The Rise of Turbine Liners

When reciprocating steam engines had reached their economic fastest, shipping lines like Cunard turned to an emerging technology: marine steam turbines. Turbines literally thrust liners into a new future of super fast, and ultra-smooth voyages.

#oceanliner #engineering #ships

FOOTAGE CREDIT:
Titanic scenes are sequences from the James Cameron movie

Engine Room footage of SS JEREMIAH O'BRIEN is credit to Richard Gusmanov:

Engine Room footage of Titanic is from Titanic Honor & Glory, credit to Derek Verveer:

MUSIC CREDIT:
"Scott Buckley - Legacy" is under a Creative Commons (CC BY 4.0) license.

"Alex Productions - Love" is is under a Creative Commons (CC BY 3.0) license.

SOURCES/REFERENCES:
"The Only Way To Cross" by John Maxtone Graham

"The Unseen Mauretania" by J. Kent Layton

"Mauretania" by Marc D. Warren

"The Cunard White Star Quadruple Screw Liner Queen Mary" Bonanza Books

"RMS Queen Mary: Queen of the Queens" by William J. Duncan

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[carltrotter]

Another exceptional video as always! Thank you for all you do, Alex.
The one thing I would say, however, is that at 2:31 where you point out that the Carmania was the first Merchant Ship fitted with Turbines, in fact there was a smaller vessel in 1901 called the TS King Edward which was a passenger vessel operating on the River Clyde build on the gamble that turbines would provide the vessel with more revenue from higher speeds and therefore being able to reach the piers of the Scottish Islands before the competing paddle steamers and pleasure steamers could.

The turbines for the TS King Edward, alongside her bell are at the Riverside Museum (Also known as the 'Transport Museum') in Glasgow, where the original wind tunnel model for the Queen Mary and display model for Queen Elizabeth are also kept alongside numerous other artifacts. Without the TS King Edward, Cunard, nor fellow Clyde shipbuilding company John Browns who built the Carmania would have had the confidence to embark on such a wonderful yet novel idea as building a ship with turbines.

I hope you've had a wonderful January Alex, and are enjoying all 2023 has to offer for you. As always, God Save the Queen (Mary)!

[lukegreen]

0:25 Great Scotland Yard. It's James Cameron's Titanic. Thanks Mate. X

[Kaidhicksii]

Finally made time to listen to this while weed whacking this very large field. Only thing I really have to add is that Normandie, when she retook the Riband from Mary in '37, actually managed to produce some 195, 000shp. This was super cool learning more about steam turbines and other engines. You should do more videos like this when you're not covering topics like Queen Mary!

[jetsons]

Another work of "Video" art. Speaking of the SS United States, is sad to see it's just rotting away in Philadelphia. Alex, you have come a long way since your early "One man, One camera" videos of Disneyland. Thank again for all your time and effort you put into your

[BPJJohn]

That transition from the movie to present was perfection. 👌0:49

[KPen]

Nothing against you, but I find it funny how you said little turbine as the rotor just dwarves the workers installing it. Fantastic rundown on the application of turbines

[Shipwright]

It should be mentioned that reciprocating steam plants didn't go away entirely after turbines came onto the scene, they continued to be used in applications where the higher torque/lower shaft rpms plus their simpler construction and maintenance would be an advantage, such as freighters, tugs, and cargo/passenger liners.

The Liberty Ships, such as Titanic's movie engine room stand in SS Jeremiah O'Brien, were designed at the outset to have a triple-expansion reciprocating plant to a nearly 50 year old design. Why? Because they would be simpler to mass produce, operate, and maintain in wartime, and there was a wide pool of engineering crew who knew how to run and fix them.

The last coal fired steamship still in commercial service, SS Badger, has reciprocating engines, of the Skinner Unaflow design. Similar to a diesel engine, they use poppet valves and have twin single-acting cylinders with twin cylinder heads.

[KingdaToro]

SS United States has almost exactly the same propulsion plant and propeller configuration as the Iowa-class battleships. Those could reach 33 knots, and were obviously far heavier.

[jayhawklife]

I like to watch your videos on Queen Mary. Thanks for all of the history information in all these videos. I just started learning about the Queen Mary a few years ago.

[STEN]

7:02 Take a good look at the wake of the Queen Mary, it seems that there is a reversal maneuver on the starboard side as the foam pulses forward. I had already noticed this thing on other extracts. Do they want to make a controlled skid transfer, like pulling the parking brake on a car ?

[docjc]

This was so good! Youtube algorithm is all messed up for me I never got this in my feed!

[joukoniemi]

Nice video, thanks. There were a few details that need to be defined. One is the comparison with turbine and piston engine. Titanic`s reciprocating engines had totally 30 000 hp by 215 psi and the turbine got steam from these two engines having 16 000 hp by 9 psi. The steam expanded in the turbine to vacume so, that the pressure drop was bigger. This is important because the power is pressure drop x volume flow. For example 1N x 1m3/1s = 1W. The steam leaving the piston engine has already great volume flow and when expanding in the turbine even to vacume it becomes huge. So you can`t compare steam turbine and reciprocating engine like that. RMS Mauretania never made 29 knots, it was 28 knots but 29 miles per hour. Knots and miles per hour are not the same. SS Normandie made about 30 knots. So RMS Mauretania never took the blue ribbon from SS Normandie. RMS Queen Mary and SS Normandie with a more hydro dynamic hull had same speed. First the Blue Ribbon went to SS Normandie, then to RMS Queen Mary and after new propellers back to SS Normandie and then back to RMS Queen Mary.

[michaeltaylor]

Turbine engines in any application has long been a fascination with me. When America's Smithsonian traveled to Houston, TX. there was an operating model of a jet turbine engine. I was enchanted. Maritime technology has come a long way.

[imanvideos]

I love the way you make your videos. They inspire curiosity inside me, and they leave me wanting more. Keep up the phenomenal work!

[paulcosentino]

I saw the SS United States 3 days ago. Poor thing is a rusted hulk now

[paulhorn]

In germany in the 1920s there was a turbine driven paddle steamer on the river Rhine. It was no succsess because the reduction gear was often broken.

[patriciap]

Very nice video I work in a small trash the steam plant or a little turbine is 60, 000 hp and makes 37 MW of electricity and I’ve worked on it for 24 years. The biggest one I’ve ever worked on was 1900 MW and believe me, it was a little machines they were amazing. Very nice video.

[piskac]

Years and years ago I read that Titanic's steam turbine was huge possibly the largest turbine ever placed on a ship. Another great presentation by Alex the Professor!

[lostinwanderland]

Another excellent video, Alex! I’ve learned so much from you. Thanks!

[sidz]

Absolutely fantastic and detailed video!