Marine engineer

“ From all appearances, it soon will be, for even now marine superintendents of big lines are sometimes engineers, and in their hands lie the duty of engaging the officers. It would really seem as if the ship of the near future would be governed by the chief engineer, under whose direction a pilot or sailing-master would do the necessary navigation, without power to interfere in any matter of the ship's economy. ”

“ We marine engineers dream, design, and build, to send forth on the oceans the most beautiful creations man turns out anywhere on land or sea—but soon our ships fade from existence like a mist before the sun. For sixteen years I was Engineer-in-Chief for the Navy, and the machinery of that battlefleet the nation watched so proudly steaming home through the Capes was my creation, but I’ve seen enough in the fifty years since I entered the Navy when the Civil War broke out to doubt that ten years more will find a single ship of that armada still in active service. ”

“ The commercial world is indebted to American enterprise for having settled a question of such vital importance. The marine engineer has thus been encouraged to renew his efforts to perfect the steam-engine without fear of rivalry from a motor depending on the dilation of atmospheric air by heat. ”

“ The Atlantic service, for these reasons, as well as because it exemplifies more of the fruits which have rewarded the joint labours of the engineer and shipbuilder in improving marine propulsion, may be selected for detailed review. In other ocean services, of course, the achievements of engineering and shipbuilding skill have also been made apparent, and in ways, perhaps, which the Atlantic service does not exhibit. ”

“ Consulting Engineer; b. Portsoy, N.B., Nov. 9, 1857. Served apprenticeship as marine engineer at George dark's Southwick Engine Works, Sunderland; went to sea as junior engineer from Wigham Richardson's, Newcastle on Tyne, in 1879 ”

“ The training given to naval architects and marine engineers at the Admiralty Schools is admirably adapted for creating a staff of war-ship designers and expert mathematicians, such as are employed in the various departments of the Admiralty service. ”

“ He is a marine artilleryman with a fine knowledge of boat handling, but a spanner is fitter for his fist than a marlinspike. He lives in the heart of a bewildering complication of engineering contrivances, to208 which the mazy web of a sailing-ship’s top hamper is as simple as a child’s box of bricks. He is accustomed to the manipulation of masses of metal so huge as to excite the awe-stricken wonder of the ordinary citizen who is not an engineer. ”

“ At the same time, marine engineers prefer to reduce the number as far as possible, since each class of transmission needs specially trained mechanics, and introduces its special complications.
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Let us take the four agents in order and briefly consider their value.
Steam is so largely used in all departments of engineering that its working is better understood by the bulk of average mechanics than hydraulic power, compressed air, or electricity. But for marine work it has very serious drawbacks, especially on a war vessel. ”

“ When we go to sea, however, he'll have a full crew, but the fun of it is they'll be non-union men with the exception of the engineers and officers. The engineers will all belong to the Marine Engineers' Association and the mates to Harbor 15, Masters' and Pilots' Association. ”

“ A knowledge of its fifty-three branches equal to that of any of the fifty-three men in charge of them; the supervising these, combining and managing them so that all might, smoothly and efficiently, work to the one great end assigned, the keeping abreast with the latest devices in labour-saving appliances, with the newest means of securing economical fitness, with the most modern discoveries in electrical, mechanical and marine engineering—in short, everything relative to the construction and equipment of modern steamships ”

“ One of the most important of recent advances in marine engineering—affording as it does the means of using higher steam pressures than have hitherto been used with economy—is the introduction of the triple expansion description of engines already referred to. ”

“ These concluding chapters should be written by an engineer; for no sailor, whatever his position may have been, is fully competent to judge of the work performed by the handlers of marine engines. Much less is he able to appreciate the position of those toiling helots of civilization, the firemen and trimmers. The benefits of steam are vast and undeniable; but it is not good to forget that the service of steam to-day means a truly awful burden of labour and risk laid upon a large army of civilized men. ”

“ But, unlike their brethren in the Navy, they do not think lightly of the engineer. They recognize to the full his wonderful ability and trustworthiness, and I think I am well within the mark in saying that no department of the ship's management gives them less anxiety than the most important of all, the engine and boiler-rooms. For it is impossible to conceive of even a second-rate engineer rising to be in command of a liner's engine-room. ”

“ With their Practical Applications to the Steam-Engine. By Thomas J. Main, M. A. F. R., Ass’t Prof. Royal Naval College, Portsmouth, and Thomas Brown, Assoc. Inst. C. E., Chief Engineer, R. N., attached to the R. N. College. Illustrated. From the Fourth London Edition. 8vo., $1.50
MAIN AND BROWN.—THE MARINE STEAM-ENGINE.
By Thomas J. Main, F. R. Ass’t S. Mathematical Professor at Royal Naval College, and Thomas Brown, Assoc. Inst. C. E. Chief Engineer, R. N. Attached to the Royal Naval College. Authors of “Questions connected with the Marine Steam-Engine,” and the “Indicator and Dynamometer.” ”

“ This submarine graveyard offers wonderful opportunities for the engineer, because the raising of wrecked vessels is really a branch of engineering. It is a very special branch, to be sure, and one that has not begun to receive the highly concentrated study that have such other branches as tunneling, bridge-construction, etc. Nevertheless it is engineering, and it has been said of the engineer that his abilities are limited only by the funds at his disposal. ”

“ To put the matter very briefly:
“The education of all our Officers, without distinction, must be remodelled to cope with machinery, instead of sails!”
The Gymnasium, the Engine-room, the Destroyer, the Submarine, and Boat Sailing must be our great educational instruments.
Not for a single moment is it put forward that a year in a workshop and a year in an engine-room will make an efficient Engineer Officer! It is long experience in such work that does that!—as in every other thing! ”

