The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-06-09
TRANSATLANTIC CREWS.
From Ainslce's Magazine.

The men of chief Importance in driv-
ing the modern ocean liner are the men
in the engine rooms. They are seldom
seen by the passengers except possibly
at the end of a voyage, when they
emerge, grimy and backened as
strange imps, to get a breath of the
fresh air which has been denied them
so long. Their labor is the hardest
labor that men perform anywhere,
and it is carried on far down in the
depths of the vessel, where the usual
temperature is far above one hundred
degrees. Out of the crew of half
thousand men, 200 are likely to make
up the engine room department. These
are divided between the stokers, who
feed the glowing furnaces, the trimmers,
who bring the coal to the furnace
mouths, and the greasers, who keep the
machinery bright and in running order.
1t is a curious fact that with all the
advance that has been made in me-
chanical appliances, no substitute has
been found for hand labor in the feed
ing of the steamship furnaces. Nor is
1t likely that the shovel and the fire
rake can be dispensed with in favor Of
an automatic system of furnace feed
ing until some form of liquid fuel comes
into general adoption.
BY far the largest contingent Of en-
ployes on any modern ocean steamer is
that which is devoted to looking after
the well-being of passengers. This is
divided into bedroom stewards and
stewardesses, dining-room Stewards
walters we should call them on land
cooks, scullions, storekeepers and gall
ley employees of many kinds. On a
great steamship there are likely to be
one hundred bedroom stewards, half a
hundred dining-room stewards, and as
many more galley employees of all
ranks.
The ordering of such an army re-
quires the perfect organization that al
ways excites admiration on shipboard.
While the captain holds supreme au-
thority each department Is in the
charge of a chief officer. The sailors
are under the direction of the first Of
ticer, the engine room is directed abso-
lutely by the chief engineer, and the
host of persons employed to care for
the passengers are under the direction
of the purser, with the chief steward
as his first assistant.
The ocean steamship has frequently
been compared to a great hotel, but in
reality it is more like a. floating city
in the variety of its interests and oc-
cupations. For example, the problem
before the commissary department is
| not merely that of feeding so many
hundred people each day. The human
freight of a great steamer is divided
into many classes and families, and
| for each of these separate provision
must be made No less than twenty
meals are served daily on board a
| big steamship, and each of these meals
must be separately ordered and pre-
| pared, The manner in which the
meals are arranged and the amount
of foodstuffs required for them will
| give an idea of the scale on which the
entire organization of a great ocean
| liner lies.
On the afternoon of each day the
| chief steawrd retires to his Office and
makes out list of the various menus
for the following day. AS soon as
these are completed they are turned
over to the ships printer, who prints
them off on small hand press. They
are then given to the various chief
cooks--thc meat cook. the baker the
chief pastry cook, the confectioner
| and so on. Each of these estimates
the amount of the various materials
which he will require, and these lists
when signed by the chief steward, be-
! come acquisitions upon the store