The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1883-07-25
A Brave Engineer.

The WATCHMAN OF July ii, gave brief
account of the disabling of the steamship
Aurania by the breaking of crank-shaft,
off Sandy Hook, Sunday afternoon, July
/. The New York Herald graphically de-
scribes the disaster and the heroism of the
engineer. The enormous power de-
manded for the propulsion of great YES
sci like the Aurania received terrific il
lustration by this incident. {" It was
while the passengers were watching the
low line of the Long Island coast, just APP
pearing in the dim distance says the
Herald, "that the crank.shaft attached to
the middle piston, an enormous bar OF
solid steel, ten inches in diameter, sud-
denly snapped in twain. The suddenly
liberated piston rod shot up through the
top of the combining cylinder, tearing the
thick steel plates all to pieces, and with
one tremendous burst and report like
that of heavy pieces of ordnance, vast
volume OF steam, carrying with it frag-
ments of iron, burst through the sky-light
and escaped heavenward. The havoc
wrought in the engine room was terrible.
Not cylinder escaped liberation. Iron
braces were bent and torn, heavy beams
were perforated, glass an inch thick from
the sky-light was blown into the air and
rained down upon the deck in dangerous
shower A passenger was sitting near the
stern and was slightly cut by falling glass.
A lady passenger-Mrs. E. W. Sturdevant
was standing near the sky-light. She
was knocked down by the force of the ex-
plosion and her wrist was badly sprained.
For moment or two there was almost q
panic on board, those on deck being
| fr,o Ix,@ ~ kha au,11ooip,,
the rush of escaping steam and the sound
of some terrible pounding, which was 60
ing on in the lowest depths of the engine
room. They retreated in some disorder
toward 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 stokers
grow faint from excessive heat and where
the grimy engineer on duty holds his post
of responsibility, there was enacted a
scene which rarely has an equal. The
lower portion of the broken crank.shaft, a
mass of steel weighing many tons. was, OF
course, fastened to the main shaft of the
ship, and as this continued to revolve
from the working of the other pistons, an
immense arm of steel went flying about
like huge fail. The effect was awful
: Iron and steel were knocked to splinters
A supporting column of wrought iron a
foot in thickness was broken in two, and
. one piece weighing a ton was bitten out
80 to speak. Wherever the fail struch
! destruction followed. The air, already
choked with scalding steam, was filled
; with sparks of fire caused by the blows o.
, steel on steel and iron. The place was in
fernal. Nothing but prompt action could
save the sheathing of the vessel from be
ing pounded through. The engine mus
: be stopped. And yet the little steel BRAKE
which controlled the whole tremendou
: mechanism was situated only about two
b feet from the arm of the thrasher ant
right in the midst of the scalding steam
, and the blistering sparks. Andrew Lam
bert, the second engineer, promoted from
the Bothnia, was on duty in the engin
I room. He is tall, brawny Scotchman O.
some three or four and thirty. When tn
a crank-shaft broke and the engine room
y was turned into pandemonium, Mr.. Lam
bert was standing near one OF the stok
roous, Some twenty VI thiIIy LOU iion
j., the brake. He saw and felt the dens
mass of steam and noted the lightning O
!, the flying sparks. He knew the engin
u must be stopped. To see the controlling
u brake was an impossibility, but he knew
= that instinct would take him to it, anc
1 dropping down on his hands and knees
= he crawled up to it and turned off tn
i, steam. The shaft had made about twent
. revolutions before he was able to get tn
$ engine under control. He was badl
o scalded about the face and hands, but oil
= erwise uninjured. But he had risked hi
life to save the ship"