The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1898-07-20
powE IN TIE sroxERooM.
4 GIinpss Of ihs Hereto PellOws Unds'
the Decks.

|
A GIIuapsO Of shs Hereto Fellows Undsr
the Decks.
New York Press: II q iandsman wants
an experience that he will not forget
soon let him 80 down Into the stokeholo
OF warshIp. Then he win realize, in
deed, what It means to be In the bowels
of a vessel and, to an extent. what It
means to be buried alive. II he can face
the roaring furnaces without sinking
and stand In the steel walled pit With
out feeling dread, he will be a man OF
rare nerve.
SunIs in a shaft twenty feet below tho
sea, men toll amid fierce fires whose
flames in that confined space lick out at
them with every movement OF the long
steel Slice bars that are used 20 Feed the
gaping furnaces. Us savage caged beasts
are fed, and. like the beasts, the hres
are raging to kill the men who master
them only by desperate labor
There Is no room to spare on moderH
ship. Therefore the mighty furnaces
are SO crowded together that the men
who serve them have barely space to
move 10 and fro before them. SO near
them are the ssokers and firemen that
until their skins are hardened TO 1t they
blister and crack with the heat. The
chance visitor can bear It only few
minutes, and even In that short time no
feels as II the air were roasting him
alive.
Every time one OF the red hot disks
that serves as a furnace door IS opened
the terrific hres within seem about 10
leap out 20 destroy the ship. Fine gray
ashes make film In the air and SUMO
cate one. The air that is forced into
the stokehole from above catches tho
heat so quickly that 1t is sh-iveiing al
most as soon as X comes from the vents
OF the blowers.
Slice bars and. sllovels are too hot for
any hand except that OF q hardened
fireman TO touch. There Is nothing 10
be heard OF the sounds OF the sea or OF
the rushing OF the ship. Noises are
plep;ifu, but they are the noises OF
soughing flames and OF groaniag ma
ehineTy.
ms is n ,stckehole when the ship Is
going NJ ordinary spted and there are
no especial Demands on the s;akers and
the firemen. When there comes a time
that a ship must fight for her life, chase
or run, the stokehOie becomes place
OF torment. When the wnrship goes
into action she calls on every one OF her
hundred and more engines TO be IN
readiness and the fremen must furnish
every pound OF steam that they can give
her. The more they give her the louder
are the demaHds OF the engineers Tor
more. and the men must work at the
6res tn they fat Forced draught is
the order then, and the stukehole is
practically sealed up that no air may
escape through II except through the
furnaces, The fires grow fleTcer and
aereer, and soon there is no sp0t In the
steel ult that Is not unbearably hut,
Men watch the Indicators and shout Tor
more steam. The engineers yell az tha
tolIlnV horde that the fires are not hot
enough TO work a tugboat. The CRATES
are choking with the steady rush OF
ashes. Coal Is pouring into the roaring
mouths OF the furnaces In steady
streams. So enormous Is the drauGht
mat solid masses OF 1t are sucked into
them as II they were feathers. The wa
| ter carriers carry bucket after bucket
10 the painting men coatrd with ashes.
Their naked bodies are hidden uEdes
the gray coating OF the ashes, that are
| 10 thick in the air now that the electric
| lights shine only douiy through them.
Men fall In queer limp heaps and are
dragged away 10 die or to 30 mad. Re-
lief after RELIEF Is called to the burning
hole. and still the open throtues OF the
ships engines take the steam faster
/ than the furnaces can make H.
| What is going OF above no man down
there knows. Sometimes q dui. echolnS
| shock may tell them that the ship has
been hid hard. News drifts 10 them a.
Intervals that the eremy is winning OF
| inslnc. but OF the blOry Of the night they
| know nothing. They know only mat y
! 10 shlp is tolpCI0td they Will die. WIN
no chance to swim or flsh;. Even J!
she SINKS n1Ore slowly, from danSlsei
| through cRnron shot they must STAY ~
l their posts t!l the end; and when they
/ GET me word 10 save themselves they
| nave before them z desperate c.ime VI
| gilpp.ry ladders and through narrow
/ nauhGies-a bad course to race with q
rushlne sea when It IL pouring INTO q
reeilng ship from every part WhNC
thelr hold is protected better shan any
other mar; OF the shin agatns; the direct
impact OF projeet!les, there " rp pro
| lection against torpetoes or shells th2'
| NAV drop into the sgHokesi2cks,
The gt1kers and the Arcmen OF I'M
modern warship face many Of the dan,
! gers Of war mnch Of she suffering a4a
gel little Of the glory.
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