If I had chosen to use the two Napier engines, I should have employed two propellers and two gearboxes and, apart from the extra weight which this would have entailed, we should also have had to contend with the enormous drag set up by the two propellers. I therefore came to the conclusion that ít would be better to have a very light boat built and use a single screw, as I
&gined that a really good power to weight ratio would be just as efe with a boat on the water as itis with 8 car on the land, and with ihis object in view we decided to go abead^With our plans. Although work oh this hew craft was commenced during the early spring of 1936, ihe boat was not completed until the middle of June this year, due to the Government's rearmament programme which ed considerably the making of essential parts, The Blue Bird, as she has been christened, is only 2lft. long on the water line, not much longer in fact than'a big dinghy; het Beam, however, is 9ft, bin, and her total weight is under 49cwt. When it is realized that the engine alone turns the scale at 17,0001b., and on top of this there is "he gearbox and shafting it means that the hull itself'is very light. Directiy the boat was finished last June we took her up to Loch Lomond to carry out preliminary trials, but due to abnormally bad weather, we were only able to make two runs during the whole time we were up there. On the first run we reached a speed of about 70 mph. and on the second a maximum of 90 mph. At this speed the engine was only partly extended and did not exceed 2300 r.p.m. Ab its maximum is in the region of 3,900 r.p. it will be seen that the motor had lots in hand at the time, and conditions lot" the Company's corset acodida i eic Consignes are requested therefore io-apply to the Company's office at Saigon for delivery bf their cargo.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.