Hey friends! In this video, we are featuring Charles Parsons gatecrashing the Queen’s review onboard the Turbinia in 1897 | Season 1 Episode 42

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Sometimes you have to be audacious to show the world your new invention. On June 26 1897 and to the surprise of everyone present the steamturbine powered sloop Turbinia burst into the lines of over 165 Navy vessels steaming past for review by Queen Victoria and the Lords of the Admiralty.

AngloIrishman Charles Parsons from Birr, Castle Co Offaly gatecrashed the Queen's diamond jubilee fleet review at Spithead on England’s south coast, to show off the spped of his steamturbine sloop.

With Captain Christopher Leyland at the helm and Charles Parsons clinging to the Crows Nest the revolutionary Turbinia zoomed in an out of the lined up naval vessels at over 30 knots and showed off madly for the crowds while easily evading navy boats sent out to catch her.

Built in 1894 by Brown & Hood of WallsendonTyne to the design of Charles Parsons and his Marine Steam Turbine Company, the Turbinia was a steelbuilt experimental steampowered sloop built to showcase the potential of the Parsons steamturbine in maritime vessels.

The Turbinia was revolutionary, as not only was she the pinnacle in fast hull design with a length of 104ft and a beam of just 9ft and powered by a 1000hp steam turbine she could reach a top speed of 34 knots when the Cutty Sark, then considered the fastest tea Clipper afloat could only reach a paltry top speed of 17.5 knots.

After studying mathematics at Trinity College, Dublin and then later at St John’s College, Cambridge where he graduated in 1877 with a firstclass honours degree, the young Parsons then took the unusual step at the time for the son of an Earl and took an engineering apprenticeship to W.G. Armstrong of Newcastle.

In 1884 Parson’s developed a compound turbine engine utilised to drive a electrical generator, which he had also designed. The compound turbine design allowed a much higher power to size/ weight ratio than any other preceding engine type. His unique design incorporated a radical flow for steam, whereby the steam is introduced near the shaft and then made to flow radically outwards before being conducted back inwards towards the main shaft resulting in a power boost.

By 1905 the Admiralty confirmed that all future Royal Navy vessels were to be turbinepowered, leading to the 1906 launch of the famous HMS Dreadnought as the world’s first turbinepowered battleship with a top speed of 21 knots. By 1907 the turbines of Charles Parsons were powering ocean giants like the transatlantic Lusitania and Mauretania.

Displacement: 44.5 tons
Length: 104 ft 9 in (31.93 m)
Beam: 9 ft (2.7 m)
Draught: 3 ft (0.91 m)
Propulsion: Threestage axialflow directacting Parsons steam turbine driving two 12 ft 6 in (3.81 m) outer shafts, each with three 18inchdiameter (460 mm), 24inchpitch (610 mm) propellers, and one inner shaft with three propellers.
2,100 hp (1,600 kW) threedrum watertube coalfired boiler with doubleended 1,100squarefoot (100 m2) heating surface.
200 psi (1.4 MPa), 170 psi (1.2 MPa) at the turbine
Speed: 34.5 kn (63.9 km/h; 39.7 mph)

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Credit: Research and information gathered at EPIC @epicmuseumchq
Visit EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum to learn more about Charles Parsons and other Irish transport pioneers. EPIC is located in Dublin's Docklands and covers the history and extensive journeys of the Irish diaspora and how our emigrants shaped the world.
Multiple winner of Europe’s Leading Tourist Attraction at the World Travel Awards;
EPIC is now open to visitors seven days a week. Start planning your visit today: https://epicchq.com/
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