oceanic had to be abandoned for good; the almost completely developed keel structure of the ship was subsequently broken off again. The design was massively scaled down and became the basis of the Georgic, which was completed in 1932 .
At the time, naval experts felt that the end of construction was a great loss for shipbuilding. Cuthbert Pounder, the chief engineer of the Harland & Wolff shipyard, described the draft as a "history-making engineering achievement lost for the nation" ( historical engineering progress that is lost for the nation ).
Others
The Oceanic would have been the only ship on the White Star Line that would have sought a leadership position in all three essential aspects of transatlantic competition: size, comfort and speed. Up until now, the shipping company had only focused on size and comfort for its large constructions (see Olympic class ).
literature
De Kerbrech: Ships of the White Star Line, Hersham 2009, pp. 221f.
Web links
- [1] Page with central information about the ship (menu item "Miscellaneous", then "Intended giants of the seas")
- [2] Colored representation of the Oceanic
Footnotes
- ^ De Kerbrech: Ships of the White Star Line, Hersham 2009, p. 221.
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from September 18, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.measuringworth.com/ppoweruk/
- ↑ a b De Kerbrech, p. 222.
![[2]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Postcard_Oceanic_III.jpg){kind=link}