Page 26: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (October 1971)

Navy Contract Awarded To

Marine Propulsion Engineering

Marine Propulsion Engineering, Inc. of

Quincy, Mass., has received a contract from the Department of the Navy, Naval Undersea

R&D Center, San Diego, Calif., and Kailua,

Hawaii, in the amount of $83,500. The award was announced by the company's president,

Bruce S. Wilkinson. The contract calls for the design and fabrication of two 78-inch diameter

Model 240 Wilkinson controllable pitch propel- lers. These propellers will be installed on a new versatile vessel called the SSP (Semi-

Submerged Platform) which is powered by two aircraft-type gas turbine engines of 2,500 horsepower each. The vessel uses an entirely new hull design which will permit a top speed of 26 knots.

Marine Propulsion Engineering, which went public in 1969, will provide two of their unique controllable pitch propellers. The system was originally conceived by the president and vice president, who were former employees of

AVCO in Wilmington. Since forming Marine

Propulsion Engineering in 1966, they have de- veloped the system into large propellers now in use at sea.

Marine Propulsion's unit eliminates rotary hydraulic joints and rotating control beaTings by installing their unit on a conventional solid tailshaft. MPE's unit also has a free-flooding hub and does not require auxiliary power to hold pitch.

To increase the company's potentials and capabilities, MPE became affiliated with Mur- ray & Tregurtha, Division of Mathewson Cor- poration, in October of 1970. Murray & Tre- gurtha, a company with a reputation in the marine industry for over 85 years manufac- tures bow thrusters and M&T Harbormaster stern drives.

Mar Ad Project Seeks Improved

Merchant Ship Designs

Through Ocean Wave Study

A multi-

Maritime Affairs A.E. Gibson, "will be im- proved merchant-ship designs, particularly for vessels transiting the North Pacific in the Far

East and Alaska trades."

The award of a $282,000 two-year contract by the agency to the Sea Use Council, a group formed by the states of Alaska, Washington,

Oregon, and Hawaii to coordinate regional oceanographic studies, which will oversee the entire project, marked the beginning of the undertaking, Mr. Gibson explained.

Measurements of wave heights, frequencies and lengths at an open-ocean site will be cor- related with wave-forces as measured aboard ships transiting the area and the resulting stresses and strains in the ships' structure, he said.

Specifically, a pressure meter wave gage built by the University of Washington's de- partment of oceanography, will be placed on the Cobb Seamount, a submerged mountain which protrudes within 110 feet of the Pacific

Ocean's surface about 250 miles off the Wash- ington-British Columbia coast.

For the shipboard measurements, Lockheed

Shipbuilding and Construction Co. of Seattle will install wave-meters and stress-strain gages aboard two American Mail Line, Ltd., vessels, the Japan Mail and the Philippine Mail, as well as process the resulting data. Ship's officers and midshipmen from the U.S. Merchant Ma- rine Academy serving aboard the two ships will assist in recording this information.

The wave meter to be mounted on the Japan

Mail is being furnished by the U.S. Naval Ship

Research and Development Center, Carde- rock, Md. 'Canadian ocean station vessels operating in the North Pacific will also gather data for the study.

Finally, the Webb Institute of Naval Archi- tecture, Glen Cove, N.Y., will correlate and evaluate all of the information obtained dur- ing the study and will relate it to improved ship designs for merchant vessels.

In addition to aiding in improving merchant ship design, this study will provide essential data for use in designing open-sea offshore platforms, as well as in routing ships in the

North Pacific and Alaska trades, Mr. Gibson said.

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Gotaverken—M.A.N.—Doxford 28 Maritime Reporter/Engineering News