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September 2014 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 23.


distinctly. The introduction of the gasoline engine into the sailing vessel has been a much discussed subject and the following article by A. B. See in the American Shipbuilder will be of interest to Bangor ship owners and others who are connected with the local shipping circles:


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“The ship and bark are dying, but the schooner which has fought her way up from the little two-master of 100 tons to the four, fi ve and six-master (we shall not say the seven-master, as she will not be duplicated) of from 1,000 to 4,000 tons register, is going to have a new lease of life, and her battle with the ocean coal and lumber barge, towed by tugs and steamships, is going to be fought more effectively and successfully than heretofore, because of the perfection of the gasoline, which is now to be applied as auxiliary power to our regular freighting schooners. “To Garrett Schenck, president of Great Northern Paper Co. of Madison, Maine, belong the credit of having dared to try the experiment of equipping a large freight schooner (a 2,000 – ton four-master) with a gasoline engine, of 500 horsepower, and the Standard Motor Construction Co. of Jersey City, New Jersey, also deserves credit for having possessed suffi cient enterprise and faith in their own ability to construct a marine gasoline motor of that power, when 250 or 300 horsepower has been the highest power heretofore built in gasoline engines constructed on the Atlantic seaboard. “The whole schooner world will watch with keenest interest this experiment, for if successful, hardly a schooner will be constructed that will not be equipped with a gasoline or kerosene motor for auxiliary propelling power.


“But with all due respect to the owner of the new gasoline schooner and the builder of her propelling engine, we believe that an electric launch, capable of exerting 50 horsepower would tow the Schenck schooner at from 4 to 5 knots per hour, and would possess the fact of absolute safeness from explosion or fi re, obtaining as they would, power from the vessel herself through a slack copper wire leading from the dynamo of the schooner to the launch, as all new schooners are equipped with either steam, gasoline or kerosene engines, for operating the windlass, pumps, hoists, etc., and the same motor would produce the electricity to feed the electric launch.


“The electric tow boat would also have the advantage of not taking up rooms in the hold, and there would be less gasoline or other infl ammable fl uid stored on board, and which may cause the insurance people to advance their rates on cargo carried in gasoline propelled schooners, besides advancing the cost of insurance on the vessel herself.


“But if the gasoline schooner proves as safe as a steamer, there is little double that the auxiliary motive power will be a gasoline engine, but in view of the many accidents that have occurred (mostly through gross carelessness and stupidity on the part of the crew) it will be some time before suffi cient confi dence has been gained in the new motor to give it an opportunity to demonstrate its effi ciency and economy on schooners. “Some skipper may say that it would not be an easy task to hoist an electric launch out of the water, as the iron davits now commonly used would not be strong enough, to which we reply that steel davits, hollow steel at that, could be constructed which would be perfectly strong enough to carry the launch on, and as for hoisting her out of the water it would be a far easier task than heaving up the anchor, as in the case of the launch the distance from the water to the davits would seldom (even when in ballast) be more than from eight to 12 feet, and more frequently it would not exceed half that distance. “We will venture the assertion that the 500 horsepower engine in the Garrett Schenck schooner will not drive her over fi ve to six knots, while less than quarter that power in an electric launch would tow her at the same speed. By applying the power direct from the schooner to the electric launch, only a very small storage battery plant on the launch would be necessary, and a great saving in weight would result. “We hope some schooner owner will experiment with the electric tow boat, as the benefi ts that would come would repay him a hundred fold, and we are informed by electrical engineers that the plan is quite feasible and presents no obstacles that cannot readily be overcome.”


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