Why don't we use steamboats anymore, and what type of boats/ships are used in the modern world?
by 
Anonymous
ANSWERS: 2
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Cost of operation. Steam power is much less efficient in turning a fuel (say Oil) into something that will move you. A modern Diesel engine is on the order of 2 to 3 times more efficient in turning a gallon of fuel oil into usable power then the whole burn / boiler / steam engine. Today ships are almost exclusively Diesel engine powered. And really huge diesels at that! BTW: this is the same reason one does not see Steam power trains anymore. There are some Steam boats (and trains), but they are kept around for novelty and historical reason, not efficiency
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On the contrary, the most powerful ships in the world nowadays use steam turbines energised by nuclear power. I'm thinking of the SSBNs and the nuclear carriers operated by France, Russia, the UK and the U.S. Nuclear propulsion never caught on in the civilian sector though, so almost all cargo ships are powered by enormous diesel engines like a scaled-up truck engine. Traditional reciprocating steam engines are very inefficient for marine use and are only really used on preserved ships.
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