'
192
The Last Resource
and storing data on these trials. In one exercise alone, where informa—
tion was recorded on punched tape suitable for computer processing,
investigatorS found themselves landed with 54 miles of tape!
Instruments have also been installed on drilling rigs to monitor
stresses in important structural parts during various drilling opera—
tions and in a wide variety of weather and sea states. Altogether,
data are being collected on practically every structure which spends
most of its time on or in the sea, from the trawler to the most modern
offshore rigs.
But the effort to build better ships does not end with the kind of
work typied by BSRA and the NPL’s Ship Division. As a result of
advances in marine engineering, particularly for extremely large
ships, Japan has forged ahead to establish a global lead in ship—
building. Apart from various welding techniques—including that
of putting together two oating halves of a tanker’s hull—the
Japanese shipbuilders have deve10ped various systems for ship
construction. Probably the most important one involves the con—
struction of large ‘standard’ units which are brought together for
assembly in a covered building area, the ship being jacked out stem
rst on to a slipway as its length increases. The use of ‘standard
parts’ makes for considerable economies in design and production
costs. The Japanese shipbuilders have even been able to save on
material costs. The 205,000—ton Mamina Maru, which was built
in ten months at the Yokohama Yards of Ishikawajima Heavy
-
Industries, contains only 3 per
cent more steel than the 132,000-ton
tanker Nissho Maru built four years earlier in 1962. There is even a
‘standard design ship’, a bulk carrier of about 65,000 tons deadweight
(the maximum size allowed through the Panama Canal).
The propulsion systems have progressed steadily from the days
of sai]. Merchant ships being built today-are propelled either by
diesel or steam turbine plants. Diesel engines are used almost
exclusively for small and medium outputs and until recently the
steam turbine largely for the much highest powers, but the diesel is
now rapidly encroaching on this territory as well. According to W.
Kilchenmann, one of the world’s foremost marine engineers, neither
diesel nor steam turbine will show sensational improvements in their
efciencies. Both, he suggests, will retain their leading position in
ship pr0pulsion, possibly on a somewhat higher level of develop—
ment, as long as fuel oil is obtainable for them. However, the
gas turbine seems destined to become increasingly important,
192
The Last Resource
and storing data on these trials. In one exercise alone, where informa—
tion was recorded on punched tape suitable for computer processing,
investigatorS found themselves landed with 54 miles of tape!
Instruments have also been installed on drilling rigs to monitor
stresses in important structural parts during various drilling opera—
tions and in a wide variety of weather and sea states. Altogether,
data are being collected on practically every structure which spends
most of its time on or in the sea, from the trawler to the most modern
offshore rigs.
But the effort to build better ships does not end with the kind of
work typied by BSRA and the NPL’s Ship Division. As a result of
advances in marine engineering, particularly for extremely large
ships, Japan has forged ahead to establish a global lead in ship—
building. Apart from various welding techniques—including that
of putting together two oating halves of a tanker’s hull—the
Japanese shipbuilders have deve10ped various systems for ship
construction. Probably the most important one involves the con—
struction of large ‘standard’ units which are brought together for
assembly in a covered building area, the ship being jacked out stem
rst on to a slipway as its length increases. The use of ‘standard
parts’ makes for considerable economies in design and production
costs. The Japanese shipbuilders have even been able to save on
material costs. The 205,000—ton Mamina Maru, which was built
in ten months at the Yokohama Yards of Ishikawajima Heavy
-
Industries, contains only 3 per
cent more steel than the 132,000-ton
tanker Nissho Maru built four years earlier in 1962. There is even a
‘standard design ship’, a bulk carrier of about 65,000 tons deadweight
(the maximum size allowed through the Panama Canal).
The propulsion systems have progressed steadily from the days
of sai]. Merchant ships being built today-are propelled either by
diesel or steam turbine plants. Diesel engines are used almost
exclusively for small and medium outputs and until recently the
steam turbine largely for the much highest powers, but the diesel is
now rapidly encroaching on this territory as well. According to W.
Kilchenmann, one of the world’s foremost marine engineers, neither
diesel nor steam turbine will show sensational improvements in their
efciencies. Both, he suggests, will retain their leading position in
ship pr0pulsion, possibly on a somewhat higher level of develop—
ment, as long as fuel oil is obtainable for them. However, the
gas turbine seems destined to become increasingly important,