Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 89.djvu/406

 The Biggest Coal Ship in the World

���There Is Nothing Romantic About the "Milazzo." She Is Built for the Brutally Practical Purpose of Carrying Coal. By Means of Twenty Cranes on Her Decks 14,000 Tons of Coal Can Be Unloaded in Forty-eight Hours. Shovels Are Unnecessary on the "Milazzo"

��IOOK at the "Milazzo" aiui watch her unload 14,000 long tons of . coal and 4,500 tons of oil, and you say at once: "An American designed her — she is practical." In truth, there is nothing quite like her in the whole world, as shi[)s go. On the other hand, she was designed not by an AnnTican, but by an Italian, Captain luiiilio Menada, who has I'arni'd a reputation for himself as an iiuciilm- of transjiorting maciiinery.

The "Milazzo" was built to Ii.ukIIc Ijulk cargoes, such as gr.iin .md coal built, moreo\er, to handle iheni with tlu- least possible human effort. Acconling- ly, she is simply an engine-dri\en hull and a mass of i'le\ators and chutes.

Might water-tight bulkhead>, extend- ing to the main deck, dividi' the hull of the "Milazzo" into nip'.- compartments. The central com[)ar.ment contains the engines and .boiler fuel. Salt water ballast i^ carried in the extreme forward and extreuK- after < (pinparlimiilv. Tli.il

��leaves six compartments for the coal.

If you will stud\' the sectional view of the "Milazzo," which appears on the opposite page, you will sec that the com- partments are merely coal-pockets, sim- ilar to those built on wharves. Beneath the coal-pockets, little cars run on rails. When tloors, cut in the slanting planes forming the bottoms of the coal pockets, .ire opened, tin- coal runs down into these cars by its own wi-ight. \\ hen a car is full, it is lifted boilily through vertical elevating shafts up to the main deck to an unloading platfomi, adjustable in lu'ight. Phen it is tilted, and the coal runs into chutes. Shovels and grab- i>uckets ari' unknown on the "Milazzo."

The 4,500 tons of oil are carrietl in side tanks iorniing a double bottom.

With her gross tonnage of 11,477, the "Milazzo" is the- largest steamer thu> far built for cargo carrying. She is four hundred and ninety-two feet long and draws twenty-six feet of water. Her di>pl.iccincni i> JO, 040 tons.

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