The morning call., 1890-12-25
STOKERS ON FAST SHIPS
Something Abont the Men Who
Feed Coal to Ocean Racers.

The lot of the fireman aboard modern
racing steamship, compared with that of the
grimy toiler in the lurd, unventilated
stoke-hOles of the old-time craft, has mild
suggestion of luxury about it. But even at
its best stoker's life is not likely to arouse
in the soul of the lowliest laborer ashore
feelings of unmitigated envy. His hopes
are circumsribed by the stoke-hole. He has
no horizon wherein he may paint dream
pictures Of better future. He may not
aspire to anything beyond the kindred occu-
patton of leading stOker, says the New
York Sun. The engine-room IS forever
closed to him. 1t is once fireman, always
fireman. The limitations of his life-de-
void of domestic infiuences-have doubtless,
helped to brutalize him. A man without a
vista is not likely to have a high standard
of morality
Few in authority on shipboard had good
word to say for the Stoker OF the past, who
spent his leisure ashore in drinking fusel
oil and brawlng. 1t is not exactly so now.
One British shipper has even declared that
the stoker is gentleman compared with
the cattleman. This is not highly compli-
mentary to the stoker, but it tends to show
that he is not the most degraded Of the toll
erS of civilization. Since the architects of
the great twin-screw ships recognized the
lireman's existence, and made a hre-room
In which an ordinary man may live for
tiult, the uTcludu HAS lHpIUNtu SUultWldl.
In dispelling the.gloom of the tire-room the
S hip-builder shed some light into the soul
of the fireman. In an atmosphere made
breathable by huge venti!atng fans, and
cheerful by electric lights when the
furnace doors are closed the fireman
merly. OF course, it wasn't pure philan-
trophy that gave him ventilation. The
big fans, making 400 revolutions minute,
We're made primarily to force air into the
furnaces and burn coal, SO the throbblng en-
gines might do all the work that their am.
bilious designers expected of them. The cul-
tivation of the spirit of brotherhood, through
the Firemen's Union, has also done much
toward making a better man OF the stOker.
All the big steamship companies now prac-
tically recognize the union, and on all ships
OF the twin-screw fleet only union men are
employed. Fighting the union, whose men are
natural fighters, has proven expensive to
the steamships, which not infrequently have
lost two days on a trip because green men
were before the furnaces.
On the steamship City Of Paris there are
sixty firemen, who feed the fiery maws of
ffty-four furnaces that create Sseam in nine
steel boilers. Fifty coal passers shovel the
fuel from the bunkers to the furnace doors
and the fremen toss it in. There is some
thing more than mere sh0veling in firing.
The stoker must know how to put the Goals
on SO they will not burn too quickly or
deaden the fire. He must know how to stir
or poke the ire so as to get all, or nearly all,
The caloric out of the coal. He must know
how to obtain the best results from the
Welsh coal he burns ON the voyage to this
port and the American coal he uses on the
trip eastward. Each kind requires different
handling. Often the result OF a race east
ward has been determined by the SUI
perior knowledge of the handling of
American coal possessed by the winning
ships stokers. To man who thoroughly
understands it. firing is easier than it used
to be. But it Is nevertheless so arduous
that the veterans are not over 40 years old.
Nearly all the stokers on the City Of Paris
and the City of New York are between 20
and 80 years of age They receive $50 a
month and their board. The leading stoker
gets few dollars more and does not have TO
work quite so hard. He is usually the eld-
est Of the crew he directs. The coal-passer,
the limit of whose ambition is to become a
fireman, gets SIT 80 a month. The leading
coal-passer or trimmer gets a little more
than this
Service in the fire-room is divided into six
watches of four hours each. The fireman
works and sleeps every alternate four hours.
After the first day from port two out Of
every six furnaces are raked out to the bare
bars during the first hour of each watch.
Thus, in a voyage, all the furnaces are
cleaned once in every twenty TOUR hours.
The steam goes down bit in the honr while
the cleaning is going on. The perspiring
stokerS shovel into the furnaces fifteen tons
OF coal every hour, or $40 tons day. Inc
ship usually takes in 5000 tons at Liverpool,
and has between 500 and $50 tons left in her
bunkers when she arrives here.
The engineers department is entirely dis
tinct and separate from the firemen's. On
the City of Paris there are twenty-siX engi-
neers, including hydraulic and electrical.
They are educated in engine-shops on shore,
and Il certain number OF them 90 on ships
every year. They are all machinists, so
whenever the ship breaks down they know
how TO repair the damage. In case the chief
engineer SHOULD be disabled any assistant
aould 10 lis placa