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oo ca EOGEWATER Twin Screw Turbine Reduction Geared Barge Canal Freighter Built by Great Lakes Engineering Works, River Rouge, Mich. Ford Canal Freighters Enter Service Two Vessels Recently Completed—New Features of Design—Operating Between Lakes and Ocean—Via New York Barge Canal and Hudson HETHER on land or sea the W Motor Co. may always be depended upon to show originality, to depart from the beaten path of custom. Never was this bet- ter illustrated than in the design of the recently completed freighters Ep@ewATER and CHeEsTER for service from the Great Lakes to tidewater through the New York state barge canal. These two vessels, 300 feet in length overall, were recently com- pleted at the shipyard of the Great Lakes Engineering Works, River Rouge, Mich. The EpGewAtTer sailed on her maiden voyage from River Rouge on Aug. 17, loaded with a ship- ment for the Ford plant at Edgewater, N. J. The Cnyester sailed on her maiden voyage from River Rouge on Aug. 27 with 2100 tons of motors and parts for the plant at Edgewater, N. J. It is understood that this is but the beginning of a program for build- ing a large fleet of suitable vessels for this service. Every feature of the new vessels will be studied in prac- tical operation with the greatest care. Changes and modifications which may be found necessary from actual op- erating experience will serve as the best possible guide to the develop- ment of an entirely satisfactory type of craft for this service. The Ford Motor Co. can therefore be said to be conducting a very valuable practical experiment in using the great canal system through New York state. And the lessons to be learned from this experiment will directly benefit the entire industrial area surrounding the Great Lakes. These two ships are radically dif- ferent from other craft hitherto using the barge canal. Never before has high pressure steam turbine reduc- tion geared main drives been used. The machinery was selected and the vessels were designed to give the highest economical speed at the low- est cost per ton mile. Over a period of years, the Ford company has been deliberately desert- ing large inland plants in favor of waterside sites because of the possi- bilities of economical water transpor- tation. In such locations no cargo need be handled more times than nec- essary and transportation costs may be reduced to a minimum, which ulti- mately reacts to the consumers’ bene- fit. When the Epcewater, first of the two ships, went into service, the Ford engineers had achieved the result Barge Canal Cargo Ships General Particulars S.S. Edgewater S.S. Chester Owner? cs ote oe ee Ford Motor Co. Puslder ssa. Great Lakes Engineering Works Naval Architect..........+. Henry J. Gielow Inc. S. S. Edgewater: Paninchedss cra oe eee ais May 7, 1931 Gathedis: 3) 63 os a ae ess Aug. 17, 4931 S. S. Chester: Launched: ee ie eae May 14, 1931 Sad re eee ee wie atone Aug. 27, 1931 Classification....... Lloyd’s Register of Shipping 100-A-1 for lakes and coastwise Length overall, feet, inches.......... emake 300 0 Length between perpendiculars, fhe 255.0 Beam molded, feet, inches.........-..-++05. 43 0 Depth molded to main deck, feet, inches..... 20 0 Draft, with 1800 tons, feet, inches............ 96 Gross tonnage... case cece ese rset etter neces 1819 Net tonnage....---eeesee creer cee etre eees 1381 Cargo capacity, im tom8.....-- sees serene 1800 Cargo capacity, cubic feet. re eee a 145,000 Speed, in statute miles..........-+- +. + ee 13 Propellers, solid bronze........++++.: Twin Screw Main drive......+----; win-Screw Turbine Gears Shaft horsepower at 250 r.p.m......++-ssees 1600 Astern shaft horsepower at IAG Ur 24 a Ep 1040 Boilers, watertube, two oil burning, Combustion Engineering Corp., working pressure per ‘ie cnet ewe e eet ee pop ee WPS SP Be th ds at ae oO EF OA ON al Alo —— ——— MARINE ReEviEw—October, 1931 they had set out to accomplish. Staxt- ing several months before actual con- tracts were let, they consulted with shipyards, naval architects, engine builders and boiler manufacturers. To that group they made no stipulations of exact requirements but they did establish fundamental considerations which had to be met. The ships had to be of the best economical size for operation through the New York state canal system. They had to carry the maximum car- go, had to carry the most efficient power plants marine engineers could design and had to operate with com- paratively small crews. Because the two ships had to prove the feasibility of building a fleet ca- pable of handling all freight between the Great Lakes and Atlantic coast plants of the Ford company, the en- gineers made an extensive survey of the canals with the co-operation of Commissioner Ralph D. Hayes. From Oswego to Troy, the group plotted a course for the possible 300-foot boats. They measured the turning area in bends, investigated the size of locks, the depths, and collected all other in- formation vital to continuous opera- tion of the vessels. In the smallest lock, which is 304 feet overall, the ships will have a clearance of two feet on either end and in the Troy lock, the EDGEWATER with a beam of 43 feet will have to clear a width of only 44.44 feet. The minimum depth of the canals is 12 feet and the ships draw 9% feet load- ed with 1800 tons of cargo. Because a number of fixed bridges had to be cleared by the ship’s super- structures, all above deck equipment is collapsible. The pilot house drops into a well similar to an elevator shaft; the smoke stack falls flush to 25