Rolls-Royce Mermaid

The Mermaid is a podded electric propulsor developed by Kamewa with Alstom and marketed by Rolls-Royce, offered from about 5 to 25 MW. The electric motor sits in a submerged pod that rotates a full 360 degrees for steering, so the propeller both drives and steers the ship with no separate rudder, and the pod swings plus or minus 35 degrees hardover in transit. Pulling-type propellers face into clean inflow for efficiency and lower noise. It competed with the ABB Azipod and the Siemens-Schottel SSP. It is a legacy line, the podded-drive market having consolidated around ABB.