MS Selandia (first ocean-going motor ship)
MS Selandia (primer buque oceánico con motor diésel)
- Date
- 1912 · confidence high
- Place
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Credited to
- Burmeister & Wain and East Asiatic Company
- Field
- Movement
What it is
A 4,900-ton cargo ship with two four-stroke diesel engines that made its maiden voyage to Bangkok and London in 1912. It showed diesel to be reliable for ocean vessels and opened the way for the motor ship.
Smaller river and coastal diesel craft already existed (the Russian Vandal, 1903); Selandia was the first truly ocean-going one.
What it led to
- the displacement of coal and boilers by diesel
- more profitable cargo ships
- large two-stroke marine diesel engines