“ A naval engineer of the present day needs to be a man of liberal education, and of considerable scientific knowledge, both theoretical and practical, and he should then receive on board that recognition which his talents would command ashore. At present, a chief engineer, R.N., ranks with a commander, and other engineers with lieutenants. It is probable that, at some date in the not very distant future, higher ranks will be thrown open to the engineer, as his importance on board is steadily increasing. ”

“ The engineer is an extraordinary individual; the life of the boat and its effectiveness are in his care. There must be lightning repairs when anything goes wrong on an undersea craft, and in all respects the chief's touch must be that of a magician.
Exchanging a word or two with the chief engineer, the commander continues his way to the torpedo-chamber where the deadly "silverfish," [Pg 120] as the Germans have named the hideous projectiles, lie. Perhaps he may stroke their gleaming backs lovingly; one may not account for the loves of a submarine commander. ”

“ The captain of a sailing ship must be familiar with many things that the captain of a steamer need not know. As in practically every other line of modern endeavour, the handling of ships has developed specialists. The chief engineer is responsible for the motive power of ships to-day. And he need know nothing more than how to operate the machinery. The captain need only know, so far as power is concerned, whether he wants the propeller to drive him ahead or astern and how fast, and how to use his propellers in tight places. ”

“ The noise and uproar are deafening; coal-trimmers trundle their barrows unceasingly from bunker to stoke-hole, or, if the ship’s motion be too great for the wheels, carry it in baskets, and during the four long hours there is no rest for those who labor here.
In the largest ships the engineer force numbers one hundred and seventy men, and in vessels with double engines these are divided into two crews with a double allowance of officers for duty. One engineer keeps a watch in each fire-room, and two are stationed on each engine-room platform. ”

“ The engines of the 'Warrior,' however, when she was first commissioned, were considered to involve so vast a responsibility and to require such effective supervision that it was decided to take the unprecedented step of appointing two chief engineers to her, whereas to-day the post would unhesitatingly be given to the junior Chief Engineer of the Fleet, if it happened to be vacant and he to be unemployed. ”

“ The Oil Engine.—At the present time there is no oil motor in existence of sufficient power to give even moderate speed to a large boat, but the ingenuity of the engineer will probably overcome this drawback. ”

“ Engine-room watches were less troublous than those on deck. The Commander was out of the way. But these advantages were powerless to awaken in him the saving enthusiasm he desired. The engineer officers for the most part treated New Scheme midshipmen with good-humoured tolerance, convinced that, as they had not received the old-fashioned training, they could not be made into efficient engineers. “I don’t know what the hell’s the good of those Upper Deck snotties wasting their time down here,” they would say. ”

“ Till the establishment of the Illustrious training school in 1855, the great majority of officers joined their first ship as individuals from a variety of different and quite independent quarters. Now, every one of them has, as a preliminary condition, to spend a certain time—the same for all—in a school. Till a much later period, every engineer entered separately. Now, passing through a training establishment is obligatory for engineers also. ”

“ This success rests now solely in the hands of the mechanical engineer. He must, and surely can, build the ship of such strength that some essential part does not at the critical moment break down or carry away. ”

“ The crew, of course, live forward, and, including seamen, stokers, engineers, stewards, etc., they number about 300 men. On the navigating staff of officers, quartermasters, and look-out men depends much of our safety at sea.
Then down in the depths of the ship are the engineers and stokers, who make the ship go. Our chief engineer, like all chief engineers, is a Scotsman, and he loves and takes a pride in his engines, and is glad to show them. ”

“ The commander inspects everything minutely, then creeps through a hole into the central control station, where the chief engineer is at his post. With just about enough assistance to run a fairly simple machine ashore the chief engineer of a submarine is expected to control, correct, and, if necessary, repair at sea an infinitely complex machinery which must not break (p. 330) down for an instant if thirty men are to return alive to the hulk.
Forward is another narrow steel vault serving at once as engine-room and crew's quarters. ”

“ I trust that these remarks about the E.R.A.'s may not be considered malapropos, remembering the great importance of the subject; remembering, too, that in the engineer of to-day we have not a mere mechanic, a man with no thought beyond his day's work and the receipt of his wages. I am afraid that the importance of the engineer, especially at sea, is insufficiently recognized by non-engineers. Every class of the community is benefited by the work of the engineer, and in modern sea-traffic he is, as Kipling has finely said, the kingpin of the ship. ”

“ The master should remember that his engineers are officers of the ship, with their own responsibility, that his chief engineer is of some importance on board, and that it is necessary in the owner's interests that they should work together amicably. In ordinary cargo vessels, the engineer is often better educated than the master himself, and should never be treated as an inferior while he behaves with proper respect to the master. ”

“ It is well known that engineers can only become acquainted with the true capacity of machinery by long and careful study. Statistics have proved that marine engines in the navy under the direction of good men have been run with less coal, less oil and greater working power year by year when the same man has had control of the engine-room. ”

“ The engineer commander has charge of all the engines on board, the number of which runs to several dozen, for besides the big main engines for propelling the ship there are smaller engines for almost every conceivable purpose. There are engines to work the steering-gear, the winches and hoists, the dynamos to produce electric light, for the magazine refrigerating machinery, and many others, to say nothing of those in the steamboats belonging to the ship. ”

“ But in the side-lever engine lightness and compactness were sacrificed to solidity and length of connecting-rod, and as the use of steam gradually spread in the navy, and it became apparent that for every ton saved in the weight of and space occupied by the machinery valuable increase could be effected in the armament and coal capacity of the ship, it was inevitable that the ingenuity of the first engineering country in the world should be directed to the necessity for improvement in marine motive power. ”