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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1943-04-08, Page 6THE SEA "ORTH NEWS THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 19 The Engine Raclin The We engineer, the commander (lir,) was one of those who made me Welcome in the watxh'oam .. of the Cruiser amid a score of new: faces, young, eager, hardliitten. I ,paid him Snail enough tittention art first; it Was only later that I was able to sit With him apart and talk about what was to be done during the trial run the next day, and during that trial run I came to know him better still: Trial runs are 'intended to find out defects. There is no other way of'do- ing so. When a cruiser is designed to do thirty-five knots, it is only when. she is doing thirty-five knots that she is being properly tested --- no amount of cautious experimentation in har- bor will achieve the same result. Nor can it be done in enclosed waters — a cruiser going thirty -live knots iu a shallow inland sea (and there are precious few enclosed waters where the trafdc or the state al the channel permits such a speed) raises a fol- lowing ollowing wave which towers over the stern by as much as forty feet, ready at any moment, when the configura- tion of the bottom encourages it to do so, to tumble on board, sweeping away everything in its path, So we were at sea during this trial run, and being at sea means being in the war, for there is not a corner in any of the oceans where there may not be a lurking enemy, The lookouts were at their posts all round about the ship, sitting in their pivot chairs, their binoculars balance in their frames before their eyes, turning ceaselessly from left to right and right to left again, some sweeping the surface of the sea and others sweeping sectors of the shy for the enemy who might rise from the depths or come hurtling over the horizon. The nets of the minefields ;were left behind by now, and the captain gave an order to the navigat- ing lieutenant. The telegraph rung down for full speed, and the needle of the revolution indicator moved round on its dial. Down in the engine room we were expecting this — although that must be qualified by the fact that in the engine room of a cruiser at sea any- thing may be expected. A sudden call for full speed may dome at any mo- ment when a submarine is sighted ahead dr bombers come sweeping over the horizon. Down there one inti• with the ship and with the eng- obeys 'orders and only if one has isles, steady at their work as night time, wjiich is rare, does one attempt be expected of men who had kept the to put any interpretation upon them. engines going through half a dozen Sometimes guns are heard firing, ex- Mediterranean victories and finally plosions close at hand, and the ship brought her across the Atlantic when heels and lurches, with the signal eventually she was battered into a lights of the steering engine winking wreck. The engineer lieutenants had on and off, as the ship shakes about .little enough to do in supervising the under full helm. But who the enemy work of those skilled workers, while the engineer cmomander stood statu- esque and serene on the central grat- ing, a. youngish man without a line on his face, calm and unmoved amid- st the fearful din, balancing himself effortlessly against the extravagant bounds of the ship. One might have Marne himself understood by another he had to put his lips close tohie ear and sil nt, Pressures and temperatures shot upwards. It is hard to give, anY measure of . them whichcan Convey all impression to the inexporieneed mind. Perhaps the best eottlparls(m is to say that t110 pressures werecrn11- pau'able with the pressures generated 11101(10 an old 5111.00111 bore 001511011 in capoleouic days when a twelve - pounder ball was thrown to a distance of a milca aril a half; while the steam Was being heated to 0 te911pera1.1111'0 of Weal -hot iron, so that the pipes ecu• veytug it would glow if they were not wrapped in asbestos. This was the ulunleut for which the engine rooni snail 11ac1 been waiting. Ratings hurried from dial to dial, notebook iiud pencil in rabid, record- ing the innuiuerable landings of in- numerable needles, Everything was being noted under these con.11tiona of extreme strain; not merely boiler temperatures and pressures, but the temperatures of the bearings, the amount of torque on the propeller shafts, the drop in air pressure under forced draft, while a sample of boiler - water was tested with silver nitrarte for signs of the white precipitate which would indicate that the cooling sea water in the condensers was leak- ing through. to corrode the tubes. Ancl all this went on calmly and un- hurried below the water line of a cruiser doing thirty-five knots in rough sea, vibrating to the thrust of the propellers and leaping from wave to wave like a stag over rocks. The merciless glare of the eleetrie bulbs lit everything clearly, but shut up there in that enclosed space withing to guide the eye the leaps and rolls of the ship were utterly unpredictable— it called for months of experience be- fore one's reactions became quick enough to enayle one to keep one's feet without holdinf on. A cruiser. does not roll with the long leisurely movement of a passenger liner,but with a quick unexpected stabbing movement which (for reasons far too technical to explain) makes the point- ing of the guns a great deal easier. And as the cruiser merely exists to be able to fire her guns, the engine room staff must learn to adapt them- selves to this motion — there is no alternative. But this was a veteran crew, faint]. is and how the battle is going, one can only guess, and only during on'es moments of