Not a year of great engineering progress...
A Fiat 600mm-bore crosshead engine on test – one then-prominent name in marine engines that has moved on to other things
The January 1962 issue of The Motor Ship contained a vast array of reviews of the relative states of various activities in the previous 12 months.
As our editorial predecessors put it: “The year 1961 will not be echoed in history as a year of marked engineering progress, although that distinction would be claimed for 1960: instead it has been a period of consolidation of technical advances along all fronts – shipbuilding, marine engineering, cargo handling etc.”
The emphasis was, as throughout the first half century of this magazine’s existence, on British shipbuilding and engineering. But reviews of shipbuilding in Japan and Germany suggested that maybe British dominance had not long to continue, while the marine engine industries in The Netherlands and Australia also came under the spotlight.
Talk continued about the large-bore engines, and there was some speculation, dismissed by Mr C.C. Pounder, president of the Institute of Marine Engineers, as ‘rather curious’ that a new British heavy oil engine should be designed, incorporating the best features of all existing types. Asked whether the time scale of six years for design, build and test of such an engine was realistic, Pounder replied: “this superlative engine would take not six years, nor 60 years, but all the years of eternity. And it is a matter for gratitude that it should be so.”
Among the engines that had been designed, built and tested, B&W led the table of number of horsepower produced in 1961, at just over 1 million bhp, followed by MAN (840,500) and Sulzer (705,000). Fourth was Gotaverken, trailing well behind at 375,500. The table was propped up by a number of near-forgotten names, including Doxford (5th), Halberstadt, Deutz, Tekko, Polar, Gorlitzer, Russki, Ube, Polar, DMR, Duvant and so on. Other names found in the table, and in the pages of the magazine, that are either still with us, but no longer producing ship engines, or have been absorbed into other companies, included Fiat, Ruston, Napier, Maybach, and, with one engine of 1,600bhp delivered, MAK.
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