Propulsion power was supplied by two eight-cylinder, four-cycle, 1,250 hp diesel engines in a twin-screw arrangement. The engines had both crossheads and piston rods.
Built for cargo and passenger carriage, the Selandia had "very ample and rather luxurious" cabins for 20 first class passengers-one-berth cabins of "exceptional size, with toilet and bath for every two cabins-and an extra feature is the servants' rooms, arranged in connection with private cabins."
Reporting on the sea trials of the Selandia in its April 1912 issue, International Marine Engineering said, "the future of the big motor ship is practically assured." After official acceptance tests, Burmeister & Wain, Shipyard, Copenhagen, was "inundated with orders for similar vessels from steamship owners who were aboard, and now has enough marine oil [vessel] contracts on hand to keep them busy for about three years."
That same year, manufacturers M.A.N., Messrs. Sulzer Bros., Krupp's Germania Yards, Vickers Sons & Maxim, and Messrs. Carels Freres were already busy testing high-power two-stroke marine engines, with as much as 2,000 hp per cylinder.
Commenting on the tests, Dr. Diesel said, "If, as seems probable, these tests give satifactory results, the era of very large Diesel engines has come."
The ship brought success to EAC's trade in the Far East. The Selandia launched the globalisation by enabling a replacement of coal-burning steam ships with diesel-powered ships providing a much longer cruising range and a lower pollution level than the steamers. The transition to diesel was driven by the unique cooperation between B&W and EAC, who persistently developed Rudolf Diesel's engine further, adapting it for marine propulsion.
It also meant a major step forward, both environmentally, operationally, technologically and economically.
The office where I work is placed on the site of the old B&W factory that built the engines.
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