The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1883-08-16
A Brave Engineer.

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Aurania's voyage could scarcely be i'm.
proved upon. The weather was agree
able, the passengers were inclined to
sociability, the broad bnilt steamer
proved splendid sea goer, riding very
steadily on the water, and showing q
minimum of vibration, while the new
engines worked with unusual smooth
ness. and ree]ed of 400 odd miles for
every "a hours. The best days run WAS
439 knots. Had 1t not been necessary to
stop the engines for eight hours in order
to allow hOt-bearing to- cool, phenom.
email time would have been made. IA
as It was, the steamers actual time from
Queenstown to the point of the, acct
dent, twelve miles sonth-south-west of
ShinEecock light, was only six days and
twenty-five and a half hours, and had
her machinery remained intact she
wonld have won record pressing close
upon the fastest time which the fastest
steamship has yet made. The plot was
taken on board on Sunday morning.
EARLY in the afternoon tho passengers
were excited by the cry of Land, ho!"
bulk Of the passengers locked to- the
starboArd rail and watched the low line
of the Long Island coast dim
ly visible in th.. distance.
1t was while the passengers we're
thus engaged that the c.ank shaft at.
tached to the middle piston. an cuOr.
nous bar of solid steel, ten inches in
diameter, suddenly snapped in twain.
The suddenly liberated piston rod shot
up through The top of the combining CYL.
inder, tearing the thick steel plates oil
to pieces, and with one tremendous
burst and report like that Of heavy
pieces of ordinance, vast volume Of
steam. carrying with it fragments of
iron, burst through the skylieht and es.
cape heavenward. The havoc wrought
in the engine.room was terrible. Not a
cylinder escaped liberation. Iron
braces were bent and torn, heavy beams
were perforated, glass an il.rh thick
from the sky:lieht was blown into the
air and rained down upon the deck in a
sitting near the stern and wa slightly
cut by falling glass. A lady passenger
Mrs. f. w. Sturievant-was standing
near the skylight. She was knocked
:!own by the force of the explosion and
her wrist was badly spraineh. For "
moment or two there was almost par
jc on board, those on deck being fright
ened 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
toward the bows. Other passengers
who were below, rushed on deck to see
what the matter was.
Bat 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
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
scene which rarely has an equal. The
lower portion of the broken crank shaft,
mass OF steel weighing many tons. was,
OF course fastened to the main shaft of
the ship, and as this continued to re-
volve from the working of the other pis-
tons, an immense arm of steel went fly
ing about like hinge fail. The effect
Was awful. Iron and steel we're knocked
to splinters. A supporting column of
wrought iron foot in thickness was
broken in two, and one piece weighing
q ton was bitten eut, 80 to speak.
Wherever the fail struck destruction
followed. The air, already choked with
scalding steam. was filed with sparks of
fire caused by the blows ofsteel on steel
and iron. The place was Internal.
Nothing but prompt action could save
the sheathi0g of the vessel from being
pounded through. The engine must be
stopped. And yet the little steel brake
which controlled the whole tremendous
mechanism was situated only about two
feet from the arm, of the thrasher and
right in the midst of the scalding steam
and the blistering sparks.
Andrew Lambert, the second..engineer,
promoted from the Bothnia, was on du-
ty in the engine room. He is tall,
brawny Scotchman of some three or four
and thirty. When the crank shaft broke
and the engine room was turned int,
pandemOnium Mr.. Lambert was stand
ing near one OF the stoke rooms, some
twenty or thirty feet from the brake.
lie saw and felt the dense mass ofsteam
and noted the lightning of the flying
sparks. He knew the engine must be
stopped. TO see the controlling brake
was an impossibility. but he knew that
instinct would take him to it, and drop
ping down on his hands and knees. he
crawle1 up to itand;tarned off the steam.
The shaft had made about twenty reyo-
lutions before he was able to get the en-
CINE under control. He was badly scald-
ed about he face and hands, but other
wise uninjured. But he had risked his
life to save the ship.