The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-01-01

another Spanish ship would have escaped.
So much for having engines in order, boil
ers ready, fires burning. Here was ship
after 15,000-mile run. four months OUT of
dock, with foul bottom, and increased dis
placement, almost equaling her trial trip
record for speed. And she fought as she
ran. Inside of fifteen minutes after the
full-speed signal was given, she was max
ing fifteen knots. Within an hour she
was making nearly seventeen"
Mr.. Warren tells how. coming down the
Pacific the Oregon had Cardiff coal under
her boilers When she got into the At
lantic she had to pick up inferior coal, and
then Miligan, who had a few hundred
tons of Cardiff left, shoveled them into the
fighting bunkers for an emergency. on
the day of the battle Milligan unlocked
the fighting bunkers and the Cardiff coal
helped the Oregon to make her burst of
speed.
The Lot of the Engineers.
IF you were sealed up in a heated iron
tank floating on the sea and hammered at
by missiles which now and then let in
daylight and splinters, YOU would get a
dim idea of the lot of the engineers men
aboard a battleship in action. But the en-
gineer's men have TO work in the hurly-
burly, and you would so mad in your
tank. The enemy's shot pounds the ship
DQl TIC NtlSlilCEI anu MS men hilOW AlOt
where the enemy is or where the ship is
heading. And they can't stop to think
about it. Keep that bearing cool, smoth-
er it in Oil, drown it in water! Keep il
cool, or the games up!
% The men on deck can let the splinters
lie where they fall but the men in the
engine room have to keep the splnters
out of the machinery. Steam pipes are
pierced. Mend EN-. Crawl behind the
boilers and stop that steam leak. Impos-
sibe to shut off anything. Scaled? New
er mind. It's all in the days work. Don't
let the water down. Pass the coal lively.
And, while you're about 1t, put out that
fire in the bunkers. Grimy men, dripping
with sweat, go about quietly, with clear
heads watching everything. There's no
bawling, no unusual noise, no confusion.
In the lower engine rooms the Their
mometer shows 1856 degrees in front of the
ventilating blowers; in the upper engine
rooms 1870 degrees. Men dart into the up
per rooms twice an hour or so, look around
for minute or two, and then dart out
again There on the hot sea, on July 8,
the temperature above the boilers of the
Texas was sometimes 200 degrees!
THE fighting engineers! BY old-tlme
tradition, dating from the days when
steam power was merely an auxiliary to
wind power, the naval engineers are
| thought of as non-comDatants Shlps
change, and duties change. The engineer
is now combatant as truly as the man
on the bridge or the man behind the gun.
| The modern fighting ship is a fighting
machine; her efficiency depends upon the
| engineer.
THE engineer of the merchant service
! has authority which the naval engineer
| does not possess. 1t is now proposed, in
the United states navy, 10 improve on the
| practice of the merchant service. Enlight-
! ened opinion favors the plan for abolish
| ing the distinction between line and staff
! Engineer officers are TO be officers of the
! line All line officers are 10 be taught en-
| cheering.
"A generation hence the anomalies OF
! the present service will have passed away
| The line officer of the future viii know
| the engine room as well as the wheel
| house and the bridge, for he will serve
| below as well as above. Meanwhile moth
! ing will be lost if we remember what the
! fighting engineers did to save the day al
Santiago"