It sounds easy to shovel coal on to a fire, but it takes a lot of
practice to get the knack of stoking a fire properly, and a lot of
strength and skill to throw great shovelfuls quickly and well into the
right part of the furnace.
The stokers work in gangs for four hours at a time, under "leading
stokers," whose duty it is to see that the proper pressure of steam is
kept up in the boilers by the heat of the fires.
Anyone who has travelled on an ocean-going steamer will know the sound
which comes up from the interior of the ship every twenty minutes or
so, which sounds like a rataplan being hammered by someone for his own
amusement.
This is in reality the signal which is given by striking iron with a
shovel, and can be heard by the men all over the stokehold, telling
them to stoke up their various fires.
Besides the main engines there are pumping engines for supplying water
to the boilers and to the various parts of the ship. Then there are
ice-making machines for keeping the food-storage rooms cold, and
electric dynamos for supplying electric light all over the vessel, and
for use in the laundry.
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