Jed.
In the 1960s I was on the Capetown Castle, one of the Union-Castle Mail
Steamship Company's ships that had a Burmeister & Wain double acting
marine engine that was of comparable size. I recall it was 45' from the
top to the center line of the crankshaft. Not long after I left there
was a crankshaft explosion that killed most of the engineers on watch.
I think Burmeister & Wain were probably the first to build these large
diesels starting ~110 years ago. The con rod for the main piston went
through the center of the lower double acting piston. This made it a
pain to change when it split due to thermal expansion problems on
starting or stopping. Some were much more prone than others for this
problem.
