Unsinkable page 8

Unsinkable page 8 by ric Gustafson


The Titanic used reciprocating engines to drive her port and starboard wing screws. The ship's center screw was powered by a low pressure turbine. The three engines produced about 55.000 horsepower to push the ship to a top speed of 24 to 25 knots. The two reciprocating engines were the largest ever built. Each engine stood nearly forty feet tall. It could turn at a speed of eighty revolutions per minute and each of the ship's propellers were twenty feet in diameter.
Twenty nine boilers were installed. Twenty four were double ended and five were single ended. Nearly six hundred tons of coal a day was needed to maintain a speed of 22 knots. Two hundred stokers, firemen and trimmers were needed to feed and maintain the boilers. Each boiler stood two stories tall and twenty one feet in diameter.
On April 2 1912, the huge liner drawn by four tugboats began it's sea trials. It slowly made it's way down the Victoria Channel to the Belfast Lough. Twenty boilers were fired up. For several hours at 18 knots, the ship went across the Lough and back. It did this until Captain Smith and Thomas Andrews were satisfied.. That night, the liner steamed down the Irish Channel toward Southampton. There the ship would receive coal and provisions.
Sailing day was April 10 1912.


research help: ' Unsinkable' by Daniel Allen Butler


Peace and God's blessings. Love Ric