The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-09-02
REALISTIC DESCRIPTION
One of the Cylinders on the Port En-
CINE Blows Up.
MARROW ESCAPE OF FIFTEEN FlREMEN
Rushing Through the Seas With Stacks BeIct'
ing Flame, the Men Below Working in
Temperature Of l20 Degrees.
Time 24:64 KNOBS.
Time 24:64 KNOBS.
Boston. July &c, 10


From Letters 10 His Parents:
You will be surprised to hear that
/ am in Boston, and | did not know
that | was coming until two hours
before starting.
The Russians, the Cramps as yet,
had trouble with their electrical ma
chinery on the ''Variag' and the Off
GERS Of the General Electric Company
sent me to straighten out whatever
defects or mistakes had been made IN
locating the plant in the vessel. | ar
rived on Tuesday night, with instruc-
tions to go as soon as possible to the
"Variag." / found my way to the
wharf and found a tug that took me
out next morning.
The Variag was at anchor three
miles down the harbor, and 1T dld not
take me long to reach the cruiser.
The Russians as we'll as Mr.. Cranp
seemed very glad to see me, as they
were going to run speed test tha1
day, and they wanted everything IN
perfect order. | went below and looked
over all the wiring of the electric
plant. or at least all l could get at,
for it is a perfect network all over
L -
her besides the three triple eXpan-
sion sets.
The trouble they had coming from
Philadelphia was in the after gener
ating set, or the set that generates
electricity for the steering motors
They came very near having bad
accident the day before. About the
time they were passing schooner
the aft generator set became unman-
ageable and they only missed the
schooner twenty feet, going at fall
sDeed.
found out what was the matter as
soon as / looked at the machine, as Il
had not been properly arranged ana
in an hour or two | made the neces-
sary correction and everything work
ed all right.
| can hardly describe the run we
had, for L did not see much of 1t as
7 was down four decks below the wa
ter. Keeping those generators going
From the way the ship moved | know
we must have been going at high
speed. but did not know at the time
that it was a record breaker, we having
made 24.64 knots. She is the fastest
cruiser in the world. Such feat as
that performed by this sea rover,
which is the Russian meaning OF the
name, is unparalleled in naval annals
as no giant fighter OF the seas ever
made such record.
On Saturday the first test will be
made a run of twelve hours far out
at sea. I can only hope that every
thing will be all right, as the speed
as we'll as the rudder depends ON
these sets that | have charge of. The
fest costs $1,000 a day. There are $50
men aboard.
Schenectady, n. Y, Aug. /, 1900.
| am back in Schenectady again af-
ter most exciting cruise on the
s'Variag.'' | think | have had enough
of the ocean for a little while and eX-
element enough to do Il month or so,
Will tell you something of the trip.
We started from Boston about ii
a. M. Saturday and went straight out
to sea for one hundred miles before
the real test was to begin. One would
wonder why we went out so far and
and did not speed up from the start.
1t was because, they say, propeller
catches a frmer grip on the water
where it is deep than where it is shall
low / don't know why but they say
it is so. l guess they had it deep
enough one hundred miles out. we
went the hundred miles out in about
five hours, for nothing was speeded
up, just warmed up good for the
twelve hour dash she was to make.
At A d. H., or about $3.50, we started
up the big forced draft motors and
at o'clock sharp every piece OF ma
chinery in the entire ship was going
The sixteen furnaces were 1lred sc
heavily that pure flame shot Is or 2t
feet out of the four stacks. The
steam pressure in the boilers Wen'
from $50 pounds to 275 pounds. ! hao
my same post as | did on the we'd
nesday before, taking care OF the an
dynamo room. | dressed as scantllS
as possible as the temperature was
100 degrees when | started my ma
chinery, but in Is minutes it was liz
degrees and in less than an hour i
was 100 degrees, reaching its climax
in the fourth hour when it stood a
1913 degrees. | was relieved at 10 p
m. on the end of the first half of The
test. Of course I could run up to &
port hole every now and then to get
q breath of fresh air, but did not have
time to go on deck. After the enc
of six hours / was relieved fol-
two hours. / wish you could have
seen the sight / saw when | went OF
deck. There was no need of lamps
although very dark night, for tht
flames out of the stacks lighted III
the ship as if there had been hous'
on fire close by.
BY looking down into the engine
pit / could see the big triple expan
sion engines working away as il the,
were trying to tear themselves loose
I went up forward, and although
calm. the sea was tumbling owe
the bows and spray going fifty fee
on each side.
Just as / went back to the aft par
of the ship again, word came to M
from below that one of the forced
draft motors had burned up or some