The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1895-10-12

Many are the stories of the firemen and
stokers fainting and even dying from
their toll in these places. The tempera-
ture is high, but it is not SO high as in
the sun in field on a hot day in sum-
mer, and the task is not so exhausting
in that part of the modern steamship as
on farm in broiling sun Besides, the
men work four hours and then have eight
hours off The visitor, standing under an
opening that leads to the deck, is SIR
prised to feel dIaught of cool air COM
ing down that place like gale, and
warm as the fire room enclosure is, the
first tendency is to turn up ones collar.
There can be no doubt however, that the
firerooms are dirty places. The men are
clad as lightly as possible. The working
space is gloomy and the coal dust is -
ing about as if G gale were sweeping
through the place. There are black, sim
lister looking faces, and the white CLEAN
of their eyes, as the visitor lodges about
| among the men, suggests things of evil
| portent Doors to furnaces are being
| flung open here and there, and the flood
Of yellow light dart across the marrow
space like search lights. The stokers
are tossing in coal or poking the fires
with long steel bars. Here comes man
with wheelbarrow load of COAL and
with yell warns the others to get out Of
his way, The coal is dumped with a
smart bend Of the wrists, and the wheel
barrow man goes dashing back for an
other load, into the mouth Of coal
mine, and disappears. he is back again
in twinkling with the load and an
other yell. and so the work goes on in
each of the half dozen fire rooms.
| The visitor bends and passes between
the curving sides of two boilers, from
one compartment to another. The guide
beclzons the visitor, and, passing to one
side of the ship, they leave this scene of
hurry and hard work and step into one
of the coal bunkers. 1t is room half as
! wide as the ship and half as tall. A
great heap of coal slopes away from the
floor to the ceiling There Is an electric
| light or two in the place, but the men
who remain there and help fill up the
| WAOOAOfhAIOVo AO6Aiy WIN ia g OodA AAAAAAOs
| The exact number of cubic feet in the
compartment is known, and by a simple
means of computation it is possible to
| tell the coal consumption in a given
number of hours
| Of course there is an immense amount
of detail in the management of the en-
gines and fire rooms. At the head of the
force is the chief engineer. He has three
first assistants, and they take turns in
the actual running of the machinery.
One of these men is in charge of the
entire engine plant all the time. He has
| two assistants to help him. They are
called second assistant engineers. One
of these has charge directly of the engine
rooms and the other has charge of the fire
rooms. Each of the second assistant en-
gineers has assistants, and so the work is
subdivided from watch to watch. Each
watcn is required to clean up the ma
chinery before going off duty, and the
new watch refuse to take hold until an
| inspection shows that they will not be
held responsible for any neglect or defect
| n the work Of those who have preceded
them. There are eight oilers for each
engine at every watch. There are also
three electricians for the dynamo rooms
and two engineers for the refrigerating
plant In the fire room one stoker takes
care of three fires, and one coal passer
brings coal for four fires. The require
ment of every Throughout this busy
place may be summed up in the words,
'swatch, work, Clean" The passengers
rarely see any of the men, skilled and I'M
skilled, who push the ship along, and,
but for the subdNed roar and occasional
throb of the engines, the roll Of the ship
| that sends screw out of water. with its
spray and porpoise-like Jump of a blade,
| and the great rolls of smoke that twist
out of the smoke pipes and go trailing
off to the horizon, it would not be re-
membered that there were such persons
as engineers and firemen on board.
| The detail does not end with the ao-
tual care Of the machinery. There is an
| immense amount of clerical work to be
done. A complete record is made for
every four hours watch of the workings
| of the engines The average steam pres
sure In all the boilers is noted, and the
vacuum in the condenser is set down.
Data as to the pressure or vacuum, meas
| ured by column of water, are secured
for the fan discharge, fan suction, air
| reservoir, ash pits and stoke holds. The
temperature of the sea water, feed water,
hot we'll, engine rooms, and tunnels is re-
corded The density Of the water IN each
OF the sets of the boilers is put down, as
is the steam expansion in all of the cylin
ders. The revolutions of the screws are
counted by the watch and by the indica
tors, and the amount Of coal used in each
boiler compartment and in the galleys is
computed, as is the weight in tons of the
ashes taken out and dumped into the sea-
The state of the wind and the sea and
the general working of the engines are
set forth on the log sheet. There is also
a summary of time, distance and stores
to be made. This tells how long steam
was used in main and donkey boilers;
how long this engine or that was stopped