The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1866-07-14

water is turned into steam. | must intro
duce you to the donkey, this small engine
in the corner his duty Is to pump water
into the boilers and to work the ventilating
apparatus"
"Tbe ventilating apparatus-where is
that ~ I asked.
''The part Of il which you can see here il
that tube overhead, and the barrel through
which il appears to pass. The tube extends
nearly the whole length of the ship, and the
small pipes convey the hot air into it from
the cabins. II cmpties itself into the barrel
in which are revolving fans. The donkey
turns the fans, and thus the air is drawn out
Of the tube, and expelled through the open
| ing which you see in the barrel. When we
have steam up, we are SO hot here that the
heated air from the cabins is cooling, and as
we only get the draught on our heads, it is
something like having ones feet in warm
bath, and head in a snow-storm."
"And suppose the. donkey works that
st-machine which have heard OF as
one of the curiosifies of the cIgar-ships"
10 no there il another small engine on
purpose" answered the engineer. "You
know, then, that we have something new in
the way Of ballast. 1t is under the engine
room, Just in the middle Of the ship, and
consists Of pendulum Of lead weighing
about seventeen tons When the ship is too
much over on one side, we move the pendn-
lum to the other, and she Is rIghted at once /;
so you see we shall not roll over and over in
the first heavy sea we meet, as people are
fond Of saying about US. You have now
seen all | can show you OF the engines; !
suppose you win not care about the saloons,
which are only painted and gilded as they
might be in any Other yacht, but would pre-
fer seeing the novelties Of the ship. If 50,
| am at your service.
Cheerfuly accepting this offer, we ascend
to the deck, and 60 forward. Here is lad
der-way TO the smoking saloon, but just
above it we are told to lock for the steering
apparatus, or rather the part of il which is
to be seen above the deck. The compass is
in close profanity TO it, and is so suspended
as to be unaffected by the pitching Of the
ship, and to uninterrbptedly tell its tale in
storm or cam. The representative on deck
Of he steering apparatus is brass handle
and axle, the handle something Ike that we
see used 10 set a railway locomo We IN mo-
ton. The handle turns horizontally, the
axle being vertical, 4hd, as we are inform
ed, extending the whole depth Of the ship.
1t is of course impossible to put the rudder
il its usual position at The stern Of the ship,
the stern in this case being one Of the cones
which revolve with the fans so where could
il be placed and how moved? This was
one Of the many problems the solution of
which the peculiar form Of the vessel in
volve. The rudders Qor there is one aft and
one forward) are square, thin pieces Of
metal, and if we could see under water, they
would appear to project from the keel. One
edge touches it, and the other three edges
are made sharp like knife, SO as to offer no
resistance to the water. The axle, Of which
we can see the upper end, runs out through
a tube to form connection with the middle
rudder, and about it the rudder turns. And
having thus settled to our satisfaction the
steering apparatus, we ask what nextF
"The next interesting thing" says our
guide, twill be the anchor, or rather that
part Of its gear which can be seen On board.
10 see it, we must pay visit to Jacks
quarters here is the boatswain, we will ask
him If we can go there"
The boatswain, on being asked, says that
Jack has just finished his dinner, and if We
don't mind the odor of pea-soup, we are at
liberty to go and he'll 60 with US, as Mr..
Jones is wanted ashore. As we walk along
the deck, be informs me that 1--WE berth the
bli ejackets right aft, abaft the cabins, and
the stokers for'ard but what you want to
see you'll best see in jocks quarters"
We accordingly descend another ladder,
and first we notice table in the middle, ex-
tending the whole length of the compart-
ment. That" the boatswain informs us,
sis the casing Of the shaft You know
how it is just in the middle all the length OF
her, in the way eVerywheres, and The ship
wrIghts have had to make tables, and steps
to ladders out of its casing, anything to hide
It, just as the ladies like you to think sofa
hedstead's only sofa The men use that
table TO mess on, and sleep IN the berths
along the side"
"What in those places that look like
shelves in a linen draper's shop p
''Yes, there is just height enough between
two shelves for man to get in and drop
down inside the boarding in front, which
keeps him from rolling out. Talk about
over examining the people that the railways
turn out of their houses none Of them are
crammed like this know but the sailors
utO ucVu w I've Ous JVu Waub W bt5 dUOul
our anchors. don't believe in 'em myself
Our gunner thinks they'll hold her by THEN
weight; bat | don't think as the skipper
trusts to 'em much, for he's got q pair OF
others as stand d-by."
We cannot see anything like an anchor
and are decidedly OF opinion that cabin
is not the most likely place to find one
but our guide does not leave Us to wonder
long. He shows MS an upright iron tube,
something like small frrnel, up which, be
tells US, the chain comes from the anchor.
Another strange contrivance! The anchor
is shaped like mushroom, and has q hole
Just its shape cut out Of the bottom of the
essel for ii. so that when il is s'weighed''
the surface of the ship is unbroken, and
there is nothing to tell of the existence..of
an anchor. When the ship is to be anchor
ed, the chain IL let 60, and the mushroom Is
dropped to find hole in the bottom of the
sea. t aU
The compartment at the other end Of the
ship corresponding to the one we are now in
is appropriated for the stokers. Although
it is much like the other, we 90 to SEQ It,
passing on our way the cooking place, which
is in house on the deck. We are rewarded
for our trouble the doors between this
house and the spaces On the fore side Of it
happen to be now open, and we can see one
Of the ends Of the vessel. The ship d.
vided into eight compartments, the parti-
tions being made water-tight and thus