The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1910-07-27
DOWN IN THE STOKE-HOLF
OF LINER AND TRAMP

,s the ocean liner, juggled into
..a-stream by tugs, passed into the
aro If the pilot up on the navigat-
~ bridge and began her five-day
rovage to Europe, slowly gathering
nov down the North river, one would
,.ro sworn that If any body of men
-,ore hard at it it would be the fire
van Those on the promenade deck
.iotured their sweating forms, heav-
mo muscles and magnificent physical
avortions in the depths below.
oThey are the men that make the
.bin 90. said a distinguished look
ing person to writer on the New
York Press. "Firing's one of the
a,ost wonderful sights on shipboard.
wish we could see them now"
You'd be disappointed if you
Aid answered quiet, plainly
Sre man alongside of him.
"Tbree-ouarters of the stokers down
tboro are dead drunk-lost to the
world. It'll be twenty-four hours
bafora the forces in real shape.
mont tell me; | know. I've been a
Sims engineer myself"
dBut we're moving, going faster
and faster" the first speaker said,
plainly puzzled,
oCprtainly we are, and we'll keep
increasing speed. We've a full head
If steam, if one can judge by the
steam drifting from the safety valves.
That's nothing. Mail ship people
discovered long ago how to get a
boat out-even if practically all the
stokers were incapacitated When
the stokers come aboard they are
almost absolutely helpless from
boozing. Perhaps if they weren't
tbey'd never come back at all"
The stoker and the problems con-
corning him interested the passen-
ger. and the next day when the liner
was well out at sea he sought out
in the smoking room the plain look
ing stranger who had said he had
been an engineer, and began to ask
him questions.
you're right enough " answered
the eX-engineer. ITO my mind there
isn't a more interesting laborer than
the ships firemen or stOker, call him
whichever you please. He's what you
outsiders would think he wasn't. In
the first place, he's hard to get. We
who run ships have to take just what
comes. We can't pick and choose
It's no kind of calling to attract a
man. 1t needs a rover, a half vaga-
bond, who at times can show splendid
strength and staying power. These
men drink; they drink deep, and
they drink most just before they sail
We must take 'em as they are or go
without Others would not be any
different
The questioner recalled what he
had heard of the terrific heat of the
furnace rooms. The eX-engineer con-
frmed that, and told him how it was
usually $50 degrees, a temperature
that could not be realized by a cas-
ual visitor, but whose horrors grew
and grew on the man who had to do
the tercest sort of manual labor in
1t. 1t was not, however, until he
had mentioned that there was hardly
trip made by even the best organ
lzed mail steamer that a stoker was
not buried at sea, and that on the
tramp steamers in the equatorial
African trade sometimes as many as
nall a dozen would be dropped over
BOARD IN the course of a long voy-
age, mat the miseries of these men S
lives were revealed.
How do you manage them" the
passenger asked, his sympathies thor
oughly aroused.
We take them as we find them, -
returned the other. "Now, on a ship
IKE this mail steamer l know what
mas happened as we'll as if I had
Oeen below all the time. In the first
pace when leaving the home port a
regular gang Of shore firemen-whO
nave mad sea experience, of course
Cone on duty the evening before to
Hsht up and get the fires in good
condition The furnaces have al
ready been filled with coal. It
"ouId be out of the question to eX-
pecl the men who set the fires away
~ coal the bars, as we call it. These
men wheel barrow loads of blazing
wal from the boilers which supply
SIeam IN port for the cargo winches
anu dynamos to the dead boilers,
throwing a shovelful of fire in the
mouln OF each furnace You'd be
S&uipflSed to see how a little nursing
OiI LI5 the whole into a blazing mass.
g "nen sailing time arrives the
IRE. are all burning brightly and
% 1.,1 IS carried close to blowing-off
t The forced-draft fans are all
I'm tpluIng slowly just sufficient to keep
Va ae" III condition for being set away
n ~ t" hurry when needed. At the last
t LiHule the shore men throw down
u yI9lI Snoyels and depart, and here is
mnn- lhe science of handling COM
no1I,' Forward the men are sup
io Tr0o TO be getting ready to go be-
NM, ouI not man makes a move
T T,I me engineers come after them.
or 'ue tramp stOkers, they cOnsid-
dru., their duty to come aboard
Sto IuA' put as there are many more
tyr ,,V,S on mail steamer of the
# ~ y lnah there ever are on a tramp
iro 40 out of the question to try the
'NA udud treatment with +bor, Ono