Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1886-12-02
A ST0KER'S LIFE.
WORK THAT MUST BE DONE IN A
BIG STEAMERS FIRE ROOM. s

Hsmmcd in Between Two Long Lines of
Furnaees-A Stoker at Work - What
One of the Men Says of the Vocation.
What They Eat.
allow long do stokers liver asked report
err of an engineer of one of the swiftcSt ocean
racers that ply between this country and
England.
AS long as anybody" was the unexpected
reply
allow do they like their workf"
"If they don't like their work they get out;
there are plenty willing TO take their places"
was the answer But it is hard to persuade
the average landsman that the stokeris life is
not shortened by constant exposure TO the ex
tremes of temperature. Transatlantic pas
sengcrs who have braved the intense heat of
the furnaces and visited the fire room Won
der how men can endure such life even for
n voyage. The stokers work four hours at a
stretch, hemmed i'll between two long lines
of furnaces that keep the temperature ordina-
rily at 100 degrees, sometimes sending it as
high as 100. The space between the furnaces
is SO narrow that when the men throw in coal
they must take care when they swing back
their shovels lest they should burn their arms
on the furnaces behind them The only
means OF ventilation is one large air pipe that
reaches down into the centre of the stokeIS
quarters, and on big steamer the men have
to take the cir In patches. On great ocean
steamer like the Umbria, the men come on in
gangs Of eighteen stokers and twelve coal
paSseTS, and the watch lasts four hours
The Umbrla has seventy two furnaces, which
require nearly350 tons of coal day at cost
Of almost S20,o00 per voyage One hundred
and four men are employed to man the fur
naces and they have enough 10 do They in
clude the chief engineer, his three assistants
and ninety stokers and coal paSsers
TENDING THE FURNACES.
The stoker comes on TO work wearing only
a thin uudershirt, light trousers and wooden
shoes. On the Umbria each stokcr tends four
furnaces. He first rakes open the furnaces
losses in the coal, and then cleans the fire
that is, prizes the Goals apart with heavy
iron bar, in order that the fire may burn
freely. He PUSHES from one furnace to an
other, spending perhaps two or three min
utes at each. Then he dashes to the air pipe
takes his turn at cooling Off, and waits for
another call to his furnaces, which comes
speedily. When the watch is over the men
shuttle off, dripping with sweat from head to
foot, through long cold galleries to the fore
castle, where they turn in for eight hours
Four hours of scorching and eight hours
sleep make up the routine of a stoker's life
on u voyage
The reporter ran across a group of stokers
in West street and had a chat with one of
them. Il went to sea as a coal passer when
was IA years DID," he said. Then got to
be stoker, and am now Is" The speaker
was about six feet in height and weighed $50
pounds or more. His face was ruddy with
health and his eyes beamed with good nature
His robust appearance was in strong con
trast to that of some of his mates who had
Just landed from voyage pale, streakeI
ont, liStless looking SIT of men
How do we stand the work. Well enough
if we get plenty to eat. But the work is tel.
rihly hard all the same 1t comes hardest OF
course, on those who don't follow it regu
larly. They are the fellows who get played
out so badly. | heard once of Young Eng
l!sh doctor who came over here on a visit
He got out of money, and was that proud
that he wouldn't send home for some SO he
worked his way back as stoker, and got
| sickness that he could never get rid of But
| If we get plenty to eat and take care Of our
| selves we are ali right Here's mate of
minc nearly 20 years old, who has been a
stoker all his life, and can do as good work
as | can. Suckers never have the consump-
ton and rarely catch cold
THAT sTREAKED-ouT LOOK
why do YOU appear more healthy than