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ew Kerry Santa Clara, Which Operates on San Francisco Bay, Represents Latest Design by Southern Pacific Railroad of This Type of Vessel N JULY 20 the Southern Pacific O Railroad Co. placed a new ferry of the side paddle wheel type in service.’ She is named Santa Ciara and is a sister boat to ALAMEDA, which was launched last year. . The new ferry is designed to accommodate the constantly increasing interurban service between San Francisco and the east bay _terri- tory. The exposition traffic has been heavy and the Southern Pacific now has eight ferry boats in service from the San Francisco ferry depot, as follows: Three to Oakland Pier; three to Oak- land harbor, and two to Alameda Pier. Another ferry runs from Vallejo Junc- tion to Vallejo, and three boats are held in reserve. SANTA CLARA and ALAMEDA are on the Oakland Pier run and cover the 3% miles in approximately 15 minutes. Between 700 and 800 electric trains are operated daily in and out of Oakland Pier in connection with the ferry serv- ice, giving a 20 minute schedule to all parts of the bay territory. The popula- tion of the bay cities dependent on this service is in the neighborhood of 150,000 and upwards of 15,000,000 passengers are carried each year by the ferries. The Ogden, Shasta and Valley routes of the Southern Pacific also discharge their passengers at Oakland Pier to be ferried to San Francisco. Santa Ciara has an all-steel hull and embodies some un- usual safety features. Her dimensions are as follows: Length over all teeter ee Length between perpendiculars, feet... Width over: guards, feet.i0.4 5.0.) 76 Molded: beam, teetuvc. i vcen eee aa 42 Moldeds depth; teeta... soos nceeaae 17 Light dravieht,:feet=v.ccuesn tase cos sce 8 Light displacement, tons............. 1,550 The hull was fabricated at the plant of the New York Shipbuilding Co., Camden, N: J. It was knocked down and shipped by water to New Orleans and thence by rail, The hull was erected and the superstructure built in the ship yards of the Southern Pacific at West Oakland, Cal. The keel was laid May 21, 1914, and the boat launched March 18, 1915, ‘The seating capacity is in excess of 1,800 and the carrying capacity is 3,500. To permit the quick unloading of pas- sengers, a 1l6-foot gangway extends the length of the boat on the center line. This gangway also makes possible the expeditious handling of baggage and ex- press trucks. Power Plant The boat has four oil-fired Babcock & Wilcox boilers, set two on each side of the center line. They contain 10,140 square feet of heating surface and oper- By A. A. Willoughby ate at 200 pounds steam pressure. There are two duplex tandem compound in- clined condensing engines, developing 2,500 horsepower, which is ample to meet all requirements for power and speed and is nearly twice the amount in use on the company’s other boats. The cylinder diameters are 20 to 40 inches with an 8-foot stroke. The cranks are set at a 90 degree angle. The engines. were built in the Sacramento shops of the Southern Pacific. The high and low pressure cylinders are supplied with American balanced slide valves. The high pressure cylinders have an auxiliary cut-off located between the steam chests. The main throttle valve is located be-. tween the two cut-off valves and has a bypass connection to the low pressure cylinders, permitting the use of steam ‘at boiler pressure for ‘emergency pur- poses. This is an important safety factor in the operation of the boat. Stephenson link motion with stationary links, is used. Instead of a continuous shaft operat- ing both paddle wheels, each wheel is driven independently, making it possible to rotate the wheels in opposite direc- tions. This arrangement permits quick turning and increases the ease of handling. .The paddle wheels, which are of the radial type, are 24 feet 6 inches in diameter and are each equipped with FIG. 1—NEW FERRY BOAT SANTA CLARA 385