Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1915-07-22
IN THE ENGINE ROOM
Place of Stress When Battieship
Is in Action.
Fighting Strain Becomes of an lnten-
slty Hard to lmaglne-Deadly
Torpedo the Weapon That
Is Most Feared.

lhelr nunmlng-tnOuBn we cdHHOt
see them-flls the vast space with the
sound as of a million bees let loose.
Near each one hovers a grimy stoker,
oil can in hand, and his duty it is to
see that these monster humming tops
do not lack for fabrication.
Right in front, on the foremost bulk
head of the engine room, are the
telegraph disls and the telephones,
each of which is in connection with
the bridge, and under the direct on
troll of the captain. These are the
things which tell US how the fight is
going, for the keen engineer a read
signs and portents in the changes
which are rung upon the telegraph
dials.
A tremendous thing is the fighting
strain. 1t is bad ever up in the great
turrets where men play their parts in
the grim drama, and hurl death and
destruction at the foe, but down here.
where one does nothing but wait for
orders, it is terrible.
The only man who does not seem to
feel the strain is the one who has ap-
parently the least to do, and that is
the engineer. He, however, is busily do
ing mental arithmetic. He knows how
many revolutions his screws are do
ing per minute, and he realizes that
as yet she has still a little bit of
speed up her sleeve.
By and by that last half knot may
be asked for, and he is calculating
how much speed he will be able to
present the captain with when that
final effort is asked for. No one knows
but he, and he won't tell.
There seems to be a kind of waiting
expression ON most Of the faces, and
If they could tell you what they were
all waiting for it would surprise you.
F., Shut up as they are in a small steel
boxful of machinery, they are not
thinking of the chance of an enemy's
p%rojectile coming through and killing
them, nor are they waiting for death
to come to them in some other man
ner. What they are dreading is that
something should go wrong with their
beloved engines = something thai
would prevent their doing their Bit
in this fight.
They r listening-ever listening
for the hiss Of escaping steam which
will tell them of a main steam pipe
hit and carried away; Tor the shot
that might smash one Of the boilers
into small pieces; for the rattle of the
steering engine as the rudder Is blown
away, and the ship hangs, without {
guide, in the balance.
And then, with a sickening sidelon,
twist and a rattle Of the steering en-
CINE, the floor of the engine roon
takes on a sickening slant. The shi]
has made a sudden and acute turn.
The engineers face turns iron
CHEEKY optimistic red to a fear-strickel
sallow green.
MY God!" he mutters. "Subma
rines!"
Every mar in that engine room an,
every stoker in the stokeholds know
what that sudden and horrible twis
means. 1t means that the ship ha
commenced a quadrille with death
that underwater craft are seeking t
end her life and the fight at the sam
time.
The strained look has gone now
Everyone is eager and anxious to d
but one thing, and that Is to. ODE,
the orders which come down fror
the bridge as fast as they possibl
can be obeyed. The bridge is havin
an anxious time, but the men in tn
depths trust it and reckon it is up t
dealing with the biggest fiotilla Of sui
marines that the enemy owns, an
day.
Then, while the ship is running al
she knows, the unexpected happens
With a louder and more sudden roa
than ever the steering engine rattle
over to hard a port. At precisely tn
same second the telegraph rings Flu,
astern. ~starboard engine. Full ahea
port" The ship takes a horrible hee
as the rudders-two Of them-gri
her; the port screw slows down pc
ceptibly as it feels the mighty colum
of water DETECTED from the ruddet
and the starboard one huns alon
smoothly as it feel the reversed tn,
bine's thrust.
And even as they spin round tn
men can hear the guns putting in goo
work and blazing away for all they al
worth. Ten minutes later the enemy
feet--or what is left of them-ar
steaming for harbor again as fast a
they can go.
Imagine yourself shut up in a cha
tering, humming steel box, with tn
odds on being killed, either by shel
or torpedo explosion, or drowning, {
scalding to death, and with Deaf
himself throwing all sorts of missile
at you which you can't even e cor
ing, and you will have a very goc
idea Of what being in a battleship
engine room is like in a real pitche
battle.