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One hundred years of diesel


On the 17 February 1912 the maritime industry changed forever with the launch of the first diesel powered ship, Selandia, from the B&W shipyard in Denmark. To mark the occasion MAN Diesel & Turbo has released a drama documentary of the building and operations of the vessel and RINA looks back at the debate held by members following their first view of the revolutionary vessel.


maiden voyage to Bangkok in London’s East India Docks where members of RINA were invited to tour the vessel to view its design. Ivar Knudsen is described as “the father of the engine” on Selandia and is credited


F


ollowing the delivery of Selandia to the East Asiatic Company of Copenhagen the ship arrived 10 days later on its


with the design and layout of the new power plant. Born in 1861, Knudsen was an engineer working for the municipality of Copenhagen. He was headhunted by Burmeister & Wain at the age of 30 and he encouraged B&W to build diesel engines. When Selandia arrived in London Knudsen had sent a paper to RINA


describing the engines on the vessel and as an invitation for the members to engage in a discussion on the new vessel and its revolutionary engines. If it was a discussion he was aſter, Knudsen


was not disappointed. Members pored over the details and discussed the military and commercial advantages of the diesels as well as the power and manoeuvring capabilities of the ship. Sir Fortescue Flannery remarked:


“Reversing has been one great difficulty in regard to engines of this type for a considerable time, but the way in which the push rods are automatically disconnected from the cams, and then the head and sternway cam travel to engage or disengage automatically by means of a connection with the rods, is to my mind, and I think to the mind of all engineers who have seen it, one of the most beautiful mechanical devices, one of the most successful solutions of a difficult problem that has ever been carried out in mechanism.” He went on to say that he had seen


the engines at work and had been very impressed: “Certainly it


is thoroughly


successful, because, in going down the West India Dock in leaving London on her present voyage, there was an immense amount of manoeuvring, and never once did the engines fail to respond in a very few seconds to the orders given by telegraph from the bridge.” In a lengthy monologue Flannery pointed


out that liquid fuel produced about four times the power of coal “which is a very conservative estimate”. If Dreadnought was arranged with a diesel engine rather than coal with a supply aboard which would take the vessel across the Atlantic and back, the


The 1912 launch of Selandia at the B&W yard in Denmark.


The Naval Architect March 2012 29


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