Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-06-15
THE FULL SPEED TRIAL
EXPERIENCES ON A wARsHIP UNDER
FORCED DRAUGHT.
A Light Breeze Converted Into Half
q Gale of Wind by the
Motion.
From the London Globe.

From the London Globe.
The midshipman of the morning watch.
standing aft. barefooted, on the sounding
machine platform. watches the gaiieys
crew closing the captains watertght door
to the sternwalk wonders little, and goes
down to call his relief. A grimy stoker.
easing off the funnel guys, gives the last
turn to the screws, takes his last breath
of fresh air. and climbs down and down
again into the stokehold-the place where
heat is being converted into energy. Inc
boatswain looks over the bows, and sees
that the wire slip rope is arranged to his
liking The powers that be appear on the
bridge; a few calm orders are given. passed
and received, the effect of which is to
change the state OF the ship which con-
tains the midshipman, the stoker. the boat
swain and the powers from state OF being
lat anchor to that of being under way,
and then to that of being under way and
moving through the water slowly at first,
to get clear of the harbor, then increasing
every ten minutes as the speed is worked
up for four hours full speed trial.
And now muftied and shaky message
comes up to the bridge that the trial mas
begun. Yes, surely it has; do not three OF
your five senses tell you so? Climb up on
the shaking bridge, it is there; go down to
the cinder-covered quarterback, it Is there'
go into the uttermost parts of the screw
alley, it is there also. On the bridge trem-
bling as if it would wrench itself on the
coming tower. the officer of the watch Is
glad to get behind the shelter of the glass
screen, for the speed has converted a Hght
breeze into half a gale of WIND; ne can
there watch, with little more comfort
~ pff
passed by, as if at anchor. and incidentally
the white curling wave at either bow, the
leadsman in the chains with his chinstay
down, trying to heave his lead against the
wind and the lookout trying to find lee
behind the 3-pounder gun shield.
OF a sudden comes a deep-toned roar, as
OF the loudest note Of a giant organ played
fortissimo, sound which indicates that
one boiler, at least. has reached its safe
working load and cries with Its huge lungs
Enough From the tunnels no black
smoke energies from the Welsh coal, but
transparent vapor, which, mingllng with
the feathery waste steam, strangely Warps
the mainmast and streaming pennant seen
through it; their gay canary color Is peel
black patches that will soon spread all over
them. The foremost one is rocking to and
fro from the vibration. The officer OF the
watch turns again and takes another look
at a tramp, which is being rapidly over
hauled, and his thoughts, directed by noise
and shaking and speed turn to thinking of
the real thing or how often one could
hit the opponent, passing with an equal
speed. at what range he would open fire, OF
what terribly short time would eiapse be-
tween the sighting and the fighting OF the
enemy. of what he would do in that short
space with his own guns in the classmates
down below. But he dismisses such blood
and thunder thoughts for lighter ones as ne
sees his relief coming forward. Three
hours of the four have passed; the roar of
the safety valves has ceased. There is no
more waste steam, the Stokers are begin
ming to struggle with dirty" fires, in order
to keep the required steam: the smoke
comes a little less transparent both fun
nels are now black all over. Still the vibra-
ton, the Intoxicating sense of extreme pos
sible speed. The officer of the watch looks
at the log on the charthouse table. signs 1t,
and says to his relief that it Is as near
twenty may be. saving the odd shillings
and pence, the drop of oil wanting in the
cherub log, and perhaps the personal error
of the small midshpman. The relief opens
his mouth to eXclaim "Ah. good!' when a
wicked little wave top of spray catches him
in the face and makes him sputter instead
and seek shelter behind the screen. The
small nidshipman is again standing aft
the sounding machine platform, now clothed
and in his right mind; he no longer Won
ders at the doings of the galieys crew. A
seething, white mass of water, reaching
half way to the upper deck, clings to and
bols round the stern, so that he is thinking
that If he fell overheard into it he would
stay close to the ship, and be able to pull
mmSeiI up again Dy lIle SleTHWdlk STAN
chions; and lest he may get giddy and do it.
he glanceS over the quarter to one side, and
sees the water, rudely heaped into breaking
waves, tearing past at twenty knots. He
thinks better of 1t, knowing that he would
be good mile astern before boat could
be lowered, and goes below, to find his
overhead locker shaken down and all his
household gods and the photographs of all
the only girls he ever loved strewn about
the gun room and on the deck, wet from a
leaking scuttle. He picks them up and,
looking round to see that none of his mer-
CHESS messmates have seen the dance
program with the little bit of golden hair
sticking out puts them away, more safely,
in the private till of his chest.
Just open one of the doors leading down
to the engine room, and look down upon
the mighty beatings of the vessels heart;
take the proffered bit of cotton waste and
go down backward, holding on to both
rails. and keep your elbows to yourself;
and as you descend realize more and more
fully that here, here indeed, is the full
speed trial itself in all its glory. The noise
of twenty different engines strikes the ear,
lectively. each one at Its own particular
task; the dynamo, the circulating pump,
the air fan, and so on, all damned and
crammed into the engine room below the
water the sure armor that makes shot and
shell to ricochet, the stopping of any one
of which by some small rod breaking or
smaller pin coming out would, directly or
indirectly, cause the speed Of the ship to
slacken, more or less. according to the rela-
tive Importance of that particular engine.
Above all these smaller noises is the labored
pulsation of the main engines. with the
massive crank heads swishing round at a
rate seemingly quite disproportionate to
their size, looking like gigantic prizefght-
er hitting out increasingly The engineer
above on the cylinder. taking diagram with
nmble fingers. hears like trained band
master. out of the thousand and one DIFF
ferent noises. great and small, that GER
tain small engine is knocking out of tune
and goes down to about 1t accordingly.
Between the throbbng cylinders, crouching
on the platform, are stokers. in their fear
nought trousers and flannel Shirts fairly
reveling grease and oil, squirting the
latter here and there with long brass
squirts. feeling a cross head for It's heat,
squirting oil again on the piston rod, then
to work with spanner where a leaky joint
is announced by a kissing of steam at every
stroke, and SO round again. And they seem
to like 1t.
Go and see boilers boiling. Open one of
the air-locked doors. and ciose it before at
tempting to open the other If you don't
want to get blown away by the half-inch
forced draught you will let loose. Now open
the other and enter a regular pocket infer
no. oh. the awful heat of 1t! See those
black devils, each pair of white eyes and
a dim outline, moving about in the uncer-
fair Efpbt nf Nit f,l 81,