The Ocala evening star., 1915-08-18


There is a man in the navy who is
too often forgotten, even by the au-
thorities, when they are "dishing out
rewards and praise for successful op- |
erations at sea, and that man is the /
man who makes the wheels 90 round /
inside the ship.
If the wheels stop then the modern |
warship lies ON the water like an arm |
ed tin can, waiting for some one TO sail
round it, plug it full of holes and
sink it.
A fighting ship, to put up any sort
of battle at all, must be able to get on
with it at the rate Of knots, as the sail
ors say when they mean at high speed,
and the men who make that possible
are the engineers and the stokers. Thc
engineer officers are highly skilled
scientists, with no use for the fear OF
death.
The stoker, far below the waterline,
shovels coal, and he gathers there Is
battle on, when there Is, by the fact
that he has To work twice as hard as
he thought he could, and by the infer
| nal racket made by the guns, and by
| the projectiIes of the enemy, which
have found q new home aboard the
| ship.
He has none Of the glory and the fine
| thrill of battle-Only an increase In
| his ordinary work.
He works by lamplight to keep steam
up. and he knows there has been vic
| tory when some one tells him, unless
| he happens to be working in his
"snare' time at the ammunition hOists
4 near the roaring guns.
/ Even now in many ships and once'tn
all the engineer officers and their men
are shut down in their working place,
and they cannot get out, for it Is nee
essary for them to so be closed up. 1t Is
not. of course, necessary to keep them
there to make them do their work, but
because the ships engines run under
forced draft, and the only way TO get
that is to batten down the stokeholds.
, They become, in fact, part of the pipe,
If one can call it that, along which the
air is pumped to the fires to make them
burn more fiercely, just as one bucks up
the kitchen range with the bellows. ii
!. the matches leading to the upper decks
r were open the air would be pumped
;. out through them and would not pass
il through the white hot furnaces.
nj If she is tOrpedoed and sinks sud
denly down go the engineers and the
stokers without the chance of swim
ming for it as the others have whe1
the order Each man for himself!' 1:
given by the executive officer in charge
. | of the vessel.
In the case of the oil driven war
ships there is not, it need hardly b'
said. that added risk for the engine
| room staff. There is no need to shu
them down, and in case Of sinkin;
: they have no further risk than tina
entailed by the time taken for the or
der to get down to them and for then
to get up on deck. They are, however
= the people most likely TO go to frag
ments when a torpedo comes knocking
on the ships side, or, rather, dow
i, among her foundations.
d And there are steam pipes filed wit
L scalding and sudden death, flooding tn
engine room in an instant with bitinG
binding, soaring fog, somewhere abov
boiling point, for high pressure steaI
is hotter stuff than comes out OF tn
spout of a kettle. A shell through tn
main steam pipes, and goOdby to thos
:, who are near the damage.
y The engineer officer knows all TIL
l. aIaS often has seen some of the thing
e that can happen taking place on
small but significant scale. While tt
gunners get the glory he watches I'll
wheels go round, listens not to IL
/ nP oh or hn
strokes of projectiles on armOr plat
& but to the telltale songs of the cor
ID plex mechanisms over which he pr
al sides with the GOODNESS OF naval o
flcer, the skill of man Of science al
the tenderness of Red Cross nurse.
Every moment may be the last IN
ment the life in his body has, but
must not think of that
% Down there in the bowels of Il
rv fighting ship he must keep his mil
~ clear to think of n thousand detail
and he must do il without any of Il
exhilaration that comes from watchiI
the effect of the guns on the enemy
- ships.
He never sees n shot go home;
never sees an enemy's flag pulled dow
ON in defeat.
all He sees only his engines and the M
o! tending them.
NJ. If all goes well and the enemy ru
! or strikes the engineer command
- hears all about it at mess. If thin
go wrong he feels it quite unmfsta
Ks ably in his person
% Get one unlucky shot into the engt
ay room and it is up to him. SO long
est volition Is left to him, TO put that thi
ire right, and he must not draw fires un
there is not another thing he can
first. In battle SO long as there IS
dogs chance to do so he must ke
steam up. for steam is the breath
life to the ship. and he must take ris
when he is making repairs that woJ
give the landsman spasms- - Lond
zIa Answers
is
Charity begins at home. but don't
d selfishness start there too. - Detr