HEROES OF THE SEA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXII, Issue 15515, 16 January 1911, Page 8

HEROES OF THE SEA.

+ ("Harper's Weekly.") When a marine distaster occurs, it ia usually the captain who emerges as the popular hero. But those who follow the 6ea for a living know how much more credit often is due to the men belowdecks, in the engine-room and the stoke-hold. On a sinking ship it takes far more courage to do one's duty in those dark depths below the waterline, where little or nothing can be learned of what is transpiring up on deck, than it does on the bridge. When a vessel is doomed it is a fine quality of fearlessness that keeps the men at their posts until the last hope is gone and the order comes to abandon the ship. But they do not see anything heroic about it. It is only " all in a day's .work " —a part of the obligation of their jobs. The British steamer Sandal, homeward bound from Almeria to Aberdeen, in March, 1908, witli a cargo of esparto grass, was passing Portland Bill, in the English Channel, when a fire, which apparently had been smouldering in her cargo, broke forth and

raged furiously under the hatches. At first a desperate attempt was made to subdue the flames, but the officers were not long in deciding that the only way to save the lives ofthose on board the vessel was to head her for the shore._ This operation is one of extreme delicacy at all times, but, in this case, owing to the treacherous nature of the rock-bound English coast, it called for even more than usual care. _ The flames sproad with alarming rapidity, and, to add to the other dangers, set the coalbunkers afire. The deck-houses and boats were in ashes and the iron deck was red hot in places when the Sandal reached the point where the pilot came aboard. The engines were momentarily halted as he scrambled over the charred rail. As he took his turn at the blistering wheel ho glanced overhead to where tho crumbling flags smouldered on the signal halyards, aft to where the officers' quarters were engulfed in flames, forward at tho gutted forecastle, and signalled sharply for full speed—to DRIVE.' HER FOR ALL SHE WAS WORTH. As the vessel ploughed forward the captain briefly gave the pilot an account of the start of the fire and the subsequent destruction of the upper works. Suddenly a half-naked figure staggered from the engine-room entrance and reeled toward the bridge. "They got the better of me," lie gasped, waving a band to where the flames were flickering from the engineroom sky-light. "They drove me out. Cautain, and now I " can't get back.' Then the brave engineer crumpled in a senseless heap at the pilot's feet. The deserted condition of the engineroom, with its pounding machinery running free, now enormously increased the danger. To save the lives of those on board, either the engines had to be stopped or the ship swung around so that she headed away from land. In the latter case the crew would be engulfed by the fire which was now oeing held in check by the headway of the vessel into the wind. Restoratives were applied to the stricken engineer. As soon as he regained consciousness he volunteered to try to make his way to the levers and stop the machinery. The captain was loath to let the engineer return to the roaring furnace from which he had so recently escaped, but there was no other way. The captain bade him farewell and turned to where the pilot stood at the wheel. As minute after minute passed, the two men on the bridge pictured in their minds the inanimate form of the engineer lying somewhere at the foot of the ladders, and hurriedly debated the advisability of waiting no longer and takinc the chance of swinging the ship's head around. Suddenly, oowever, they heard the rapid beat of the engines die away. A moment later the burning hulk came to rest. It was not a second too socn. for there were ONLY A FEW FEET OF WATER UNDER HER KEEL.

The Sandal's engineer recovered from the effects of his injuries and still follows the sea. There are many similar cases of heroism on record. One was when the steamer Sardinia was destroyed by fire in the Mediterranean eighteen months ago. The engineers stood bv the vessel's engines and lost their lives while the passengers were being rescued. Another was that of the oil-tank steamer Silverdale, whose chief engineer lost his life while LEADING THE FIRE-FIGHTING CREW AGAINST HOPELESS ODDS.

