Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1883-07-21
How an Engineer on a cunard Steamer
Averfed q Dreadful Accident.

Averfed q Dreadful Accident.
The New York Herald thus des-
cribes the accident to the new Gu
nard steamer Aurania off the Long
Island coast:
1t was while the passengers were
thus engaged that the crank shaft
attached to the middle piston, an
enormous bar of solid steel, ten in
ches in diameter, suddenly snapped
] i'm twain. The suddenly lacerated
! piston rod shot up through the top
of the continuing cylinder, tearing
! the thick steel plates all to pieces,
and with one tremendous burst and
a report like that of heavy piece
of ordinance, vast volume of
! steam, carrying with it fragments
/ of iron, burst through the sky-light
and escaped heavenWard. The
havoc wrought in the engine room
was terrible. Not a cylinder es-
capped laceration. Iron braces were
bent and torn, heavy beams were
perforated, glass an inch thick from
the skylight was blown into the air
/ and rained down upon the deck in
dangerous shower. A passenger
sitting near the stern was slight
ly cut by falling glass. A lady pas
senger-Mrs. z. w. Sturdevant-
WAS standing near the skylight.
She was knocked down by the force
of the explosion and her wrist was
badly sprained. For moment or
two there was almost a panic on
board, those on deck being frighten-
ed by the noise of the explosion, the
rush of escaping steam and the
sound of some terrible pounding
which was going on in the lowest
depths OF the engine room. They
retreated In some disorder towards
the bows. Other passengers, who
were below, rushed on deck to see
! what the matter was.
But it was not on deck nor yet in
the upper part of the engine room
that the real point of danger lay.
Down three greasy pairs OF ladders,
in the depths of the ships hull, far
below the cylinders, in the dark
| hole where strokers grow faint from
excessive heat and where the grimy
engineer on duty holds his post of
RI sponsibllty, there was enacted Il
scene which rarely has an equal.
The lower portion of the broken
crank shaft, mass of steel weigh
ing many tons, was, of course, fas'
tened to the main shaft of the ship,
and as this continued to revolve
from the working of the other pis-
tons an immense arm of steel went
flying about like huge fail. The
effect was awful. Iron and steel
were knocked to splinters. A sup
porting column of wrought iron a
foot in thickness was broken in two
and one piece, weighing a ton was
bitten out, so to speak. Wherever
| the fail struck destruction followed
The air, already choked with scald-
ing steam, was filled with sparks
of fire caused by the blows of steel
on steel and iron. The place was
ton could save the sheathing of the
vessel from being pounded through :
The engine must be stopped. And
yet the little steel brake which con-
trOlled the whole tremendous me-
chanism was situated only about
two feet from the arm of the thrash
or aud right in the midst of the
scalding steam and the blistering
sparks.
Andrew Lambert. the-secOnd en-
gineer, promoted from the BOthnia,
was on duty in the engine room. He
is a tall, brawny Scotchman of some
three or four and thirty. When the
crank shaft broke and the engine
room was turned into pandemOni-
um, Mr.. Lambert was standing near
one of the stroke rooms, some TWEEN
ty or thirty feet from the brake. He
saw and felt the dense mass of steam
and noted the ligtening of the fly
ing sparks. He knew the engine
must be stopped. TO see the con-
trolling brake must be an impossi-
bility, but he knew that instinct
would take him to it, and, dropping
on his hands and knees, he crawl
ed up to ii and turned off the steam
The shaft had made about twenty
revolutions before he was able to
get the engine under control. He
was badly scalded about the face
and hands, but otherwise uninjured.
But he had risked his life to save
the ship.