Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Anacortes, Wash. Ter.) 1882-1887, 1882-05-13

dIc I'LL VI uodUOu hOih, hh't oAACAO I'D AAO,
boiling water or hot air on every side"
remarked the visitor.
"Ohl yes, except on the bottom.
This iron floor is about four feet above
the keelson. There is room enough for
q man to pass underneath. How hot
does it get here? Oh 1870 deg. to 16O
deg. when we're down by Florida or in
the gulf. Pretty rough on the fremen ?
Yes, but you see the fremen ain't much
account on board ship. The hardest
worked men get the fewest thanks and
the most abuse. Yes, they play out
once in while, get used up by their
work and drop down by the furnaces.
Then they hoist them up and lay them
out on deck. If they come to they have
to go back to work. If they don't some
other fireman has got to do double work.
They go on for four hours, of for eight,
then back for four, and SO on day in and
out. There are four in watch here-a
coal-passer who shovels from the shoots,
and three fremen. Boats that have
twelve or sixteen boilers of course carry
more men. One of the thirteen firemen
has to look out for the steam and keep
an eye on the water They've got to be
on the jump every minute.
"Isn't the air pretty bad? Well,
should say it was," with an air of candid
reflection. "You see the ventilating
shafts don't do any good unless the wind
is Just right, and then this hot air is
filled with dust and ashes, which proba-
bly, isn't exactly healthy as o regular
thing"
Then bell rang overhead and the
engineer started back. "Look out
there" as the visitor stumbled over a
heap of ashes in the darkness you'll
be as bad off as the firemen are when
they are thrown against the red-hot fur
mace door by the pitching of the ship in
high sea-"
Ten minutes later the visitor to the
Louisiana was seated in a little back
room in Albany street among a group
of tiremen. elbow old would you think
I amp" asked one of them. He was
tall, powerfully built man, but his stoop-
ing shoulders and certain heaviness in
his movements told of vitality exhaust
ed by overwork. His face was scanned
with deep, strongly-marked lines, such
as professional athletes sometimes show
after years of intense physical strain.
There wns a dull, weary look in his
sunken eyes. His hair was fiecked with
gray, and white stubble appeared on
his cheeks and chin.
"Perhaps you're SOP" said the visitor.
I'm 35, replied the fireman, with
bitter laugh, "but I've been at sea in
the fire-room for sixteen years"
Then he went on: "You see they
want young, strong men just in their
prime. If they're too young or too old
they can't stand the work. As soon as
mans strength begins to. fail he's
thrown aside. They have no use for
him. And the average life of a fireman
is forty years. Weldon expect people to
understand what the work is. They go to
sea and sit on deck under an awning,
tanning themselves and complaining Of
the heat. But under their feet in the
fire-room, with the thermometer some
times up to IT'S degrees, we are shovel
ing coal and raking the fires for very
life. There isn't minute to stop"
"That's So" broke in another "Tve
seen a man wait for chance to fill his
pipe and get the fireman next him to
tend his furnace just for the minute it
took to jam the tobacco in and strike
match. And mans pretty busy when
he can't find time to fill pipe"
"After the men have signed papers,"
resumed the first speaker, "say for
months voyage to Mexico and back,
there's no such thing as letting up.
When fresh gang comes in, the en-
gineer who goes on watch with them is
bound to get as many turns of the shaft,
49, 10
before him did, and if there's any falling
off the firemen hear from him right
away. The fires have to be 'raked' and
Sliced and coal shoveled in every
minute. The steam has to be kept
up to the mark. and the water-gauge
watched. There's no time to think, and
men have hardly breath to speak"
ga mans got to 60 in for all he's
WORTH" said another. "Every vein and
muscle and bone has to jump its best"
"Don't men break down under the
strain p
"Break down." with a grim laugh.
".Why, young fellow, i'll the sixteen
years I've been at sea don't know of
trip when haven't seen men fall fiat
and half dead in the fire-room, and there
are few trips when haven't seen fire.
man die. Think of the heavy work a
mans doing with the mercury up to 13O
or $50 degrees, and no fresh air Men
get overheated. Their faces will grow
pale as corpse, they'll stagger and drop
their shovels and tumble over on the
coal. Then they're hoisted out on deck
and perhaps water dashed over them.
But in the tropics theren be no air stir.
ring on deck. They'll be put into their
hunks i'll the steerage, and the doctor
comes and they get medicine by law, for