Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 October 1908 — BELOW DECKS ON A LINER. [ARTICLE]

BELOW DECKS ON A LINER.

Why the Chief Engineer Has Heavy Responsibilities. One of the monthly magazines printed a fiction story whose purpose was to show that when a great Atlantic liner makes an unusually fine record the captain gets the credit, while the chief engineer Is overlooked entirely. Praise of the officials of the line, it was contended, Invariably goes to the men on the bridge instead of to the men below the decks, to whom it belongs rightly, and further on the point was made that the public knows only the captains of the ships, while the chief engineers, really of equal or of more importance, are lost in anonymity. Before the ships sail about 3,000 tons of coal has been dumped into the bunkers through chutes, and nearly as many tons of fresh water for .use in domestic purposes and also for making steam. . Before the voyage .begins the men who are to care for the ma chlnery and those who handle about 330 tons of coal a day report. This ship has about 10,000 horsepower capacity and is a seven day boat. There are employed In the propelling departments about tills force. 20 engineers, 3 electricians, 2 refrigerating engineers, 1 deck engineer, 18 oilers, 6 water tenders, 64 firemen and 32 coal passers, a total force of 140 men.

This ship has eight double ended boilers, each with eight furnaces, and at least two single ended boi.ers, each with four furnaces, making altogether 72 furnaces. These furnaces eat up the 330 tons of coal a day. The coal passers take it from the bunkers which extend alongside the ship and wheel it in barrows, depositing It In front of the boi’er?. The firemen feed it to the furnaces, their skill consisting In so spreading it on the fires that the greatest number of heat units will result in making the steam. The engineers and oilers and water tenders all have their appropriate work to do, and they work n shifts of four hours each. The one demand on a liner, constant and unceasing, is for steam. It is to make that product that fully 150 men are kept employed where the passengers dever see them. The responsibility for running all the complicated mechanical equipment rests with one man, the chief engineer. To be ready for emergencies, to watch every part, piston, valve, shafts a_d whatnot, and to keep all the parts at their highest efficiency, is far more complicated a job than merely navigating a vessel. It requires as much nerve and mental caliber as tue captain’s task, and yet the world al. aost never hears the name of the chief engineer of any liner.