" FULL STEAM AHEAD "
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—No one acquainted with a steamship's engine-room telegraph will question the literal accuracy of Mr. Francis Cadogan's reading of the words on its dial. But in the early days of steam at sea this means of communication between bridge and engine-room was not yet invented ; and as late as 1885, aboard one, at least, of the important intermediate mail steamers in the W. Indies, it was still necessary to station a boy by the open engine-room skylight, " to pass the word along " to the engineer in charge below. Nor was full steam always available when the exact moment came for " getting under way " ; so the tactful commander, before he issued the general order, " Stand by," usually sent his compliments to :the Chief Engineer, asking how soon that potentate, who sometimes suffered from " hot-bearings," could make it Convenient to supply full steam (for the purpose of moving full speed) ahead. It was just an elliptical phrase, and an implicit recognition of the " Chief's department " ; for marine engineers are primarily concerned with the question of steam ; navigators with that of speed. And when cause and effect are so closely associated the terminology is apt to get mixed.
The expression " full steam ahead " is perhaps seldom used now, but it is quite sound, and it is a more idiomatic figure of speech than " full speed ahead."—I am, Sir, &c.,
39 Mortimer Road, Kenai Rise, N.W. 10.
THOMAS CARR.
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