The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-02-29
TRAPPED LIKE A RAT
A MARINE ENGINEER RELATES AN
AWFUL EXPERIENCE.

Shut Up In the Fire Box OF q Tug With
tho Tug leaking ut a Frightfnl Rate-A
, Deliveranco That Promises to Remain
Forever u Myster5.
{ Marine engineers have their shares of
startling experiences. George J. Little
tells story Of being trapped In the fire
box Of boiler. In Just such oiroum-
stances the hair sometimes turns gray
II can never forget it if I live to BIO
100 years DID," said Mr.. Little. cit CO.
Cured on an old Buffalo tug named
after @. NJ Farrar of the firm of Farrar
& Trefts of this oity. The tug is gone
where all good tugs go, but the mem.
DRY of that few minutes spent trapped
like rat in her fire box comes back to
me often, and I wonder If the man who
was with me that afternoon remembers
Dit as wildly as I do.
1t was late in the year, along in
December, I think. We were laying
up for the cold. We had been break
ing ice all the week previous, and the
old tug was leaking badly, so badly, in
fact, that wo had been obliged to pump
her out with q tin pump twice that
afternoon. 1t was cold, and we wanted
to get through with our job while it
was light, SO we spent very little time
on the pump, and at no time did we
pump her dry. We kept the water off
the fire holo floor SO we would not be
obliged to work In the water, and that
was about all. We intended to pump
her thoroughly after we had finished
othar 1uorE Thora
we could do after dark. One was the
pumping and the other was oiling the
inside of the fire box.
"When tug is laid up for the win
ter, you know, the boiler and every
bright part Of the engine is painted over
with oil to prevent 1t rusting. The in
side Of the fire box is one Of the particu-
lar places, and the owner Of the tug had
cautioned us not to slight it. That was
one Of the reasons we had put it off till
the last thing. Besides, we had to use
torch, go it made no difference if it was
dark outside.
"It Is necessary that you understand
the construction Of the boiler to have q
clear idea Of tho situation. The boiler
was an ordinary marine boiler, such as
we used ten years ago. 1t had water legs
and water bottom, with damper
opening about inches wide extending
across the front Of the boiler The fur
mace door was such as you will see OH
any tug in Buffalo today. It was about
2 feet one way and 10 inches the other.
The opening which it covered was q
triho smaller, but was plenty large
enough to allow man to crawl through
it. The door fastened by heavy latch
on the outside, which dropped into place
whenever the door was shut. Inside tho
fire box there was plenty Of room for two
men to sit or kneel and work. The
CRATES were removed and there was the
room from the ash pan, which was the
water bottom. to the crown sheet. OF
course, it was not en- inviting place, nor
large enough for clubroom, but there
was room for the two Of us to work, and
as two can do more work than one we
crawled in, one after the other. The one
nearest The door, forget now whether
it was my companion or myself, reached
out the door and handed in tho oil,
brushes AMI the torch. Weput the torch
in tho opening Of the fluo in the back Of
tho fire box and started to work. The