It is not alone the engineer, howover who considers heroic action under trying circumstances in the bowels of the steamer as "all in the day s work." On several occasions the greaser stoker and coal-trimmer have that thev. too, could be depended on to do their duty in the face of death if necessary. Tho loss of the steamer Cramlington, in 1908, through collision, is a case in point. Ihree or the doomed vessel's firemen volunteered to stay at the furnaces and keep steam up. It was not until the inrush of water drowned the fires that they obeyed the engineers order to get on "deck. Tho engineer followed when he had decided that further efforts on his part would be of no avail. Shortly afterwards the Cramlington went down. Sometimes there is an amusing side to this devotion to duty below-decks. Not so many years ago a British tramp ship, outward bound, was crawling out of the English Channel through one of the densest fogs that the inhabitants oi the coast had known in many years. Following the usual custom, the watches, on the bridge and down in the engineroom had been doubled, extra men were on look-out. and the steamer's horn was wailing forth a warning to approaching craft. When night closed down, rendering navigation even more difficult, the vessel crawled through the murk, her screw barely revolving, and her siren PIERCING THE FOG AT TWENTYSECOND INTERVALS. Suddenly the great bulk of a liner loomed up over the bow of the little tramp, and a moment later her steel prow crashed into the side of the smaller craft. Down in the engine-room of the tramp the second and fourth engineers were sharing the " stand-by" watch. The senior was at the levers while his assistant went the rounds of the boilers and machinery. In the collision the former was killed outright, but the fourth engineer immediately took up his position over the body of his superior officer. As the ship was doomed, the chief and tho third engineer immediately took steps to see that tho machinery in their charge was left in proper condition for the final plunge of the vessel. After the fires had been drawn, to prevent the ship from being blown to pieces when the water readied the furnaces, the fire-room crew were safely mustered u deck. When all was done that could be in the short space of time at their disposal, the chief and third engineer scrambled up the ladders to the engineroom exit.

During this time the fourth engineer. e young lad s*-ra ; *ht from a Clyde shipyard who was making his maiden trip, was still standing by his post among the disabled machinery. In his mind was running the well-meaning advice of the dead engineer who lay at his feet, advice given but a few moments before he had crowed the " last bar." His duty was plain—he had to stick by his machinery until word came from the bridge that they were " finished with engines." As the sea poured in through THE GREAT GASH IN THE SHIP'S SIDE, and flooded the floor-plates to a depth of sevoral feet, the young engineer swung himself up on the middle" gratings, and there he stayed until the rising flood drove him to seek footing on the cylinder covers. The ship had now listed heavily, and the slightest lurch might have thrown him from his temporary shelter, but the "tops" were, of necessity, the last stand. About tTiis time the chief engineer, hurrying the men along from their quarters to the upper deck, happened to take a last glance through the door of the engine-room and there saw the young fourth. "Mr M'Todd!" "Yes, sir," answered the wet, Uackenod figure crouching on the swaying cylinder cover, momentarily removing one- hand from its grip on «i ring-bolt tc touch his peaked c.-\p in a salute. " What in blazes are yoju doing tnere?" "' Standing by, sir," explained the young engineor, in an aggrieved tone, as though he. regarded the question as a needless one At the gesture of command from his superior he floundered up to the door and clutched the helping hand of his chief. Smarting under the rebuke of his chief, which in his opinion, might have boon given in language a trine less forcible, the vouth h»*~ ; .ed off in the darkness to where the bow of the liner

loomed up out of the fog._ Gaining the forecastle head of his ship the young engineer swun£ himself over upon the anchor flukes of the liner. Later the crew of the liner heard feeble shouts for help coming over the bow of their vessel, and, searching for their source, discovered the youth hanging there, very cold, wet and miserable. When day broke over the homewardbound liner she was nearing port. THE TRAMP SHIP HAD DISAPPEARED many hours before beneath the surface of the sea. Seated in the liner's messroom tho ex-fourth engineer of the tramp, dressed in a uniform several sizes too large for him, w;as receiving the condolences of the engineers of the mail-ship. They wouldn't understand his look of anxiety as, in their opinion, he had a lot to bo thankful for. It all came out at last, however, when the rescued engineer, looking around the faces at the table, asked: "Dae you chaps think there'd be ony chance o' me getting a berth wae this lineP" One of the first things that he did after reaching port was to put in his application for a berth with the company. He is now a senior engineer on one" of the finest ships in the transatlantic service.