Year: 1867

On cold frosty December, a few years ago,
was q passenger on board the fine steamer Queen,
from London to. The voyage is not very
long one, but we were several days at sea, and du-
ring that time T struck up pretty much OF an ac-
uuaintance with the secondengineer OF the ship
I have always had taste, rather imaginative than
scientific, for watching the working of powerful
machinery; the evenings were too cold to allow OF
INV remaining long on deck; and was often glad
to exchange, for time, the saloon-stove for the
bright glow of the boiler-furnaces and the COM
pany Of the passengers for a-chat in the engine
room with my friend the engineer. Ten o'clock in
the evening, when it was his watch, generally found
me seated by his side on the platform that ran a.
round the tops of the cylinders whence ne could IN
a moment hear any word passed from the deck,
had immediate access to the handles of the engines
could see the free doors and smoke-hole, with the
glass gauges in front of the boilers and whilst
Chatting with me, could be constantly alive to the
smallest escape of steam, or the least jarrlng or
chrping sound, which toldto practiced eyes or ears
that something about the machinery required lu-
brication or adjustment.


There was nothing very remarkable about my
acquaintance, Angove; he was simply an honest,
straightforward, intelligent, sefedueated mechan-
ic; one, in short, Of class very numerous among
our steamboat-engineers He was about forty years
of age, and had spent nearly half that time at sea-
in many services and in all parts Of the world. lie
had been in action on board of Brazilian steam
sloop; and nearly died from the intense heat in the
engine-room of Peninsula & Oriental boat in the
Red Sea had been wrecked in West India mail
steamer, and afterward discharged from the ser
vice for a smuggling transaction, with which he
vowed that he himself had really nothing to do !;
was, at the time the Crimean war broke out, serv-
ing on board Russian steamer, which OF course
he left as soon as possible; had served on board
river-boat on the Mississippi, and another on the
Hooghly; and had seen many a stranger event IN
these and other services from the plain matter
offact point of view natural to his temperament
and education.


One evening we were slipping along. fast under
steam and canvas, with the wind and sea on the
was rolling good deal. l came shivering OFT the
deck, where [ had been smoking cigar In the
moonlight, and seated myself in my accustomed
place on the engine-room platform, enjoying the
warm glow from the furnaces. Angoye had just
lit cigar which I gave him. when slight escape
of steam from one of the valyc-stung boxes arrest
ed his attention. The platform on which we had
our seat was on level with the tops Of the cylin-
ders, with railing nearly breast-high between it
and the engines; and to get at the stuHing-box in
question it was necessary, in order to avoid being
struck by the bars of the parallel motion, to wait
until the engine took her down-stroke, and then
vault in over the rail to the top Of thecyEndercov-
er, before she came up again. Taking spanner,
to screw downthe gland, Angove awaited the prop
er moment and vaulted over tue rail; but at that
instant the ship took heavier roll than ordinary
his foot slipped on the greasy, sloping surface of
the false cover, and he had the narrowest escape
possible from being precipitated headlong among
the working parts Of the machinery. He saved
himself just in time by catching hold of the cylin-
der cross-head but this cross-head worked up to
within half an inch of one Of the deck beams, and
before he could withdraw his hand the two were
nearly close together; the smallest conceivable space
of time longer and his hand would have been crush
ed between them and close work was it, indeed,
and he actually felt the squeeze, and the skin was
red with the pressure.


know was terribly frightened, and started up
pale and horror-struck but Angove finished his
work coolly, vaulted out again over the rail, and
seated himself at my side, little pale but perfect
" calm and selfpossessed, and smoked away his
cigar as if nothing happened.


7'My dear fellow, cried, what narrow es-
cape! thought it was all over with YOU"


f'Yes, indeed, he said lit was close work =
But, thank God, it is all right. A very small frac-
tion of second longer. looking at his hand,
stand INV power of using hammer and chisel would
not have been of much account.