leisure. Otherwise one stands on the reeling gratings with one's eyes on the dials in front, and obeys the orders signalled down from the bridge. And today, watching over everyone, standing on the central thought him wrapped in a daydream, iron grating was the chief engineer, if one did not know that he was the commander (E,), in a battered watching everything around him, and boiler suit which did not bear the gay blue and red ribbon of the D.S.O., awarded him when he kept a sinking ship afloat and scrap head engines turning over at the climax of the that he could probably have told, without a moment's hesitationii the readings of any one of the dozen of dials at that moment being recorded. Trial runs are intended to find out battle of the Mediterranean. On his defects. Now htey were becoming ob- unifo'm jacket he wore that ribbon vious. The packing of the steamjoints tucked as far under the lapel as the was beginning to yield to the enorm- regulations allowed, so that only a ous pressures and temperatures to, sharp eye could detect it, which it was being subjected — it The telegraph bell rang insistent- could hardly be otherwise, for steam ]y and every idle eye turned to see under high pressure is en insidious the hand move round to full speed, enemy, a tricky slave who seeks- out and the guiding needle of the revolu- every devious route to freedom. No tion indicator advanced steadily tool yet invented can hope to antici round its dial until it could go no pate all the shifts and subterfuges of further, The engine room artificers high pressure steam. Here and there at the steam valves spun their wheels both in the boiler room and in the round, admitting more and more, engine room long cones of gray steam steam to the turbines, watching the made their appearances — cones with needle of their own revolution coml.,.their points invisible, for that hot gas ters creep round in pursuit of the penetrated far into the air before it indicating needle. When the two cooled down sufficiently tor the should coincide they would have to steam to condense into visible vapor. juggle with the valves to keep them The thunderous hissing of the leaks coinciding — but in this case more added one more note 'to the chorus revolutions were being asked of the of noises, And that steam was at the engines than they could provide, and temperature of red-hot iron, If meat so in this case the artificers spun the ,were put into it, it would not merely valves until they were fully open, roast but soon it would char. And and every ounce of 5100111 was pnu" from a dozen places this ,steam was ing into the turbines. pouring into the enclosed steel boxes At once the noise down below which were the engine room and the swelIecl to an outrageous volume, boiler mom, turning then into ovens. The turbines began to scream as if The chief engineer moved quickly in agony, malting a dirt so acute that to the telephone, although sginificant- it seemed astif it could not last more ly his gait was 1114 tmhul'1'ied as 111 all than two or three seconds -- but the his previous movement., 14e made his two or three seconds passed and the report briefly Io the bridge. Even in dill went on and on, endlessly, From that inferno of heat and noise and the boiler room carne a roar to sup- wet, it crossed the observer's mind ply a bass to this strident treble as as one more proof of the chief engin- the oil jets were opened up and the eer's experience. and calm that be fuel poured through at maximum vel- should be able, to Bear over the tele- ocity — so much air being drawn phone the orders which cute flown through 10 burn ftp the nil that it to ]tint: came rushing into the boiler room [Ip on the bridge the captain faced: whit a noise like thunder, while the this new problem presented. hien, 140 atmospheric pressure in the room carried a rc'snpnsibility to his cou1111' dropped so sharply that everybody's us well as to the MOD below decks, ears "popped" as they do When rising He was in command et a cruiser in a fast elevator, The generators which had already been long enough added yet another note to the gen. out of action during her refitting — eral clamor, so that for a Man to in time of war no country ever has ettetlgh ei'ulsel'5 — and. ever'y Minute gained in brluging hie ship back into active service was important, The trialswore uncompleted, and to, break them off now would certainly' mean the loss of one day, 'perhaps several more. Tomorrow there .night be fog, 00 at new minefield laid -=- any one of a hundredthingsnight happen to stretch that' day into a, week of idle- ness, When Nelson said, "Lose not all hour," 190 'years ago, he WAS Stating a maxim as true .today as in, the days of sail. "Oen you stand it a little longer?" asked the captain, "A litre longer" said the chief engi- neer into the telephone and hung tip the instrument. Steam ,at 000 degrees Was pouring introthe angina room and boiler rooni. In that sweating Beat, not far short of boiling point, hearts began to potted, and l'iver's of sweat streamed down active bodies. Weary mens ware replaced by others who peered at the dials through an atmosphere so thick with steam that the electric light could hardly penetrate it, But the ship was still hurtling overthe sea, and the chief engineer still stood bal- ancing against late motion, his; exprea Sion unmoved in its unruffled seren- ity so that his face was like a statue's. Afterwards he know how long the trial had taken ' and just what the order of events had been, To everyone else those last few min- utes were a succession of fast- moving events unidentified by con- sciously measured ' time. The ship was turning and wheeling under full helm at full speed, subjecting