One outcome from the fuel uncertainties resulting from the Middle East crisis of 1973/4 (what’s new?) that had subsided by the time the July 1974 edition of The Motor Ship was published, was that ship operators were looking carefully at ways of cutting their fuel bills.

Our editorial predecessors reminded readers that the large Diesel Engine is particularly fuel-efficient, compared with other propulsion methods. Nevertheless, although it was felt that the technology had reached an advanced stage and there was little that could be done to cut specific fuel consumption further, there were savings to be made in other ways. One promising advance was in fuel treatment, with additives permitting cheaper, heavier grades of fuel oil to be burnt efficiently and reliably. Waste heat recovery was seen as another way of producing a useful energy boost.

The medium speed engine was still being regarded as the only serious challenger to the ‘cathedral’ type two-stroke; its growing popularity being celebrated in a special supplement, which noted that there were 22 different such engines in the market, capable of 600 bhp/cylinder and above.