Toured the SS Meteor today...

FranklinD

Hey folks...

Thought some of you 'steamers' might be interested in this. I toured the SS Meteor in my city today. I've toured it before, but it's been 20 years. It served at various times as a taconite carrier, sand, grain, and finally oil. They 'beached' it at Barkers Island in the Bay back in the early 70's. It's the last surviving intact Whaleback ship.

As we went through the tour I started noticing radiators throughout the ship. Obviously steam, as the ship always used a triple expansion steam engine. I took a number of pictures for you folks. The ship was built in the Frasier Shipyards (about a mile up the bay from it's current position) in 1896.

Enjoy!

PS - couldn't help but notice that one of the Dunham steam traps seems to say 100 psi -- or am I seeing it wrong? I also have some boiler room pics. Sadly the tour guide knew less than nothing about steam in general.

Steamhead

That system probably ran on high-pressure steam from the main boilers. The radiators are probably a fin-tube design that can handle the pressure, not cast-iron.

JStar

Cool stuff. I love those pipe radiators.

FranklinD

I enjoyed it. Having a first-year college student giving the tour was a bummer, though. Definitely not a person from this area or knowledgeable about this area's shipping history.

I'll post the other pics I have that I thought were interesting.