I wonder if it was The rotary steam turbine that Edward Christopher Warren, an associate of the renowned Niola Tesla, designed and installed in the Herreshoff yacht Navette, built for J. P. Morgan in 1901,
Paul Hammond, a good friend of the Herreshoffs, bought NAVETTE's steam engines with the idea of using them in a new boat. At the same time the yacht including the boiler was purchased by Edward Christopher Warren, inventor of the Warren Steam Engine. Mr. Warren, himself a distinguished marine engineer, used NAVETTE as a test vehicle for his own engines.
He and certain of his ten children lived aboard.
[
www.herreshoffregistry.org]
Another bit of information,
Dear Editor:
Further to Red Marston's letter about Navette in NQ 19, the following is a bit of historical trivia. Edward C. Warren bought Navette sometime late in WWII to use as a demonstrator for a novel type of steam engine that he had invented; it was rotary configuration. He took out the beautiful Herreshoff up-and-downers and installed a pair of his rotaries. He was unsuccessful in selling the idea to the Navy and decided to take the vessel south, with his daughters as crew. At some point in all this, he found that the law required that he have a licensed steam engineer aboard. So one of the daughters (I forget which one) promptly did a bit of studying, took the exam, and became a licensed steam engineer! They made it to Florida, not without of a good deal of trouble with the machinery, and wound up at LaBelle where I believe a relative had some waterfront land. The yacht has been there ever since.
Rolly
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/15/2013 08:41PM by Rolly.