The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1891-05-30
i STEAMSHIP srokERs.


ehat VI tne erlmy Joliet In the lur1d, I'M
ventilated stokeholes Of old-time craft,
has mild suggestion of luxury about
It. But even at its best q stoker's life
Is not likoly to arouse in the soul of the
lowliest laborer ashore feelings of un-
mitigated onvy. His hopes are circum-
scribed by the stoke hole. He has no
horizon wheroon he may paint dream
pictures Of better future. He may not
aspire to any thing beyond the kindred
occupation of leading stoker. The
engine room is forever closed to him.
1t is once fireman, always fireman.
The limitations OF his lifc-devoid of
domestic infiuences-have, doubtless
helped to brutalize him. A man with
out vista is not likely to have q high
standard Of morality.
Few in authority on shipboard had
good word to say fer the stoker OF tho
past who spent his loisure ashore in
drinking fusel oil and brawling. 1t is
not exactly so now. One British ship
per has even declared that the stokor is
gentleman compared with the cattle
man. This is not highly complimentary
to tho stoker, but it tends to show that
no Is not tho most degraded OF the toll
ers OF civilization. Since tho architects
Oh tho great twin-screw ships recog-
nizod tho fireman's existence, and made
n hreroom in which an ordinary man
may live for time, tho fireman has i'm
proved somewhat In dispelling tho
gloom OF tho fireroom tho shipbuilder
shod somo light into the soul of tho
hremen. In an atmosphere made breath
ablo by hugo ventilating fans and cheer
full by electric lights, when the furnace
doors are closed the fireman can do
more work with less fatigue than form
erly. or course it wasn't pure phil
anthropy that gave him ventilation.
The big fans, making 400 revolutions
a minute, wero made primarily to forco
air into tho furnaces and burn the coal,
SO the throbbing engines might do all
The work their ambitious designers cx-
pectcd of them. Tho cultivation of the
spirit OF brotherhood, through tho Fire
mems Union, has also done much
toward making botter man of tho
stoker All tho big steamship com
panios now practically recognize tho
union, and on all ships of tho twin
screw fleet only union mon arc en-
ployed. Fighting the union = whose
men are natural fghtors-has proven
expensive to tho steamships which not
infrequently have lost two days on
trip because green men were before the
furnaces.
On tho steamship City of Paris there
arc sixty frcmen, who feed tho flerv
maws OF fifty-four furnaces, that create
steam in nino steel boilers Fifty coal
passcrs shovel tho fuel from the bunk
ers to tho furnace doors, and tho fire.
men tossed it in. There is something
moro than nero shoveling in firing.
Tho stokor must know how to put tho
Goals on so thoy will not burn too
| quickly or deaden the fire. Ho must
know how to stir or poke the fire, so as
to get all, or nearly all, the caloric out
OF tho coal. He must know how to
obtain tho best results from the Welsh
coal he burns on tho voyage to this port
and the American coal he uses on tho
trip eastward. Each kind requires diff
ferent handling Often the result of a
trip eastward has boon determined by
tho superior knowledge of tho handling
OF American coal possessed by tho win
ming ships stokors. To a man who
thoroughly understands it, firing is
| easier than it used to be- But 1t is.
nevertheless. so arduous that the vet
Grams are not over forty-1ve years old.
Nearly all tho stokers on tho CITY of
Paris and the City Of Now York arc be-
tween twenty and thirty years OF age.
| They receive $40 a month and their
board The loading stoker gets a few
dollars moro and docs not have to work
| quite so hard. IIo is usually tho Oldest
OF the crew he directs. Tho coal passer,
tho limit of whose ambition is to be-
come fireman, gets $3.50 month.
Tho leading coal passer, or trimmer,
| gets little moro than this
| Service in the fire room is divided
into six watches Of four hours zach.
Tho fireman works and sleeps ovory
alternate four hours. After tho first
day from port two out of evory six fur
races are raked out to the bare bars
during the first hour of each watch.
Thus, In voyage, all the furnaces are
cleaned once in every twenty-four hours
Tho steam goes down bit in tho hour
whilo the cleaning is going on. The
perspiring stokers shovel into the
furnaces fifteen tons OF coal oyerv
hour, or $40 tons day. The ship usu-
ally takes in 5000 tons at Liverpool.
and has between 500 and 500 tons loft in
her bunkors when she arrives here.
| Tho engineers department is entirely
| distinct and separate from the firemen's
On tho City of Paris thoro are twenty
SIX engineers, including hydraulic and
electrical They are educated in on
| gine shops on shore, and a certain num-
Der OF thcm go on ships ovory year
They are all machinists, 80 whenever
the ship breaks down they know how
| to repair tho damage. In case the chief
enginoor should be disabled any assist
ant could take his place.-N. Y. Sun.