The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1912-08-01

IA shillings a quarter Of wheat:
now 1t Is just over a shilling a
quarter by steamer from New
York to Liverpool. Not all Of the en-
cheering which has brought about
this result has been done in the draw
ing Office and the factory. Much Of 1t
has been done by workingmen who
took the raw inventions out to sea,
struggled with their crudities and put
the needful improvements into the
minds Of the designers ashore. In big
ships and little the process Ia going on
and 1t Is a stern one still In spite OF
modern reflnements. In the old days.
when boiler pressures were SO low
that q steamer had to slow down to
raise enough steam to whistle with,
an upholstered settee was often pro-
vided in the engine room for the use
Of the nan on watch, SO that he need
not stand more than was absolutely
necessary. Today 1. Is probable that
not one seagoing vessel could show
such a thing. A man who cannot walk
about for four hours In the tempera-
ture of a Turkish bath Is not wanted
low.
While the ship Is at sea all the m
gineers except the chief keep two
watches Of four hours each in the
twenty-four. The same nan always
has the same hours. The third engi-
neer takes the IL to 4 a. m. and p. m.
watch, the second takes the 4 to 8 and
the chiefs watch, 8 to IL, Is taken by
The fourth engineer, or by the donkey
man, If there are only three engineers
carried. In this case the chief is q
ways within call. The duties Of wat
keeping largely lie In seeing that I.
Or that does not happen. AS well as
The main engines there are the pumps
and other auxiliary machinery and the
boilers always seeking to go wrong IL
given a chance. Then In port all
hands are busy with the adjustments
hat have been noted down az neces-
sary while the ship was steaming,
and these entail the handling of ire
mendous weights with hand eck on
iy. Such work does not seem very for
nidable, perhaps. but seagoing engi-
neers know that Commander Willetts.
q. s. N, spoke truly Of their work
when he told the American Institute
Of Naval Engineers that sit requires
the most strenuous and exacting atten-
ton of any known pursuit. and. while
requiring skill and intelligence to ac-
complish we'll, it has to be performed
under such severe stresses and in such
dirt and heat as to rob 1t OF all interest
except in its speedy completion.
In he Silent Hours.
An engineer does o readily forget
his first voyage or that first night In
the graveyard" watch az to 4 a.. m.)
when he sat on a bucket to consider
The novelty Of his surroundings and re-
vile the heat, and woke up from a few
seconds of troubled sleep to find the
chief engineer vigorously kicking the
bucket away from under him. In a
Few weeks he becomes ashamed Of
wanting to sit, even in the tropics;
but he has not conquered human weak
ness even then, for after a few voy-
ages nature will have provided him
with the trick Of sleeping while he
soiemnly PAGES the engine o Usu-
ally this only happens after a spell of
e~xhausting labor. such as Is conse-
1uent on breakdowns, and usually It
only lasts until he walks into the boil
er-room bulkhead and wakes. feeling
foolish and uncanny. after, perhaps,
Gfteen seconds Of jerky somnambula-
ton. Then he learns to keep a bucket
OF cold water handy to dip his head in
to, and the same intelligence that con-
trives this antidote warns him that II
were unwise to mention the circum-
stance In the messroom. Indeed. q
hint e. even feeling sleepy Ia as hor-
rifyins TO the ear az the smell Of a
heated bearing Is to the nostril. A
hot bearing once smelt Is never for
gotten. It Is not by any means an
overpowerine smeli-just burning OIL
but to the man on whose watch II
occurs 1t reeks of certain disgrace.
When he has eased the engines and
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