LIFE IN A STOKEHOLE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2095, 1 June 1907, Page 4

LIFE IN A STOKEHOLE.

HEAT AND HARD WORK

No one with any knowledge of the subject will venture to deny that the work of a stoker, whether on board a man-of-war or on a big Atlantic liner, is undoubtedly tho most arduous of any branch service tho work and tlio perils are practically co-equal, and none but the stoker knows what that really means (declares a writer in a Scotch weekly). Half-naked, standing in front of mammoth furnaces hauling out redhot fire —what is called cleaning fires ■S— trimmers standing by throwing water on the deck to keep tho heat down as much as possible; little trollies, or barrows, of coal are continually run to his side to be pitched into the furnaces'as soon as they are cleaned. The stoker never pauses, save to take a breath or dry his dripping forehead —steam must be kept up at any price, and he tears at it like a galley slave.

Twenty tons an hour have to bo fed into the glaring furnaces, and the passage of 70 gallons of water per minute through the condensers regulated to a nicety. The safety Valves must be held to the verge of rising, which means that the - pres-sure-gauge points to 3001 bpn the square inch. It is a fine art this firing boilers. Each one has a distinct temperament of its own. It must be humoured, or there is no saying what might happen. One boiler may be slow oven to sluggishness, requiring to be hercely stoked in overy corner to hold its pressure. Another may be quite the other way, and so intensely volatile that it must be coaxed from its dangerous tendency to undue expansion and contraction ! y centre firing. Then tho gauge glasses must be carefully watched. On no account must the bubbling beads bo allowed to drop beneath a certain level, else the screech of a vollied plug will give its shrill warning. And on the other hand, priming will result if they be allowed to rise beyond a certain point. He is ever on the border lino f

danger and death a heoric, if un-romautic-looking figure, perpetually environed by a host of perils. A gauge glass may burst twice a day, but save for an occasional scalding a man is not often seriously injured by 'ibis. Far more serious are the consequences of his opening the doors of his furnaces without first shutting off his forced draught. A oareless man may, on starting his watch, forget to shut off tho three checks at the side of the furnace, which regulate this detail. On opening tho door a blinding draught will fly into his face, and probably scorch him frightfully. The flying of a fusible plug, the collapse of a boiler tube, tho sundering of a steam way may be ’the start of “another calamity.” During the time the ashes are being sent up the lives of the men aro in constant danger, either of a bag of ashes or of an empty ash-basket falling on them apd dreadfully injuring them. Many a poor fellow, in fact, has met his death in this way. There is no limit to the number of minor casualties. With the roll of the ship tools fly about in all directions. A rake, lying idle at the side of the stokehold, may violently gravitate towards the stoker. To stand in the vicinity of a hatch is simply to court danger—anything, perhaps a shovel or a hammer thalti has been mislaid above, may come crashing down,