WHAT OUR NAVAL ENGINEER MUST DO.
IN Captain Marryat's days, the main stress of the first day's duty at sea fell on the That Lieutenant. Even if the drunken, sea-sick crew obeyed orders better than he ex- pected, he was always in a fever of anxiety lest yards, masts,
ropes, or blocks might fail under the strain of actual service. No wonder he was short-tempered, and occasionally mast- headed his midshipmen with more temper than justice.
Now the First Lieutenant has an easy berth, and the heavy duties fall on the Engineer officer. Down below the water- line, among rods and levers, steam and fire, darkness and din, he labours to get something like their nominal speed out of the engines. Pale, sea-sick stokers, half of them new to the work, are creeping about the bunkers, or being hoisted up in the ash-lifts in collapse, to get a little fresh air on deck. "More stokers than ashes came up the first two hours," as the Quarter- master observes. The foreman stoker has just reported that if steam is to be kept up, it must be by borrowing marines, and a message has been forwarded to the First Lieutenant to that effect.
"Please Sir," says a midshipman who has groped his way to the engine-room, "the First Lieutenant wishes to speak to you." The Engineer officer has no colleague, and has seventy men to look after. But the First Lieutenant's will is law ; so he leaves them to do their worst, and hurries up on deck. He is the only officer who can meet a difficulty in the other mechanical gear of the ship ; and one of these has just been reported. The First Lieutenant, smooth- shaven, frock-coated, and clerical, is waiting. By him stands a seaman-gunner, hat in hand, looking meek and injured. "Something has gone wrong with the starboard quick-firing gun, Mr. — , please do what you can to put things straight;" and the First Lieutenant strolls off. "Well, Harris, what's the matter?" "Please, Sir, we've 'ad a haccident, Sir." " Well ?" "We was just a-heaving up that 'andle, Sir, when we noticed a bit of a 'itch, and then one of the cog-wheels, Sir, that took and broke." " Oh ! who was with you?" "Tim Sullivan, Sir." "Send him here." Sullivan, a genial but untruthful Irishman, shuffles forward. "Row did this accident happen, Sullivan ?" " Begorr, Sorr, wait till I tell ye : the more we heaved at the lever, the more she [the gun] would not stirr, so we got a handspike in, and then the dirthy cog-wheel was entoirely scattered, Sorr !"
The Engineer goes to inspect the cripple, and finds that the mountings have not given way without cause. The fittings show signs of drastic treatment with the handspike. He also discovers the reason of the "itch," an iron nut which has stuck in the wheel, and could have been removed in thirty seconds, had it occurred to the men to look. What occurs to our officer is, that if Harris and Sullivan had had a little mechanical training, instead of spending eighteen months, at a cost to the nation of £70 apiece, on a training brig learning to furl sails and tie knots, they would not have treated a machine-gun like an ancient thirty-two pounder. Fortunately, there are spare fittings in the workshop, so he sends an "artificer," who can ill be replaced below, to mend the gun, and then prepares to spend eighteen hours on duty instructing his new hands in their work. Eighteen hours on duty ! It seems a long spell, —rather long hours perhaps even for an engine-driver on the Midland, or a 'bus-conductor. It may be longer before he can leave his post. But he knows that it will not last for ever. When things have settled down, he may, if he likes, leave the supervision to an "artificer," who is paid £2 a week to take command of the engines of a ship which cost £200,000. He has the permission of the late Second Naval Lord for doing this, and that high authority has expressed himself "perfectly satisfied" with the arrangement; so he has no right to be critical. At the same time, he naturally feels uneasy at leaving to a working man the charge of engines of 3,000 horse-power, together with the pumping-engines, and the electric-light engines, and those for hoisting in the boats, with the steam steering-gear and the two steam pinnaces, in addition to a "watching brief" for guns, large and small, which Harris and Sullivan and their like can put out of order at the" shortest notice," and" the least possible delay." 'Yet these are by no means a full list of what were described before the Committee on Naval Estimates as "the comparatively simple duties of an Engineer officer."
What, the public may well ask, is the reason for giving only one Engineer officer to a vessel of 3,000 horse-power? During the last fourteen years, the number of men whose duty is in the engine-rooms has increased by 5,000. But the number of officers for the same duty has been reduced from 1,400 to 672. With a steam navy of 556 ships, we have a pro-
portion of officers of one and one-fifth to each ship. Allowing two each to the first and second-class ironelads, and a per- centage for dockyard work, we get the result, one per ship. Now, the number of "executive officers "—that is, Captains and Lieutenants—is 2,500 on the Active List, who direct the duties of 19,000 seamen. But the 9,000 men in the engine-rooms are supposed to be capable of working under a staff of 670 officers. It must be remembered, too, that the seamen have been trained to their duties as boys. Many of the stokers have had no training whatever. The work of the Captains and Lieutenants is supplemented by the aid of 262 midship- men, 282 naval cadets, and 14 second mates, bringing the total to above 3,000 executive officers, and a host of warrant officers. The Engineer officer has no such aid. His only assistants are the "artificers," who are below the rank of warrant officers.
To give an example of the way in which this arrangement works, we may take the case of the Rattlesnake,' which, with engines of 2,700 horse-power, with small engines for per- forming nearly every operation on board, had assigned to her five Lieutenants, one Sub-Lieutenant, and only one Engineer officer. In regard to this case, the following question was asked of the Second Naval Lord before the Committee :— "Supposing that a bad accident should occur to one of these ships of 3,000 indicated horse-power when she is in charge of a working man, an engine-room artificer, and supposing that that accident should be traced to negligence, would you not think that a responsibility was then reflected upon those who had put the whole of the costly machinery of such a vessel into the sole charge, during two-thirds of its time, of an engine-room artificer ?" Sir A. Hoskins : " No ; no more than if a Quartermaster happens to put the helm the wrong way, and runs a first-class ironclad on to the rocks." That an accident will happen before long under such circumstances, is highly probable ; but whether the public will share the view of the late Second Naval Lord as to the responsibility for it, may well be doubted.
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