DOWN BELOW IN A SEA FIGHT

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2843, 7 August 1916, Page 6

DOWN BELOW IN A SEA FIGHT

THE MEN WHO CAN'T ESCAPE

OUR SPLENDID STOKERS

("J.J.," in the' "Daily Mail.")

Although the British people have for centuries lived by their Navy, they know little about this great service beyond the tacts that it costs a gootf deal of money to maintain and may be absolutely depended on. Should you doubt this, ask your neighbour at dinner of what the crews of British warships are composed. Ten to one he will reply, "Why, bluejackets, of course," and look at you in a way that says clearly, "I wonder hoiv many 'appetisers' this fellow took before he came in?" If von answer, "Wrong, try again," he will think you arc! propounding a subtle conundrum and begin to wonder where the "catch" comes in. Do not be surprised at this. Your neighbour only shares the popular illusion that every man in the Navy is a binejacket. "Jack," tho general favourite, typifies for him the personnel of the l'leet, and it has never occurred to him that "there may be others." There are, though tho song-makers and the storyWriters have not yet discovered them.

Of these "others" none has a botter claim "to bo lifted from the obscurity which enshrouds the "unwritten and unsung" than the naval stokers, whoso splendid work, done under the most trying conditions, has been a material factor in winning the victories afloat that have come to us during the war. Stokers aro not "bluejackets"—that term applies to sailors only—but there aro more stokers • than sailors aboard some of His Majesty's ships. Nor, by your leave, are stokers to bo describe as "tho black - squad," for that appellation-belongs to the firemen of the mercantile marine. "Clinkerknockers" or "shovel engineers," if you like, but not "black squad" unless you wish to give offence.

So far as uniform goes stokers are differentiated from the seamen only by tho propeller badge upon their sleeve. Aboard ; ?hip they live in their own "cottages""(i.n., messes), and come under the engineer officers, as they are part of the engine-room complement. But if any one of them incurs punishment it is "handed out" Co him either bv the "owner" (the captain) or by the "bloke" (tho conunander), just as it is to any other member of the crow.

As regards tho stoker's work, it consists in "feeding the fires'," principally, though not wholly limited to this. Shovolling coals into a furnace may not striko one as a task that requires much brain power, but when properly done it becomes a work of high art. Before a ■man is entrusted with it he must graduate through- successive stages of experience.

Water-tube boilers are tricky things to "fire," and unless steam bo properly kept tho ship loses much of her efficiency. For maintaining that "speed in her lieols" which enables the captain to uso "the last knot" when he needs it—and which may decide the issue of a fight—she depends upon the stoker, so you will see he is not a man without importance, and must needs b® skilful professor of his own "black. art." : The Training School. Something more than ability to swing a. shovel lustily goes to the making of-a "stoker R.N," Recruits for this rating upon entering the servjeo are sent to the. "Clinker-knocker's College," otherwise the stoker's training school, for a course of instruction.

While there they are taught how to operate "pricker" and "slice"' and the right way of putting coals on a "fire. Between the right way and the wrong of doing this lies a. big gap of mischievous inefficiency. Stones and 6and are used for teaching the "shovel-engineer student" how to avoid thia. Fires have to be kept clear and bright or the flagship ivill soon be snapping out a querulous "You are making too much smoke," and thus starting trouble for ' everybody "down below." Also, a good head of steiim must bo maintained without undue fuel expenditure, and the competency of the stoking governs these things. Having learried the rudiments of his profession in the schools, the "clinker-knocker" initiate goes to sea as a second-class stoker, in which capacity he trims coal for tho skilled first-class hands.

When rated "first-class" a stoker's pay rises to two shillings and ono penny a day. Now let us see how he earns it, not by the sweat of his brow alone but by that of every part of his body that has a sweat gland in it. Eight down at the bottom of this huge battle-cruiser, which is rushing through the water with a big "bone in her teeth"—9o far down that quite a long lift journey must be made to reach the place—are row row of glowing furnaces.

Before each of these are grimy, perspiring men, clad only in flannels and a pair of "fearnought" trousers. Hard at it are they trying to satisfy an apparently insatiable appetite. ' With sturdy, practised swing, they throw shovelful after shovelful of coal into the greedy maw that gapes ■ hungrily in front of them. One man, after a quick look over the blazing interior, ' lays hold of a "pricker" or a "slice," thrusts it deep into the dragon's throat,, and by a spasm of strenuous effort forces, the monster to "spit out the crumbs'' or,' to use words void of imagery, he clears the fire by dragging out the red-hot clinker. These by the furnace mouths are the expert stokers—the first-class men—whose skill in keeping steam enables the ship's enormous engines to exert thousandfold horse-power to tho full—and sometimes a little bit more, "They Show no Fear." Glance now at the side of the stokehold. Out from a bunker-door emerges a coal-encrusted figure so black that his eyes gleam like little balls of ivory in contrast with his carbon-jowdered skin, stooping, he grasps a "sKid" of coals, spins it across the foot-plate, tilts it over, and then disappears into the Cimmerian,' gloom of tho bunker again. This is ono of the second-class stokers engaged in trimming coal. He labours iu a bunker—a sort of deep steel pit—where space is limited and in which the danger of explosion is cverl.present. Tor toiling thus, hours at a stretch, in a reeling ship, ho gets, one shilling and eightpence per day and no war bonus. Think' of that, ye munition workers! "On watch," where he can see the gauge glass and keep a directing eyo on his subordinates, stands the petty officer on whom lies the immediate responsibility of seeing that-work runs smoothly. At the best of times a warship's stokehold is an inferno of grime-chargcd heat and sizzling steam. "Forced draught" turns it into a Hades, with a typhoon paging through its fire-kerbed alleys. "Hell with the lid off" aptly, if inelegantly, describes the place when everything is closely battened down. During an action the 6tokers have the least enviable situation of anyone iu the ship. Their chance of escape, should she be sunk, is so small as to be almost non-existent. Although they can hear the Runs firing and feel the concussion they know nothing of what may be happening above, being quite cut off from tho upper deck. Amid all the turmoil of the fight the stokers must remain incessantly at work feeding the fires so that the ship has the steam necessary to enable her to respond to orders from the bridge. And should mishap occur, the standing regulation is that tho stokers must draw fires before leaving their posts. If tho ship goes down they arc almost certain to go with her, as they know full well. Yet they show no fear, and may always ]»e depended on to stick to their duty to the last. Men who show such grit as this are suvely worth a meed of praise! Although their part in a fight may be loss spectacular than that played by the man behind the gun, it is equally important, for the ship must have the speed to manoeuvre or she cannot, hope to win. no matter hew. admirably her'guns may servo her. Good stoking, in fact, lias advantaged our Fleet more than once during the, war. Tt helped Admiral Sturdee to run' down the German squadron off the Falklands, and through it, upon this occasion. the cruiser Kent was enabled oto go two or three knots faster than she had ever done before, and thus prevent the Numberc op<"iping.