her fabric to the maximum strain it would ever endure. If there were any other weaknesses — if the parts of the ship which had been replaced during the recent refitting after hav- ing been torn `away by high explos- ives were going to yield — those contortions would find them out, and they could be remedied at the same time as the defective packing, and that previous day, that possible week, would be saved. The cruiser lay over on her side as she turned, and down in the engine room leen drew back their hands hurriedly as' they grasp- ed instinctively for support at hot metal, The ordeal ended at last, when the engine room telegraph, jangled and the pointer moved back to half speed. The artificers twirled their valves and th eshriek of the turbines died away as the revolutions drop- ped. In the boiler room weary men closed down the jets of the furnaces so that the roar of air and of flame dropped an abrupt actave. Pressure fell, and slowly and painfully temper- atures fell with them, down from the 180 degrees which had marked the climax of the ship's effort, to 120 degrees. And as the captain is the last man to leave the ship when she is sinking, Plans Air Service Across Ocean taus -Canaria Air Lines, Canada's national air service, plans a trans, 0051111/0 service, according to an an- nouncement recently macro by 11. J. Symington, IAC., President, i11 his annual report tabled hi the House of Commons, Mr. Symington declared tliatT.C'.A. is destinedto play an important part in world aviation. "Canada occupies an important po- sition in the future of the air world," he said. "Tho shortest routes between NorIlt Minim and Bur - (we" a11t1 Asia cross 'C,anada and weather 0011- ditiotls are stable: Formu- lation of detailed mo - grammes must await developments." H. J. Symi Throe T. C.A.'flight • crews have been flying the Atlantic supplementing the crews of British Overseas Airways Corporation, the report revealed. The crews assigned to this duty in 1942 were composed of captain, first officer, flight ongiheer, navigator and radio operator. The navigators were,, seconded from :the R.C.A.F. for duty with the company. At Montreal airport maintenance and overhaul on the British Overseas air transports is performed by T.C.A. More than 200 mechanics are engaged in this work. Mr. Symington also announced that Mune- Canada plans a shorter route for its. Canadian transcontinental service, the now route when opened to be over Lakes Huron and Superior, in- stead of to the north of those lakes, and thence to points of exit in Wester' Canada ,and the Yukon pgton, N.C. territory, Extension of the Com- pany's service to the Yukon Terri- bort' and Alaska has been deferred, Alaska having been declared a military none by the United 'States Government and all civil flying operations prohibited there. and forth to show that the engines were no longer needed, and the eng- ine room complement one by one finished their labors and sought the clear air above as eagerly as a man in a desert seeks for water, the chief engineer still stood, placid and calm in the hot wet air, waiting without a sign of impatience for the • moment when he too could climb the iron ladder and see the blue sky again. Can Get More Milk If Utensils Clean In the dairy farmer's ,problem of Preventing the spoilage of milk by keeping bacteria out of the milk the utensils are the really important so is the chief engineer the last man source of contamination. Milk, is e to leave the engine room when it is highly nutritious food for bacteria as cleared. When at last the telegrapli well as for human beings, and the rang again, and the needle made Its bacteria are able to grow rapidly on e dial back our the Welcome .oma round e estrainers, journeythe moist surfaces of stn a e . s, pails, I and cans. In this way millions of bacteria may be picked up by the first mills at the next milking, Open seams, cracks, dried -on milk, com- monly known as "milk stone'.', make it much harder to clean utensils and remove or kill bacterai. Here are some pointers on cleaning pails and cans, given in Special War time pamphlet ."Producing Pure Milk" issued by the Publicity and Extension Division, Dominion Department of Agriculture, Ottawa, First, utensils must be in sound condtion, with smooth unbroken. surfaces. Galvan- ized or wooden pails are unsuitable because the milk clings to the more or less rough surfaces, and their use leads to trouble. Open seams and cracks should be tilled with , solder and any rough surface smoothed off. Dried -on milk, or "milk stone" should be scrubbed off with fine steel wool, and the utensils kept free from this condition by being washed at. once after using, before the milk has a chance to dry on. Rinse with cold or !nine -warm water, then scrub all all surfaces with a brush — a cloth will not do the job properly. Use washing soda or other cleanser in hot water. It is better than soap and will rinse off more easily. A final rinse with clean hot water will warm up the metalof the can so that it will dry out more quickly. Do not use a cloth which may only reeontaminate the utensils, but place them upside down on a draining rack to dry. A screened rack exposed to the sun is very useful to hasten drying. Irate editor: "What's the idea of writing this: Among ''the charming young ladies at the social was Gen- eral Bigshott," • Cub reporter: "Well, that's where he was, most of the time." Want and For Sale Ads, 1 week 25c. Counter Check Books We Are Selling Quality Books Books are Well Made,'Carbon is Clean and Copies Readily. All styles, Carbon Leaf and Black Back. Prices as Low as You Can Get Anywhere. Get our Quotation on Your Nest Order. The Seaforth SEAFORTH, ONTARIO, M1e 714