The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1886-11-10
sroHnns on STEAMSHIPS.
Son'e |chiGres OF ihc Lives of Men WHO Worl
Hard To Good Puruosr

hn2"hc reporter OF an engineer OF on,
OF the swiftoSt ocean racers that ply be
tween this country and England.
AS long as anybody" WAS the uncx
Pcctod reply.
"Eow do thcy like their work."
III they don't like their work. the,
get ont; there are plenty willing to take
thcr places, was the answer. But il j,
n"rd to persuade the average landsmar
tlaJ tilC aLohcr's life is not shortened Inv
constant exposure to the extremes oI
temperature. TianS- Atlantic passengers
WHO have bravcd The intense neat of thC
furnaces and visited the fire room won.
HVf how mon can endure such IL life even
/ Tor u voyage. The stokers work fom
( Nours at stretch, hcmmGd in between
TWO ion8 lines OF furnaces that keep thc
temperature ordinarily at i2O degrees.
/ sometimes sending 1t as high as 100,
the space between the furnaces is ca
narrow that when the men throw in coal
they must take care when they swine
pack thoir shovclS, lest they should burn
tilclr arms on the furnaces behind them
lhc only means Of ventilation is ono
| iurSc air pipe that reaches down into thr
centre OF the StokcrS quarters, and ON
bl8 steamer the men have to take thr
ar III patches. On great ocean steam
er like the Umbria, the men come on in
gangs OF eighteen Stokcrs and twelve
coal passcrs, and the watch" lasts four,
hours. The Umbria has 72 furnaces
winch require nearly $50 tons of coal n
day, at cost of almost $40, 900 Der WOW.
age One hundred and four mon oTc
employed TO man the furnaces, and they
nave enough to do. They include thc
chlct engineer, his thrco assistants, and
ninety stokcrs and coal passcrs.
lie Stokcr comes Oil to work wearing
only thin undershirt, light trousers
and wooden shoes. On the Cmbria each
stok}r tends four furnaces. He first
rakes open the furnaces, tosscs in tho
coal, and then cleans the fire: that is
prizes the coal apart with Il heavy iron
bar, in order that the fire may burn free
iy. lie rushcs from one furnace TO
another, spending perhaps two or three
minutes ut each. Then he d0shcs to fhc
air pipe, takes his turn at cooling off.
and waits Tor another call to his furnace,
which comes speedily When the
watch IS over, the men shuttle of,
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
ol stokcr's life on voyage.
The reporter ran across a grOup of
stokcrs IN West Street, and had chat
with one OF them. 81 went to sea as Il
coal raSscr when | was fourteen wears
Old, he said "Thcn ] got TO be a
stokcr, and | am now twenty-eight. ."
The speaker was about six feet in height,
and weighed $50 pounds or more. His
face was ruddy with health, and his ewes
bcamcd with good nature. Ills robust
appearance was i'll strong contrast to that
OF some of his mates who had Just land
ed from voyage, q pale, strcakcd ont,
istlcsS-iooking set of men.
GLOW do we stand the work? Well
enough if we get plenty to cat. But the
work is terribly hard, all the same. 1t
comes hardest of course, on those who
don't follow it regularly. They are the
fellows who get played out so badly. |
heard once OF Il young English doctor
who came over here on 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 stokcr, and
got II sickness that he could never get
rid of. But if we get plenty TO eat, and
take care of ourselves. we are all right.
Here's mate of mine nearly seventy
years old, who has been q stokcr all his
life, and can do as good work as | can.
Stokcrs never have the consumption,
and rarely catch cold
"Why do you appear more healthy
than the other men hcre?' asked the re-
porter
"Wcll, | have boon on land now about
two weeks, and these men just came of
the ship. You sec, when we finish our
watch at the furnaces, we are just cover
cd with sweat, dirt and oil, and we have
to wash the stuff of with warm water.
Washing so much with warm water gives
us that strcakcd out look that makes
people think we are being killed with
consumption. But after we have 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 used 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
the men up SO badly that when the
watch is over they can just crawl to the
forccastle, and throw themselves on their
hunks without washing bit. But 9TH
crs of us don't mind it SO much. We
heat our water, take wash, and then
have pipe or two before turning in."
"What do we eat and drink"
eve have hash, all the oatmeal we
want, coffee and other good things"
GLOW about the grog?"
"Well, the fact is that the ggog was
knocked of about eight years ago on
the English and American lines. The
truth il the men got drunk too much,
and grog did them much harm. When
/ used to take my grog I'd work just
like n lion while the effects lasted. I'd
throw in coal like giant and not mind
the heat bit; but when it worked off,
rs it did in very few minutes, | was
that weak that child could upset me.
Take q man dead drunk before the fires,
and tho heat would sober him off in hall
an hour or give him stroke OF
,~,,NInyy Nbo Ernnnh linoa Still ,,;yo