The sun., 1890-11-23
STOkERS ON THE FAST SHIPS.
Something About tho Men who Feed Coal
to the Ocean Racers.

Something About tho Men who Feed Coal
to the Ocean Racers.
The lot OF the fireman aboard modern rae.
ing steamship. compared with that OF the
grimy toiler In tho lurd. unventated stoke
holes of old-time craft. has mild suggestion
Of LUXURY about It But even at Its best a
stokers life is not likely to arouse in the soul
of the lowliest laborer ashore feelings OF un-
miticated envy. His hopes arc circumscri5ed
by the stoke hole. He has no horizon where
on he may paint dream pictures OF Q better
future He may not aspire to anything be-
yond tho kindred occupation OF q leading
stoker. The engine room Is forever closed to
him. II Is once a fireman, always u fireman.
The limitations Of his life-devod OF domestic
iniiuences-have doubtless holped to brutal
ize him. A man without a vista is not likely to
have u high stan dard OF morality.
Few in authority on shipboard had good
G It's T hs ncrs sfSr n Kin H aH hi
British shl"per has rs eve even n dec AIRED that the
s!eman T66ys is NOT not hishly complimentary vt" to
Since the architects Of the great twin screw
ships reocGnizcd the fireman's existence. and
made ia. rsro3m s in wh ch an ordinary man
tho hS'seISI3s as fsp%
sh an nmospdsr ha made S by
ventilating In 3 and cheerful by electric lights.
when The inrnac, do9,s are ol;ssa tho fireman
that gay. him ventilation, Tho big fans.
primarily 10, fore. uir into the furnaces and
burn the coal SO the throbbing engnes might
DO all the w?k that their esigntrs
spirit Of brotherhood. through tho Firemen's
Union. has also done much toward making a
shiip com panies now practically recognize the
union, and ON all ships OF the twin screw fleet
ony nSB men are The
prove expensive to the steamships, which not
infrequently have lost two days on trip be-
ssixtv, ilromen, who feed ne merry maws Of
scei ers. Fifty % coal HfI nassers sss shovel the
na S bs bsm ns senkeE ess to Hs Se
stoker must know how to nut the Goals on 80
they vii not burn too quickly or deaden the
fro SO as to got al. or nearly all. tho caloric
out out Q, the coal He must h Enow % how to obtain
co coa! he Sses on the ' ,rIp u eastward EauR Kind
requires different han Ing. Often the result
by the superi.r kn"wledse I Of the handling Of
American coal rossp ssed by tho W nning shp ps
is sassr han nsSd pnaSf % Se
bu, it is. neve theless: so ardpous tn at ths
the slnkers on the City OF Paris and the City OF
Now York are hntween ~ and 80 years of age.
They receive f2) month and their board.
The leading stoker get~ q few dollar, more and
do s not have TO work quite so hard. He is
usually the eldest Of the crew he directs.
Tho coal passer. The limit Of whose ambition Is
to become II fireman. gets SIT. II MONTH The
leading coal pa-ser. or trimmer. gets n little
moro han this.
Service in the fire room is divided into six
watches Of four hours each. The fireman
works and sleeps every alternate tour hours.
Aiter the first day from port two out Of every
six furnaces nre raked out TO the bare bars
during tho first hour OF each watch. Thus. in
II voyage. al tho furnaces are cleaned once in
every twenty four hours. Tho steam goes
down a bit IL the hour while tho cleaning is
going on. TIE perspiring stok;rs shovel into
$40 tons II dav The shin usually takes In 5000
tons ut Liverpool, and has between 800 and 500
tons LEFT in her bunkers when she arrives here.
The engineers department Is entirely dis
tin and separate from the ilrenens. On the
City OF Pnri- there are twenty-six engineers.
including hydraulic and electrical They are
educated in engine shops on shore. and Il GER
tain number of ,hcm 20 on ships every year.
They are all mnchnists 80 whenever the ship
brenks down they know how. TO repair the
damage In ease the chief engineer should be
dis ablcd any assistant could take his place.