IN A WARSHIP'S.STOKEHOLE.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 15218, 4 March 1915, Page 10

IN A WARSHIP'S.STOKEHOLE.

HIDDEN. HEROES OF THE BLACK SQUAD.

There is no man in H.U. Navy today more deferring of our good-wishes than our unassuming friend tho stoker(says a London writer). Seldom sharing in any glory that is going, seldom, indeed,* thought of at all, he in certain, contingencies -which, unfortunately, have already materialised in this war, has been drowned miserably, like some rat'in its hole, while sticking'staunchly to his post. As far as hard, grinding labour is concerned, peace or war makes little | real difference to the black squad in the coal-hole of the great leviathan, "it k perpetual shovel and', tiro,, trim and stoke: but what does very materially affect the stoker's comfort is the latitude his vessel may , happen to be in. i Thus, in. the E«d -Soa, where the ther- ! mometer may register i*G degrees on ' deck, " awny, down in tho : bowels, of j tho great ship, at a dizzy deptli frqm J upper decks, the temperaturo will easily reach 120.' It is a marvel to the land-sirian—aye, and to the decksman as well—that men can be got to "stick i it"—to use a nautical term—under such I atmospheric conditions, for let vie 'outer air be ever so stifling, tho greedy !furnaces.will demand not an ounce less ; coal or attention. t '~,'. . ! It might naturally be thought/that fetokers as. a class must suffer very {much physically. Possibly many, sears !of such labour will compel a man to jtake his leaving ticket at an age which ought &till to soe him hale and.hearty, jor even shorten life itself; but ifc is a i strange, and, perhaps, almost- unac- ! countable, fact, that the stokers of our Nary are an especially tine body of men, jvho take a prominent part in any naval sports going, and compare most favourably in avoirdupois-as. well as in physical condition, with the Jacks, and even the Joes, of the ship. I When a stoker of 'the' mercantile I shipping seiTice- finishes a / shift-lie flings himself down for a; well-earned rest in the firs.t handy place that presents itself, but in his Majesty's Navy ifc it; obligatory uj>on him that, whenever a watch is -over.. he must ! bathe and change his clothing. .Thus, when naval stokers ad?ourn to mess, instead 'of. the black... oily squad one j might expect to see.'there , sit down to ! dinner a*, sleek, woH-gJ'oorued body', of i fellows as irosh as paint. It may not be generally known either that, though the stoker is rated a uui.t of the civil fitaff, lio nnist "periodically ui.dergo physical drill and ciltlass. and , pistol oxerciso. It is quite within the province wf possibility that oven nowadays he may he suddenly called upon* to assist liis v.jw-tiiirs friends Jack and Joe in some nctlv contested duel of the

it impossible'" to .be a hero in a.uaval light Trliite hewing, hacking and shovelling the gritty coal, far out of sight of .the great gleaming guns, and oiit of emell even, of the smoko •of their discharges. Life or death!. Top speed, and just a little more! With an insistent twang the ■. signal comes to the-engine-room fvoxn tlje captain's bridge. The sea.. ' behind,- aye ; and-occasionally the sea»just in front, spouts and froths as if a school of whales were disporting. A cruiser with, a, 15001b broadside at her •command is straining every rivet in tholiull to cut across the fairway of a. smaller vessel, - which -dare not accept the obvious challenge, for the poundage of her broadside barely touches four figures, and she is also outclassed in gun range. • Who are the real heroes of this onesided encounter? Not the gunners of the bigger warship, as they are virtually immune'from danger; not the pursued ship's gunners, for not a puff of sraoke comes from their guns. Trip down the sinuous iron stairway to the hidden heart of the hunted vessel, and view a scene that will compel wondjr. admiration and something akin to exultatiou inextricably mixed. " Scores of men are there in-the fiery glow and scorching h<»at of the glorified stokehole, their naked, sweat-running r>odie3 twining* and twisting in uhe throes of ! a feverish activity unrelieved by a ; moment's rename. It is upon tho i einews. heart and very soul of these I men that the fate of ship and oerson- | nel' depend; Each spitting crash everi head as a pursuing shell tears a column of water into spray and sp-ime might havo been the herald oi disaster and-a ten'ible death. The fighting men above may be picked up aiivo even if a shell finds the magazir.n, but the etoker—ah, the stoker will have gone below with the shovel hanc'io in j his grasp -amid the grit, and grnno of j his calling. ' j