The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-03-18
A MODERN SHIP
Steam Nov Takes The Place Of
Muscle.
DEVICES THAT LESSEN LABOR
Little Romance Left In the Sailor
LIfe-Creat Changes Made
In Recsnt Years.
DEVICES THAT LESSEN LABOR
Washington Starr

nave also renewed JACK at anu MS
officers of most of the soul-ki.ling work
and a majority OF the perlls which
formerly made their practical lives
anything but romantic in fact.
Most of the modern ships heavy
work is done by machinery. and the
orders for its doing are conveyed. not
by the hoarse note OF the speaking
trumpet" but by precise electrical i'm
pulses communicated through the
agency OF the acknowledgements
telegraph.
Only old-fashioned wooden vessels or
coasters of inconsiderable tonnage de-
pend today upon the beef and Drawn
OF the men in their forecastles for the
performance OF those tasks of drudgery
which in the days of yore occupied
much of a sailors time and made OF
his existence afioat and alongside the
dock OF arrival or departure a burden
10 be borne only in the hope OF easier
times in the future.
The modern ocean-going vessel. IL
her means OF propulsion steam or sails.
and be her business the carrying OF
freight, passenger or mails, Is equipped
with a great variety OF mechanical de-
vices which relieve the men of her
company OF most OF the work demand
ing nothing hut physical exertion. In
cidentally. these devices. OF course. re-
duce the numbers OF men employed I'm
the ships, on the man-per-ton ratio.
and make necessary the presence in the
lforecastles and engine rooms OF high
er quality of intelligence than was nee
essary under the simple old system.
But the reduction of men is COM
pensated by the multiplicity OF the
ships. and the circumstance OF con
Stantly increasing tonnage.
Doubtless romance or picturesque ef-
feet suffers in the substitution OF a
putting. rafting m-windlass for the
old-fashioned capstan around which
thirty men crept in slow. circular pro-
cession, timing their steps TO the
cadence of a sailors ''chantey.' as they
laboriously broke out an anchor or
warped their craft To- mid-stream pre-
paratory to sailing.
The "chantey's" characteristic words
and music would be drowned in the
clatter OF pistons and cogs aboard n
modern ship. but the anchor comes
aboard in half the time it used to- take
TO hoist it, and the thirty men may
be bending intelligent effort to- per
forming tasks more important and in
finitely less straininss than that OF rails
ing il.
So. too, with the work OF hosting
the heavy sails aboard a modern
lfrsighter. which depends upon canvas
for its mobility. In the old days a ship
OF 500 tons would perforce carry a crew
OF sixty men. When sail was TO b.
made or shortened quickly the yards
of her thin spars would swarm with
agile figures. long lines OF men would
tail on to her braces. halliards and
stays. and the canvases would labor
iously rise in regular impulses to the
| lugubriouS measures OF a song.
| The sailing ship today carries don
key engines, steam windlasses ut every
hatch for hosting cargo. and another
on her forecastle for use in handling
the anchors. She has steam "'gypSies'
fed from her donkey boilers. ~ every
maSt-foot. and the work of getting her
anchor or hosting her canvas involves
only the expert effort OF an engineer
and a dozen or so men aloft. who. as
they perform the light labor of loosing
recipients and overhauling clewgar-
nets. do not think of Paddy Jones
or his traditional boots unless IL be to
offer up a thanksgiving that the system
associated with their memory has
passed.
| But the profitable ship OF today.
freighter or liner. is the ste1m-driVen.
twin-screwed carrier OF tremendous
tonnage and high speed. She earns
dividends where the best of the sailing
ships eat up their profits in delays due
TO wind and weather-even after the
important item of coal consumption
has been taken into account. And the
profitable ship is profitable because ap-
piled science has substituted the
machine which draws no wage for the
man. who must be paid. and because
the coal she burns gives her practical
/ independence of the moods OF wind.
wave and current.
The modern freight carrier and the
modern ocean greyhound" differ only
/ in their interior arrangements and eX-
terror lines. One is a floating hotel
built for high speed; the other a float
! ing warehouse built for cargo capacity
and steady going. Their machinery.
with few individual peculiarities, Is
/ the same. and of that machinery there
+ is no end-at least 10 the eye OF lay
man.
! Most OF the new ships OF the mer-
chant marine are propelled by twin
screws driven each by a triple eXpln-
! sion engine of highest efficiency. \
dozen double-end Scotch boilers supply
their main and auxiliary engines with
steam at a pressure OF $50 to GOO
pounds to- the square inch.
! Besides the main engines. a modern
vessel will contain in the depths below
her water line, and on her decks. from
ten TO thirty smaller engines. each
! aian-S1 for if= snacfaI uurno=a The