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July, 1911 ANN "TAE MarRINE REVIEW Fic, 4--ARRANGEMENT OF STERN CASTINGS. weight of this casting is 61%4 cwt. The watertight subdivision of the Olympic is very complete, and is so arranged that any two main compartments may be flooded without in any way involv- ing the safety of the ship. There are 15 transverse watertight bulkheads ex- tending from the double 'bottom to the upper deck at the forward end of the ship and to the saloon deck at the after end--in both instances far above the water line. The room in which the reciprocating engines are placed is the largest of the compartments, being 69 ft. long, while the turbine room is 54 ft. long. The boiler rooms are generally 57 ft. long with the ex- ception of that nearest the reciprocat- ing engine department. The holds are 50 ft. long. The watertight doors giving com- munication between the various boiler rooms and engine rooms are arranged on the drop system. They are of Har- land & Wolff special design of mas- Sive construction, as will be seen from Fig. 8, and are provided with oil cata- tacts governing the closing speed. Each door is held in the open position by a suitable friction clutch, which can be instantly released by a powerful electro magnet controlled from the captain's bridge so that in the event Of accident or at any time when it may be considered advisable the cap- tain can, by simply moving an electric Switch. instantly close the doors throughout and make the vessel prac- tically unsinkable. Each door can also be closed from below by Operating a lever fitted in connection with a fric- tion clutch. As a further precaution floats are provided beneath the floor level, which, in the event of water ac- cidentally entering any of the com- partments automatically lift and there- by close the doors opening into that compartment, if they have not already been dropped by these in charge of the vessel. 249 A ladder or escape is provided in each boiler room, engine room and similar watertight compartment in or- der that the closing of the doors shall not imprison the men working inside, but the risk of this happening is less- ened by electric bells placed in the vicinity of each door which ring prior to their closing, and thus give warn- ing to those below. The keel of the Olympic was laid Dec. 16, 1908. She was launched on Oct::20, 1910: Phe leading particulars of the launching are of interest and are given in the accompanying table: Table III. Launching Particulars. Draught, forward, 15 ft. 8 in; mean, 18 ft. % in. Launch weight, excluding cradle, tons...24,600 Length of standing ways, feet, about.... 850 Length of sliding ways, feet, about...... 750 - Standing ways, of oak....... .. 6 ft. 9 in. wide Sliding ways, of pitch pine..... 6 ft. 3 in. wide Pressure per square foot of bearing sur- face; tons <,.4%< 2.6 Declivity of ways, ward half length, increasing to ™% in. per foot for the remainder. Quantity of lubricants used: allow) tons usin aaa ee ee See tees ak aft, 207 43 Tallow and train oil, mixed, tons......... 5 Soft: soap, tons.c0 770 eee Lee wanes 3 Time from. start till vessel left ways, Seconds: suis eta Cite sate eter soho ue eC css numa a Oe Maximum velocity, knots per hour.......12% Drags, three anchors on each side and 80 tons cable, all disposed in the bed of the river. Work of installing the propelling machinery began immediately after the launching. The 200-ton floating crane belonging to the builders was em- ployed for this purpose and may be seen putting a boiler aboard as shown in Fig. 9. This crane, which is one of the largest floating cranes in existence, can lift a weight of 150 tons to a height of 149 ft. at a radius of 100 ft. with a list cf only 4 degrees, while the small hook can lift 50 tons at a Fic. 5--AFTER PROPELLER BRACKETS.