The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1886-11-11
sroKERs on STEAMSHIPS.
Some Features OF the Lives or Men Who Wor
Hard to Good Purpose.

Tribune reporter of an engineer of ont
of the swiftcst ocean racers that ply be
tween this country and England.
GAS long as anybody" was the unex.
Dected reply.
GLOW do they like their work?"
eff they don't like their work, thcv
get out; there arc plenty willing to take
their places" was the answer. But it is
hard to persuade the average Iandsman
that the stoker's life is not shortened by
constant exposure to the extremes Of
temperature. Trans atlantic passengers
who Lave bravcd thcssintcnsc heat of the
furnaces and visited the fire room Won
der how men can endure such life even
for voyage. The stokcrs work four
hours ut stretch hcmmcd in between
two long lines of furnaces that keep the
temperature ordinarily at 12O degrees
sometimes sending it as high as 1G0
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
Tie only means of ventilation is one
large air pipe that reaches down into tho
ccntrc of the stokers' quarters, and on
II big steamer the mon have to take the
er like the Umbria, the men como on in
gangs of eighteen stokers and twelve
coal passcrs, and the "watch" lasts four
hours. The Umbrin has 72 furnaces,
which require nearly $50 tons of coal a
day, at a cost of almost $20,0 600 per voy-
age. One hundred and four men arc
employed to man the furnaces, and they
have enough to do. They include the
chief engineer, his three assistants, and
ninety stokcrS and coal passcrs.
The StOkcr comes on to work wearing
only thin undershirt, light trousers
and wooden shoes. On the Umbria each
stok1r tends four furnaces. He first
rhkeS open the furnaces, tosses in the
coal, and then cleans the fire; that is,
prizes the coal apart with q heavy iron
bar, IN order that the fire may burn free
ly. lie rushes from one furnace to
another, spending perhaps two or three
minutes at each. Then he dashcs to the
air pipe, takes his turn at cooling off,
and waits for another call to his furnace,
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, whore they turn in for eight
hours. -Four hours of scorching and
eight hours sleep make up the routine
OF stokcr's life on II voyage.
The reporter ran across u group of
StoEcrS III West Street, and had q chat
With one OF them. 81 went to sea as q
coal passer when I was fourteen years
Old, he said. "Ihen / got to be a
Stokcr, and L am now twenty eight"
The speaker was about six feet in height,
and weighed $50 pounds or more. His
f0Pn 1u o-iIh l.:
Deamcd with good nature. His robust
appearance was in strong contrast to that
OF some of his mates who had Just land
ed from voyage, pale, strcaked out,
Understanding set of men.
Chow do we stand the work? Well
enou9 h if we get plenty to eat. But the
work IS terribly hard, all the same. It
comes hardest, of course, on those who
don't follow it regularly. They are the
follows who get played out SO badly. /
hGard once OF a young English doctor
who came over here on q visit. He cot
out OF money, and was that proud that
he wouldn't send homo for some, So
he worked his way back as stoker, and
got Il sickness that he cJuld never get
nd OF. But if we get plenty to eat and
take care OF ourselves, we are all right.
Heres a mate OF mine nearly seventy
years old, who has been stokcr all his
life, and can do as good work as | can.
Stokcrs never have the CONSUMPTION,
and rarely catch cold"
"Nhy do you appear more healthy
than the other men hcrc?" asked the re-
porter.
"Wcll, have been on land now about
two weeks, and these men Just came Off
the ship. You see, when we finish our
watch at the furnaces, we are inst cover
ed with sweat, dirt and oil, and VIC have
to wash the stuff off with warm water.
Washing so much with warm water gives
us that streakcd out look that makes
people think VIC are being killed with
consumption. But after we lave been
on land three or four days that look dis
appears, and the men look natural
again. We get more ventilation than
the Old timers Iscd to get, but we don't
have any too much. [ tell you, when [
used to go down into the tropics |
wanted to keep under the air pipe all [
could. Now go to England and back,
and have four furnaces to tend. -Four
hours is Just about as much as We can
stand before the fires. 1t uses some of
inc men up SO badly that when the
watch IS over they can just crawl to the
S"ooic' ''lil tlltOW themselves Oh their
Dunks without washing bit. But 9th.
Grs OF us don't mind it so much. We
heat our water, take q wash, and then
have pipe or two before turning in"
What dO we eat and drink?"
Owe have hash, all the oatmeal VIC
want, coffee and other good things"
CHOW about the grog?"
"Wcll, the fact is that the groe was
knocked off about eight years ago on
the English and American lines. The
truth is the men got drunk too much,
and grog did them much harm. When
J used to take my grog I'd work Just
like lion while the effects lasted. I'd
throw III coal like giant and not mind
the heat bit; but when it worked off,
as it did in very few minutes, [ was
that weak that a child could upset me.
Take a man dead drunk before the fires,
and the heat would sober him off in half
an hour or give him stroke of
apopIcXy. The French lines still give
their men grog. have seen big tanks
on their ships filled with brandy, rum
| and wine all for the StOkcrS Tho