Wanganui Herald. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) FRIDAY, JANUARY 9, 1885. THE FASTEST ON RECORD.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XX, Issue 5513, 9 January 1885, Page 2

Wanganui Herald. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) FRIDAY, JANUARY 9, 1885. THE FASTEST ON RECORD.

In order to gian the above distinction, what will not those interested in achieving such a success risk? We know they will spare no pains, nor stop short of a breakdown in their anxiety to Jower a former record, and to secure to themselves the proud distinction of having done so. In the case of a pedestrian, such an ambition can hurt no one except, himself ' } but it is a horse ef quite another color, when the racer is neither a quadruped nor a biped, but a passenger-carrying steamship. Steamboat racing has been put down, becauga it-led to_ som« terrible disasters", and caused thousands of valuable lives to be sacrified; but something nearly akin to it has taken its place, and will ere long end in a heartrending loss of human life. Every steamer that leaves New Zealand for London, or vice versa, now-a-days starts off, with her captain and all hands bent on doing a " fastest on record " trip. To do so, the last pound of steam the boilers will hold is crowded on; the machinery is strained to its very highest power ; and the vessel is driven at her top speed for the whole time of the voyage, in order to do the trip an hour or two quicker than it has ever been accomplished in before. There is no time for anything ; go she must as long as the boilers will stand it, and thf» mao.hi^ery *"n. on without an actual breakdown. What is likely to be the upshot of such reckless, foolhardy conduct? It is not hard to guess, and some day we shall be shocked to hear of one of these overdriven ocean steamers going a missing, or being picked up in a disabled state, through an accident in the engineroom. To show precisely what we mean, we will give an instance of what has actually occurred on board one of these record-lowering ships. For obvious reasons, we will not give her name, but our readers may rest assured we are relating facts, as we gathered them from a thoroughly reliable source ; they are as follow: — The s.s. Blank left London for New Zealand and made a very quick run out, but in doing so, several tubes in the surface condenser burst and salt water entered extensively into the boilers with the condensed feed water ; gradually the water in the boilers got salter and salter, but the engineer was bound to please the owners and captain, so instead of blowing off a lot of the over salted water in the boilers and replacingit with sea water of the ordinary density, which would have lowered the steam pressure every time it was done, and slackened the ships speed, the precaution was neglected and the ship driven on, until a port was reached. There, instead of waiting and repairing the surface condenser, the agents hurried on the loading and sent the vessel off on the return trip, and the attempt to do a " fastest on record " was again essayed and the same reckless disregard of proper precautions against the salt being deposited, pursued. This time, however, the neglect nearly ended in a fearful explosion, as the salt did encrust the plates to such an extent that the water could not touch them, and the consequence was no less than eight furnace crowns came down j that is collapsed. That there was not a terrible explosion, was not the fault of the engineer, who was of course the guilty person ; for had he done his duty- and insisted on being allowed to give the boilers and machinery under his charge proper attention, no such accident would have happened. When the ship arrived in London, the affair got wind, and there was a clean sweep in the engine-room, as was but right ; but instead of the crowns of the weakened boilers being replaced by new and unblemished metal, the Home authorities contented themselves by reducing the steam pressure from 120 to lOOibs to the square inch, and allowed the ship to go off again on a 15,000 miles voyage in that state. She did it safely, and left New Zealand for Lon-

don once more, having been iired up and driven as hard as though her boilers were free of blemish and impervious io wear and tear. If such a ship were posted at Lloyd's as missing, and no word of her or her large living freight ever came to explain her nonarrival, what would those cognisant of the above facts conclude 1 Would it be going beyond the probabilities of such a case to say she had been blown into the air and all hands scalded to death or drowned, owing to the explosion of the over-strained and badly damaged boilers she is known to have in use ? We think not, and further that every one connected with her on shore, who knew of her unsatisfactory state, would be morally, if not legally, guilty of a great crime in allowing her to go to sea in such a condition. Some day such a calamity will befall one of these over-driven ocean steam racers, and then perhaps a stop will be put to such reckless work, and a law passed and enforced, making it penal for any engineer on board a steamer to neglect taking all proper precautions to avert an accident, in his eagerness to gain the envied distinction of having made a v fastest on record" voyage, It is the engineer's duty to protest if the Captain, owner,or agents attempt to have a steamer recklessly over-pressed in her boiler or machinery, and no one dare interfere with such an engineer if he refused to obey any such criminal orders if given. But though the engineer would be all-powerful to prevent such reckless over-straining of the boilers and machinery at sea, we know what would be his fate as soon as he took his charge safe into port ; he would be quietly discharged and put down as a timid slow coach, only fit to have charge of a harbor dredge, or a pumping engine. If the proper authorities did their duty, engineers would be compelled to do theirs, and would not be frightened of losing their billets if they did ; but as long as Government Inspectors will allow a ship, with eight furnace crowns down, to go to sea and carry innocent passengers, nothing short of a great calamity will awaken them to a proper sense of their duties. We hope, however, that the subject will be properly ventilated by the public press whenever a case such as the above leaks out, and that an example will be made of all concerned in such a reckless disregard of the public safety.