AN HEROIC ENGINEER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 6739, 20 September 1883, Page 3

AN HEROIC ENGINEER

. The following account, from the New York Herald, of jf recent' accident on the steamer Aurania is quoted by a contemporary as show-, ing that "modern civilisation affords opportunities of heroism," and "the knights of the day are found chiefly among the working classes ":—

Down three greasy pairs of ladders in the depths of the ship's hold there was enacted a scene which rarely has an equal. - The lower portion of the broken 'crank shaft, a mass of steel weighing many tons, was, of course, fastened to the main shaft of the ship, and, as this continued to revolve from the working of the other pistons, an immense arm of steel went flying about like a huge flail. The effect was awful. Iron and steel were knocked to splinters. A supporting column of wrought iron a foot in thickness was broken in two, and one piece weighing a ton was bitten out, so to speak. Wherever the flail struck destruction followed. The air, already choked with scalding steam, was filled with sparks of fire caused by the blows of steel on steel and iron. The place was infernal. Nothing but prompt action could save the sheathing of the vessel from being pounded through. The engine must be stopped. And yet the little steel brake which controlled the whole tremendous mechanism was situated only about two feet from the arm of the thresher, and right in the midst of the scalding steam and the blistering sparks. Andrew Lambert, the second engieeer, promoted from the Bothnia, was on duty in the engine-room. He is a tall, brawny Scotchman, of some three or four and thirty. When the crank-shaft broke and the engine-room was turned into pandemonium, Mr Lambert was standing near one of the stoke-rooms, some 20ft or 30ft from the brake. He knew the engine must be stopped. To see the controlling brake was an impossibility; but, dropping down on his hands and knees, he crawled up to it and turned off the steam. The shaft had made about- 20 revolutions before he was able to get the engine under control. He was badly scalded about tho face and hands, but otherwise uninjured. But he had risked hi» life to save the ship.