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Material from steamboat was split to Steamship on 29 April 2013. The former page's history now serves to provide attribution for that content in the latter page, and it must not be deleted so long as the latter page exists. Please leave this template in place to link the article histories and preserve this attribution. The former page's talk page can be accessed at Talk:Steamboat. |
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This page has been recreated using some content from the Steamboat article. -- Gwillhickers ( talk) 20:47, 29 April 2013 (UTC)
There are two major descriptive titles for steamships, abbreviated as "PS" and "SS". These stand for, respectively, "Paddle Steamer" and "Screw Steamer". As paddle steamers have become less common, people have assumed that "SS" stands for "steamship". This is one of the muddles that needs sorting out on this article and its sister Steamboat. (Wow, that sounds grumpy - working too late today.) ThoughtIdRetired ( talk) 21:35, 1 August 2014 (UTC)
This explanation doesn't make any sense. The article reports "The SS Archimedes, built in Britain in 1839 by Francis Pettit Smith, was the world's first steamship to be driven by a screw propeller." If that's true, how could we have the SS Savannah crossing the Atlantic in 1819? The SS referred to something that hadn't even ben invented yet? Why was SS used for SS Great Western -- a paddle steamer? Why doesn't the article mention a single ship that uses TSS? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2602:30A:C0F7:35E0:87F:6A89:5ED9:5011 ( talk) 16:21, 27 August 2017 (UTC)
It would seem logical to make "steam ships" redirect here, seeing as how they are the exact same words, but in plural. Steam ships don't become steam boats when there is more than one of them.
Also, it says that it is "incorrect to call modern vessels by the SS designation", but that would depend on what the vague term "modern" means. Steam turbine ships were used until relatively recently, and some are still in service. In fact, nuclear-powered vessels are driven by steam turbines, IIRC. The only difference between the drive of a US nuclear supercarrier and the HMS Lusitania is that the steam is heated by a nuclear reactor instead of burning coal and/or fuel oil. So what is the accurate term for a nuclear steam turbine vessel (I know carriers use military designations, but there are nuclear icebreakers, an have even been nuclear cargo ships). Would it be "ST", like "GT" for "gas turbine"? They are still screw propelled and driven by steam, so they technically ought to be still be "SS". .45Colt 10:34, 19 August 2015 (UTC)
The ocean-going steamship had no source of water for her boilers except salt water. There needs to be a section explaining how the potential effect of salt on her boilers was coped with. Simple maybe, but until this was done, ocean-going steamships were not practical. Ttocserp 20:15, 15 January 2016 (UTC)
Using salt water in a propulsion boiler would be catastrophic. However, steamships re-circulate the steam/water in a continuous cycle thereby conserving most of the water. In the most simplistic cycle, water is heated in a boiler until evaporated into steam, the steam then works on an engine or turbine to produce power, then the steam is exhausted to a condenser, cooled back into water and finally pumped back to the boiler, starting the process over again. Of course modern steam plants are more complex with additional safety and efficiency enhancing features throughout the cycle. But, the process of re-circulating saves most of the water. Nevertheless, their are loses which are made up by using stored fresh water. Fresh water can be taken onboard when the ship is in port, but, most ships can also generate fresh water by boiling salt water in an evaporator; which also provides fresh water for the crew, especially, on longer voyages. Even when a steamship is sailing on freshwater, the water is still generally unsuitable for use in a boiler because of dissolved minerals (hard water) and other containments. — Preceding
unsigned comment added by
67.59.103.220 (
talk) 08:43, 14 April 2016 (UTC)
The very early steamships used salt-water in the boilers if that was all that was available. Just as the early steam boats on American rivers had engines without condensers, thereby creating the daily chore of cleaning mud from the boilers, so did early instances of long-distance sea voyages necessitate regular cooling and draining of the boiler so that salt could be shoveled out of it. ThoughtIdRetired ( talk) 13:21, 14 April 2016 (UTC)