'Antarctic Dream' was built in Holland for the Chilean Navy and has an electric propulsion system. When de-commissioned by the Navy, she was privately purchased and converted into, I think, one of the more luxurious vessels doing Antarctic trips. We had 70 passengers - maximum capacity is about 82.
On entering the engine room, the Reverse Osmosis plant for de-salinating sea water lies to our left, the Chlorination Plant to the right. Moving further into the engine room, we pass three electrical control panels for 110, 220 and 440 volts. We then come to the engine room telegraph, a twin to the unit on the bridge. On ships, these always used to be a pair of interconnected 3-phase 'Selsyns' and I found no evidence that 'Antarctic Dream is different. Opposite the telegraph is what appears to be the control panel for the direction and speed of the screw. At a lower level, three compression-ignition ('diesel') engines are mounted fore-and-aft across the width of the hull. Each engine is a Cummins V12 developing around 1,200 horse power and it appears that all three engines are normally kept running. Each engine is directly-coupled to a 440 volt d.c. Main Generator. To the stern of the Main Generators, there is a single, huge d.c. motor, mounted so as to drive the single propellor shaft which is on the centre-line of the ship. Any one Main Generator is capable of driving the ship.
