Evening star., 1898-08-06

| lieving the members nothing more exalted
tran some of their own paint-stained
selves. Corranche Indians in their war rig
are pretty beside these officers and it Is
! not hard to picture the condition of the
crew that go down in the double bottom
later to smear paint about in those narrow
| boxes of steel. 1t is their task to scrape
away the scale and powdered coating of
red lead. and between the dust and the
| smell in those cramped passages. not to
mention heat and general STIFFNESS, life is
certainly not holiday for those poor
souls.
| Much of the labor and IDEAL of money
would be saved were 1t possible to scrape
and paint the double-bottom spaces while
| the ship were in dry dock, for then the
surface could be thoroughly aired and dried
first, and, with the coating once well hard
ered before the ship went into water
again, the paint would last for a much
longer time But it is an expensive thing
| to keep ship in dock where so much
day is charged for her presence, and as
result. much of the painting in the double
bottom is done when the surfaces are
damp. and but short while is needed to
cause the red lead to peel off and to crum-
BILE away into a trouble dust.
All the work is not in painting, for drains
and strainers must be watched, and leaky
seams must be calked well as dripping
pipe joints, and nothing short of perfect
repair will be accepted by the crawling
board as sufficient, for the report to the
Navy Department must so specify.
Jacky Can't Go to '.L."
To facilitate location, every compartment
in the ship has its number and letter. as
also has every valve draining the several
subdivisions, and a good many amusing
contretemps arise accordingly through the
stiffness of the average Jacky. An in
stance is cited of one told to work below
between and 12-meaning, of course be-
tween compartments No. and No. II, and
Thar md r,crtr,
being ordered to the double bottom, the ex-
PLANTATION that he thought he was to
work only from two to eight bells. For
tunately. our system of lettering does not
exhaust the alphabet, and it is happily i'm
possible for petty officer, with a love for
the aspirate, to send man below to L
a troublesome direction often issued in the
British service.
The epidermis of fighting craft must be
kept clean if she is expected to make her
full speed without excessive cost in coal.
and most everybody knows how that is
generally done in dry dock; but when dry
docks are not available, the bottom can be
cleared of fouling marine growths only by
Scraping. and divers must be sent below
for the duty. Aside from the size of the
task and the time consumed, none of OUT
ships has more than a couple of diving out
fits, and it is not an easy thing to muster
men enough for the work without Gripping
other vessels. To remove barnacleS and
sea grass in this way means also removing 1
the protecting paint and barring the steei
TO the corrosive action OF the water. POck-
marks of that sort are dangerous to the
integrity and strength of the underwater
plating, and only the exigencies of war will
warrant this makeshift. and no time must
be lost in getting to dry dock and in
having the bottom again properly coated
with some of the numerous anti-corrosiye
and quasi-anti-fouling composition. A
fortune of~magnihcent proportions awaits
the happy inventor of artificial equiva-
lent for copper and its exfoliating proper
ties
The health cleanness of the outer plat
ing means everything in the matter ot
maintained efficiency of speed upon a mod
crate consumption of coal; and the reports
Of the department are full of the costly
records of foul bottomS-in fact, the story
of our present struggle will tell deal. and
the sheathed bottoms of composite
gunboats and TIE New Orleans will have
much to do toward modifying our practices
of the past.
Only Clean Boilers Hot.
On par with the cleanliness of the bot
tom platings-both inside and out-shoull
be tire condition of the boilers. and but
few la.men realize how little it takes to
seriously handicap these great generators
of power. Despite the pretty general use OF
fresh water, which obviates the formation
of salt scale, mud and grease will get into
the boilers even through the filters that in
terpose, and every bit of slime that lies
against the metal and between the fire and
the water reduces the proper transmission
of the heat from the burning coal. So
much so that enormous waste of coal
may follow upon only slight deposit,
and the plating in contact with the flames
may be heated to q dangerously weakened
degree before the water can properly alb
sorb 1t. 1t has been found that finn OF
grease-which really is worse than layer
of mud many times heavier-no thicker
than sheet OF paper will offer resistance
to heat transmission equal to several inches
of steel, and it is not hard therefore. to
appreciate the Importance of keeping the
heating surfaces of boilers clean.
on or grease gets into the boilers through
the steam from the cylinders which is con-
densed and again turned into the feed
water tanks.
To clean boiler. the fires are drawn
and the water allowed to cool Then,
through manholes, much the order of
those in. the bouble-bottom, though made
to withstand the pressure of the steam, the
men get into the inner workings OF these
great caldrons. They must crawl between
re boxes, fire tubes and strengthening
stays. and the task is a hard and awkward
one, and it is sometimes necessary to pull
u man out of a tight place, into which he
has wedged himself in his effort to reach
a difficult corner, by block and tackle and
a good deal of force. The work is dirty
and discouragirg in the extreme, but all
the more needful for that very reason, and
it is customary to scour them thoroughly at
least once month.
Coal must be saved at any cost or labor,
and the readiness of our ships on that fate
full Sd of July tells just what this ceaSeleSs
care has wrought for us.
Old clothes of the worst sort are at {.
premium for this work, and the men find
good deal of amusement in twigging their
fellow-workers upon their negative tidl-
ness. Jokes are not wanting among these
humble toilers, the phagocytes of these
great systems of metal, and Il dreamt 1
dwelt in marble halls is a favorite ditty
among these dingy laborers of the boilers
and the double bottoms.
R. G. SKERRETT.