Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1898-08-12
FEARFUL HEAT on wARsHIPs.
Two Hundred and Five Degrees
Registered on the Cincinnati.

A dispatch from Washington TO the
New York Tribune says: That man
enemies are sometimes they of his own
household finds apt Illustration in the
severe conditions which surround in their
own vessels the gallant defenders of the
stars and Stripes at sea. To the flood or
heat poured down by an incandescent
tropic sun there are added the tempera-
lures, almost beyond belief and seemingly
beyond human endurance, produced by
the furnaces in the fire-rooms.
A naval officer once wrote, describing
conditions on one Of the monitors: The
scene in the fre-room that morning was
not of this earth. The heat was almost
destructive of life; tools, ladders, doors,
and all fittings were too hot 10 touch, and
the place was dense with smoke escaping
from furnace doors, for there was abso-
lutely no draught The men collected 10
build up the fires were the best of those
remaining fit for duty, but they were
worn out physically, were nervous. APP
prehensive, and dispirited. Rough Irish
firemen, who would stand. in fair fight,
until killed in their tracks were crying
like children and begging TO be allowed
TO go on deck, so completely were they
unnerved and unnamed by the cruel
ordeal they had endured so long. Hell
afioat is a nautical figure Of speech often
idly used, but then we saw IT,"
Ii is both just and pleasant to say that
before this ironclad, the Amphitrite, be-
gan her service In the present war changes
were made in her yentilating system
which gave a marked Improvement In the
temperature below. Her latest reports
give temperatures of 40 degrees Fahren-
heit In the engine-room and l4s degrees
in the fire-room. Monitors especially are
sinners with regard 10 the excessive heat,
which may be regarded as almost an ele-
ment of service upon these low-lying bull
dogs OF the sea. The figures for the
have been already quoted. The
latest temperatures reported from her SIS
ter. the Terror, are 155 degrees in the fire.
room and 40 degrees in the engine-room,
while on the Anantonomoh these tenn
peratures are, respectively, li9 degrees
and l3s degrees. A bare statement OF
these facts gives some idea OF the stead
fast fortitude and heroic resistance which
American human nature is opposing In
this war TO the adverse conditions which
environ it.
IL is however, not only the men behind
the furnace fire who suffer. The man
behind the gun" works also. The COM
OF one of the monitors. who was
lately stricken by apoplexy, arising. |
doubtless, from his arduous service, re- |
ported some months since that his ship |
was almost unbearable for her crew, and |
that there was no place on her for weary |
men to rest. With the suns ray from |
above. the roaring fires beneath, her deck |
was but an oven plate. Without super |
structure TO interpose a blanket OF air |
between them and the baking deck, the |
OF the men was something which |
he laymen in naval matters cannot 4
measure. The conductivity Of the hull
.lso carries the heat in the living quarters
II the officers. 1t is reported that the
.hief engineer OF the Terror was able but
vice in fifteen months to sleep in his
,erth owing TO the uncomfortable tempera-
ure of his room.
on battleships life is more worth living.
they have greater freeboard, are loftier
'etween decks. have a superstructure be-
ween the turrets. and. finally, the policy
,hich has restricted their speed has limit
d also their engine power and the num-
er and volume OF their furnace fires. AS
result there is. relatively speaking. less
eat to be conducted through a greater
mass. with, as consequence. lower
throughout. Even in these!