Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-07-18
DOWN IN THE sTOkERoOM.
A Glimpse of the Heroic Fellows Tn
der the Decks.
From New York

From the New York Press.
If a landsman wants an experience that
he will OF forget soon let him go down
into the stokehole of a warship. Then he
will realize, indeed, what it means to be in
the bowels of a vessel and, to an extent,
what II means 10 be buried alive. If he
can face the roaring furnaces without
Sinking and stand in the steel walled rit
without feeling dread, he will be a man OF
rare nerve.
Sunk in a shaft twenty feet below the
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 to feed the gaping
furnaces. as savage Gagged beasts fed,
and, like the beasts, the fires are raging to
kill the men who master them only by des
pcrate labor.
There is no room 10 spare on a modern
ship Therefore the mlgnty furnaces are
SO crowded together that the men who
serve them have barely space to move to
and fro before them. So near them are the
stokers md fremen that until their skins
are hardened to it they blister and crack
with the heat. The chance visitor can bear
1t only few minutes. and even in that
short time he feels as il the air were roast
ing him alive.
serves as furnace door is opened the ter
rife fires within seem about to leap out to
destroy the ship. Fine gray ashes make Il
film in the air and sufOcaJe one. The air
that is forced into the stokehoIe from
above catches the heat So quickly that it is
shriveling almost as soon as : comes from
the vents of the blowers.
Slice bars and shovels are too hot for
any hand except that of a hardened FIRE
man to touch. There is nothing to be
heard Of the sounds OF the sea or of the
rushing of the ship. Noises are plentiful,
but they are the noises Of soughinS i!ames
and Of grooming machinery.
That Is a stOkehole when The ship is go
ing at ordinary speed and Ins-e are no ts-
peciai demands on the stOkers and the fire
men. When there comes the time that a
ship must fight for her life, chase or Iun,
the stOkehole becomes a place of torment.
When the warship goes into action she
calls on every one OF her hundred and
more engines to be IN readiness and the
hremen must furnish every pound of steam
that they can give her. The more they
give her the louder are the demands OF
the engineers for more, and the men must
work at the fires till ,ney fall Forced
drought is the order tEen, and the stoke
hole IS practically scaled up that no air
may escape from il exCeD5 through the
furnaces The fires grow herCer and fiercer
and soon there is 10 spot in the steel lit
that is not Cnbearably hot. Men walch the
Indicators and shout for more steam. The
engineers yell at the tOiing horde that the
fires are not hot enough to work a Tug
boat. The CRATES are choking with the
steady rush of ashes. Coal Is pouring into
the roaring mouths of the furnaces il
steady streams. So enormous is the
draught that solid masses of ii are sucked
into them as if they were feathers. The
water carriers carry bucket aftec bucket
to the painting men coated with ashes
Their naked bodies are hidden under the
gray coating of the ashes. that are So thick
In the air now that the electric lights shine
only dimly through them Men IAN in queer
limp heaps and are dragged away to Gle or
to go mad Relief after relief is called to
the burning hoe and still the Ooen throt
ties of the ships engines take the steam
faster than the furnaces can MAX, il.
What is going on above no man down
there knows. Sometimes a dull echOiny
shock may tell them that the ship has Keen
hit hard News drifts TO them at inter-
walls that the enemy is winning or losing
but Of the glory of the fighting they know
nothing They know only that if the ship
Is tOrpcdOed they will die, with no chance
TO swim or Tight Even If she sinks more
slowly. from damages through cannon shot
they must stay at their posts till the end :
and when they get the word to save them
selves they have before them a desperate
climb up slippery ladders and through mar
row manhO.es-a bad course to race with
a rushing sea when il is pouring into a
reeling ship from every part. While thei.
part of the ship against the direct impact
OF prOjectiIes there is no protection against
torpedoes or shells that may drop into the
sFnokestacks.
The stOkers and the hremen Of the mod
ern warship face many of the dangers of
war, much of the suffering and get little
OF the glory.