Marine Steam Turbine

The marine steam turbine is the adaptation of Charles Parsons steam turbine, which he had invented in 1884, to ship propulsion, developed by Parsons through the Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company and proved aboard his experimental vessel Turbinia, built in 1894 and fitted with three axial-flow turbines driving nine propellers, which made her the fastest ship in the world at the time, exceeding 34 knots. Parsons demonstrated the new propulsion advantage in the most public way possible at the Diamond Jubilee Fleet Review at Spithead on June 26, 1897, when Turbinia raced uninvited between the lines of assembled warships and outran a Royal Navy picket boat sent to stop her; the display persuaded the Admiralty of the turbine superiority over the reciprocating steam engine, and marine steam turbines went on to power warships and ocean liners through the first half of the twentieth century before losing ground to the diesel engine.