THE SCOTCH ENGINEER.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 298, 10 September 1908, Page 8

THE SCOTCH ENGINEER.

A. GREAT PIECE OF WORK.' [FROM' OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.] | Sydney, September 5. The Scotch, engineer has been prominent again. This timo he figures in the big feat performed on board the Hawea, which came into port on Saturday—a lahie duck, certainly, but able to steam without assistance as the result of tho great feat performed in the repairing of. her broken shaft. Tho staff accomplished 1 ono .of those clever achievements for which tho Scots of the engineroom, equally with the representatives of other countries in. that department of our ocean liners, have acquired a reputation. Working for ten hours a day, sometimes up to their knees, and frequently up to their waists in water, they succeeded in patching up tho break, and put tho vessel again with her head to port, instead of permitting her to drift idly at tho mercy of every wind and current and in constant danger. It was a-great piece of work. They had to cut ' first through the after-cross plato of steel, half an inch thick; then through angleirons on each side of tho ship, then through eighteen inches of tho' iron stern tube, through which the shaft runs, and afterwards through four inches of tho 'stern bush, and jcight inches of the liner on tho broken shaft. All this was necessary in order to get tho propollcr back into the stern-tube. It fell out against the rudder-post when tho shaft broke, and to get it back took nearly two days, before the patent couplings could bo applied,.which every ship carries to meet tho contingency of an accident. It was impossible to got a proper look at the fracture, on account of tho sea that kept pouring in; all that could bo done from the inside of the ship was to touch tho shaft at the point of fracture by reaching out as far as ono could along the tube. Therefore, it was nccessary to work from the outsido. Wire ropes having been secured behind tho blades, the propeller was got back into position, with tho assistance of two winches. The manhole door