Steam Yacht ARROW

Back around the turn of the last century, the steamer "Turbina" with new steam turbines turned heads in England at 34 knots, leading to the adoption of turbines for navy ships. However the Americans came up with ARROW at 40 knots, a Hudson River commuter yacht, driven by twin reciprocating steam engines. The attached Scientific American article has some of the details.

 

Interesting; do you have any idea as to where more info on the propellers might be found?

 

The last gasp of steam powered reciprocating engines, Turbina was 1894, The Arrow was 1902. Parsons discovered the problem of cavitation and had to solve it before anyone went that fast.
The link should show the Parsons early propellor solution before turbine gearing was developed.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...110.jpg/1024px-TWAMWIR_first_group_dl_110.jpg

 

Last Gasp of Reciprocating Engines?

Much of the world's shipping continued with reciprocating steam engines, a practical solution for merchant shipping, as well as luxury liners (for example, the Titanic), although the steam turbine driven ships, especially those over 10,000 horsepower, would show better economy once acceptable gearboxes were developed.

The largest steamship build, the Liberty Ships of WWII, (2700 were built in the USA), all had reciprocating steam engines, as well as many USA aircraft carriers of WWII.

 

Cavitation and Propellers

"Parsons discovered the problem of cavitation and had to solve it before anyone went that fast"

Actually, cavitation in marine propellers had been addressed long before Parsons, the Parsons conundrum was finding propellers more suited to the speed of steam turbines (several thousand RPM) vs the proper speed of marine propellers (a few hundred RPM). This required all kinds of development, and compromises at both ends of the shaft (prop vs turbine) before adequate gear reduction was developed. The three Parsons turbines of Turbina were each direct drive to the props, no reduction.

Cavitation did not need to be "solved" before anyone went fast. In fact, there are many instances of severe cavitation in propellers of boats that go fast, from the late 19th century up to the present day. Today many high performance boats, pushing far more than 60 knots, have propellers that are normally cavitating at speed.

 

Thank you, I am quite familiar with the work of Mr Parsons, the trouble he met with the "Turbinia" and the solutions he came up with. That is why I expressed my curiosity regarding the solutions used specifically for the "Arrow"; don't give me irrelevant wikimedia answers please!