Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1898-06-10
THE TRUEST HEROS.
WHO 1T WAS THAT ENABLED
DEWEY TO WIN.

! In FrIShtful Heat anu icNSrlSn
Haste They Toll Without the
Joy of Combat and Hopeless if
the Vessel Sinks - Valor as
Great as That of the Fighting
Heroes Displayed by the StOkers.
Oilers and Watermcn of a Ship
in Action.
While all civilized nations are prais-
ing gallant Commodore Dewey and
his brave sailors for their glorious
work in Manila, it has remained for
Herbert Elliot Hamblen, writing in
the New York World, to remember
that there are Others equally deserv-
ing, if less conspicuous. Far down, in
the very bottom of each of those great
steel floating forts where the exhilerat-
ing roar Of the thirteen-inch guns is
hardly noticeable, and the vicious
splitting of the machine guns is
drowned by local noises; where the
pungent powder smoke never pene-
trates and the giant furnaces blaze at
white heat; where the temperature is
unbearable, except to the initiated, are
"The Heroes of the Fire-Room."
Stripped to their waists, with blood
shot eyes and heaving chests, perform
ing severe manual labor in an atmos-
phere the laymen could not breathe,
the perspiratiOn spurts in tiny jets
with each contraction of the tense
muscles as these grimy slaves toll at
their inhuman labor.
Ships in action must be prepared to
exert their highest speed at a moments
notice. That famous last shot of the
Puritan at Matanzas-a bulls eye at
two and one-half miles-would never
have ploughed its fateful furrow in
in the Spanish earthworks had but
one of the machines concerned-from
the main engine which placed the ship
to that which trained the gun-failed
of power at the critical moment.
The commander in the coming
tower, the officers and men ut the
guns and the engineers at their posts
would be helpless should the various
machines not respond to the touch of
the levers.
To furnish this power, to have the
steam, compressed air, electric current
or hydraulic liquid always ready and
waiting at the required pressure, these
broad.backed, muscular fellows toll
increasingly in their miniature inferno.
And they work under difficulties.
The rigid economy of space required
to accommodate the ships mechanism
causes boiler capacity to be reduced to
its utmost limits. Then, with the un.
familiar fuel which the exigencies of
war force them to pick up in out-of-
the-way ports, the firemen's task fire.
Quently assumes the character OF q
conundrum.
But they are firemen, and are ex-
pected to know how to overcome the
insurmountable. They have been
trained to the business, and there is no
excuse. On the successful result of
their labor depends the safety Of the
ship, and, very largely, the result Of
the battle, if not, indeed, the life of the
nation itself. This is no time to be
short of steam; there is no occasion
for it.
And so while officers and sailors are
fighting like heroes in turrets and
tops, enthused by the sights and
sounds Of conflict, their nostrils breath.
!! ing the glorious odor of gunpowder.
The heroes of the fire-room labor and
slave in ignorance of the history.mak-
ing that is going on about them.
They have no knowledge of how the
fight is going. Theiy are driven to
death to keep the indicator OF the
steam gauge up to working pressure.
1t is the last five pounds that counts,
both in effectiveness at the throttle
and in the killing labor of the fire.
room. Hundreds OF machines are in
operation-all there are. The engi-
neer's department is pushed to the
limit. The men handling these ma.
chimes have--as they suppose-more
important things to consider than the
economical use of steam.
If the boilers and engines may prop
erly be called the heart and lungs of
the ship, then the steam is its blood
and breath, Without which the entire
mass would become but dead and in
ert body.
TO keep an abundant supply OF this
vital circulating medium is the
province OF the hero of the fire-rOom.
The word filters down to him-some
way-that an enemy's ship has struck
her colors, or battery has been sill
enced. He is vaguely glad of it, but
wishes they should shut off some of
the engines long enough to give him a
chance to clean his fires. The num-
berless open throttles about the ship
are equivalent to big hole knocked
in the steam space of his boilers. A
feed pump forces a continual stream
OF water into them, and this he must