Maritime History of the Great Lakes

Scanner, v. 29, no. 8 (May 1997), p. 13

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13. Ship of the Month - cont'd. carry the same name throughout her lifetime, instead of undergoing three name changes over the years. * * * Author's and Editor's Notes: Your Editor is extremely pleased that Ron Beaupre was able to put together this excellent feature for "Scanner", and even more so because it was extensive enough to be serialized over two is­ sues. We hope that our readers will have enjoyed the story of PARKER EVANS, and that they will join us in extending our most sincere thanks to Ron for his efforts. Ron, in turn, wishes to express his thanks to the following gentlemen and fellow marine historians who quickly responded to his requests for informa­ tion regarding this steamer: Skip Gillham, of Vineland; Bob Graham, of Bowling Green State University; Pat Labadie, of Superior; Bill Moran, of Point Edward; Capt. Gerry Ouderkirk, of Toronto; Ralph Roberts, of Saginaw, and Peter Sturdy, of Goderich. As usual, if any of our members are able to provide any additional informa­ tion about HARRY A. BERWIND / HARVEY H. BROWN / PARKER EVANS / MARLHILL, we would be pleased to hear from them so that we might present a follow-up ar­ ticle in a future issue. * * * * * OCEAN'S ENGINE Our readers will recall that we featured the wooden-hulled passenger and package freight steamer OCEAN as our Ship of the Month No. 234 in the Febru­ ary and March issues. This feature was prepared for us by Capt. Gerry Ouder­ kirk. It will be remembered that we noted what appeared to be a discrepancy in the details of the OCEAN's engine as reported by various sources. The St. Cath­ arines register indicated that OCEAN had a low-pressure engine with one cy­ linder of 36 inches diameter and a stroke of 30 inches. On the other hand, the 1899 Great Lakes Register (Bureau Veritas) showed the same stroke but reported that there were two cylinders, one of 19 inches diameter and the other of 36 inches. How could there be such a difference between the infor­ mation reported when the ship was built in 1872 and when B. V. listed her in 1899? Was it simply a paperwork error? M. B. "Mac" Mackay, of Halifax, believes that he knows the answer to this riddle, and we quote from his comments: "At the time that this ship was ope­ rating, the evolution from low pressure to high pressure boilers was taking place. The 107 p. s. i. boiler of 1899 was, believe it or not, considered to be a high pressure boiler. Until technology was able to build boilers of this p. s. i. safely, ships were restricted in their propulsion to single ex­ pansion engines (one cylinder, or several cylinders operating in parallel at low pressure). Ships built with this system consumed a great deal of fuel and, when safe high pressure boilers became available, many owners upgraded their machinery. (Cunard was one of the last hold-outs on the Atlantic; they were concerned about the safety of the higher pressure boilers, since early ones tended to explode. ) "Once the high pressure boiler was available, the owner could either install a compound (double expansion) engine, or else upgrade the one he had by adding a second, high pressure cylinder to the existing low pressure cylinder. The latter is what I think happened with OCEAN. She was built with a low pressure boiler, and later had a high pressure boiler (built in 1894 by J. Inglis, Toronto) and a new, high pressure cylinder (the one that was 19 inches in diameter) added. "The result of such a rebuild usually was not an increase in horsepower or

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