The engines were
carried in the gondolas on four hollow wooden struts, also fitted
internally with wire. The wires were intended to support the
gondolas in the event of the struts being broken in making a
heavy landing.
Two engines were mounted, one in each gondola, the type used
being the 8-cylinder vertical water-cooled Wolseley developing a
horse-power of 160. The forward engine drove two wing propellers
through the medium of bevel gearing, while the after engine drove
a single large propeller aft through 4 gear box to reduce the
propeller revolutions to half that of the engine. The estimated
speed of the ship was calculated to be 42 miles per hour, petrol
was carried in tanks, fitted in the keel, and the water ballast
tanks were placed close to the keel and connected together by
means of a pipe.
No. 1 was completed in May, 1911. She had been built at Barrow in
a shed erected on the edge of Cavendish Dock. Arrangements were
made that she should be towed out of the shed to test her
efficiency at a mooring post which had been prepared in the
middle of the dock. She was launched on May 22nd in a flat calm
and was warped out of the shed and hauled to the post where she
was secured without incident. The ship rode at the mooring post
in a steady wind, which at one time increased to 36 miles per
hour, until the afternoon of May 25th, and sustained no damage
whatever.
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