THE HOTTEST SPOT ON EARTH.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 30, 4 February 1905, Page 11

THE HOTTEST SPOT ON EARTH.

(A CQSTPLETE SKETCH, 'i i Thp enjrneer smiled. i "Yoa hear of Aden being he:." he re- ! marked, "und perhaps Tpper Siml is hotj ter. Btrr"—he was greatly confident —'"I I don't believe they are a patch on the j stokehole near the Equator. Look at that." I He pointed the irtra regioe3 from wMeh amp tdle dull tiind, thad. and the j muffled vibration which disturbed tile abip J Asry and nlgkt. "Tfenf liad jnst emerjed from n. mj--sterioua passage ifiiartic:l by a little iron door wfckii ha<l long ceased to b»> ashamed of its biacfc coating of dnst. He was a I bii? mm. and he liad jnst thrown off a f shirt heavy Trith perspiration anc coaL His j body was dripping wet. rivalets trickled slowly through the crust of coal which corxealed his pallid features, his trousers and boots were filthy with a sort of moist j blaei paste. He blinked his eyes aa I t&ecsh tlie dull light of the passage bnrt I him; then he CT?pt (<■£. to his flTiartera lifcc ! a mis wio thinks only of one tUinjj. ani I that thins rest. j "He's just done a four hotur' siiift," , re- ; marked tile CEginecr. "Ajid." he resumed. j reflectively. "I don't think yon wonld do . j a (roarter of tait time down there." i Noir. I ara not a snail man. Once apor i a time, too, I srndJed weisiit-liftiiis. "Eae , i engineer's eye annoyed mc. •"If I caa't do an hour." I returned, im- ; pnlsively, "I'U —cr —stand the stoiers a , ' (irlai all round." i "it wca't hnrt toam," jaswered the eai ; giaeer. He appeared to consider the re- ■■. suit a fosegoae condosion. [ In order to obtain stfl hotter weather j for the trial we determined ts> wait naiU the ship was menially on the Sqnator. j Devil we wenz thicmgii the A Sato Hut Sβ** at ew ibift al>«c Mm

uridgw and down perpendicular ladders ■with unprotected pletons and cranks, and; wheels threatening destruction on al sides. L The air was of the warm, oily kind peculiar to engine-rooms, and. clad only in Test j j and troTisers though we were, the perspira-, tion began to oo=e out. The s-S. Tjmvotij has the triple expansion engines of 2000 horse-power, and when the engineer had, patted them after the manner of ail en- j gineers from the beginning of machinery, j he led the tvay to a dark corner. j T?e had already gone so far down that it seemed that br going lower we sfcorSd simply stPP thmcgli the vessel's bottem ] into the sea. The aperrnre revealed a sort of Black Hole; tJe atmosphere seemed ta be two or three parts fine coal. Away In the distance was a clang of iron. : "The Gate of Hell." qcoth the engineer. ' "Shut the door to keep the dust off the engines." The remark was cha-ractcristic of a ship's engineer. Nothing "matters if t the eng: are running smoothly. He led the way. holding akjit a lamp which dimly revealed black, grimy iron walls, warm to the tooch. A right angle j turn, and we stepped into dim daylight j It was the stokehole. Imagine a narrow j passage between the ends o£ two enormous', boilers, and an iron mom tilled with coal: a passage so narrow that it seecsstl as ii j a tongue of name swegt ont of the furnaces; there was no escape: a passage which reeelred light and air only from two long wind shafts throngn whirh you catch a glimpse of the sky; a passage in which yon saw nothing bat iron and flames and breathed coal dust. Two men were working there, each man attending to three fnr,naces: powerful rat-n, bnt whether yonng or old, black or white, handsome or ngly. It was impossible to tell. Covered with coal dnst and moistnre (water dripped from the npper regions), they -worked in silence. Clang! One "f thr>m pressed down a lever, and a small door flew open. A sheet of flame attempted to follow, but the draught snapped it up and hcrled te back. Sometimes a fireman -forgets to provide for this, and the result is a severe burning. The m<m seized a long iron bar snd began to cat a-nd raise the great flre> within. Ho stepped cloee to the open fur-nace-door, and as he stirred the barniagmass within, cinders and flame sefinsed to lick his face. •'That's slicing," said the engineer. '"Now quick," he added, handing mc a large shore!. The fireasan threw open, another fiir-nace-door. "There"s the real iM>hind you." It wa3— great lumps of it. he*ps of fine slack, piles of cohMes. I grasped the weapon, and set to trnrk. My first eCorts reminded mc of the saying, "A flower in a monkey's hand" —a Malay way of expressing ineptitude. The month of tee furnace was sraa.H: also it was some feet above the floor; also the sho-vei was large. Tet the coal must be pitched well back into the flre, an operation ■whirh requires a peculiarly tiring jerky twist of the wrist. At first it seemed fairly pasy. I don't think I hit the boiler with the shovel more than once, ami the times I missed the opening were not many. I worked with a will. Tr. grew still easier. I T to be getting the hang of the job. '"Fnsterr* cried the engineer: '"yen will Ipt the fire down." Tb«»n the >irew IQce le.id. and a farinas -doll pain In the back Irritated m«. T rtrni-fc- a ms-s of and the fine dnst rose in clmids. I conM fre! it sticking to tt T'tw. ar?d lettins in my pyes. Beads of p°TS7>:rstloT! rolled my face; T seemed tn hnve J*e«n stoking since daybreak. An fnjmiratioia! — **Lot m* w?e the flr*Tsan do ft." I gasped, ■lowly s«tnri«htening np. TTk , silent blark fisrari* sc'spd the implrrnpnt I handed tn him with cercsidersMn relief. Th«?n he showed how firimr should t>e done. The r<>al flew in a stream far hack Into the flaminz fnrnnw. His boilv •w.TB risid. Inrt his arms worked lilri* tlif piPtoTis of .an encinp. It was like a champion nersmsn s<?nllrn;» arainst a n.ivice. The heap of coal meW away, and more began to pazr vat from the iron room beyond. "Try raking." said the engineer. This ia the third process in the stokehofe. The rake proved to be a sort of hoe. six or seven fret long. It wes of solid tren. and its ■n-eisbt -was <Escoiwerttne. To pnll the live fo-ai tnwartls yon would not have been so difficult. Bnt it had to be pushed back from the month of the- fnrnace towards the i far end. As ynn pushed yon had to apnroach the flre— it the rake slipped on th<* ( conl fttside yon stood a fair chance of overbalancing and falling headlong towards the roartng flames, in raking you feel the real bite of the flre. The boat dries np your pkln till yon think it must crack: yonr eyes water and grow strained as you face the glare. 3y this time yon are beginning to feel Ihnp. A lecg chair and an iced drink form your Idea of Paradise. Bnt yon have Twt really started. Firing, slicing, raking— flrtng, s'.lcina. raking. And the shift la four nours. instead «f the ten minutes or so yon hare managed tr> get throngn. And the fireman gets £4 10/ a month for working In this inferno. Then the doctor took a turn. Hβ damaged the boiler with the shovel for a minute or two. Suddenly an expression of compassion crossed his face. "Don't yon think (lie men really deserve , a drink?" he safd. "I am sors they do." I repDed. '"WeH* , — i he trW to look at the heap of coel behind him as though he left It reluctantly—"let's gx> and order ene few them." j I glanced once more rotrod the grimy j Iron hole, and wiped my face with a piece jof coal-biack cotton waste. [ "Certainly," I agreed, with some cerdif alrfcy. And we went ont and did so.—"Pall i Mail Gazette." I ======