The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

5. Ship of the Month - cont'd. Just as it was customary at that time to separate the boilerhouse and the aft accommodations cabin to reduce the chance of fire, so it was usual for lifeboats to be placed within reach of all the crew, whether forward or aft. Lifeboat No. 1 was positioned athwart the spar deck between the second and third hatches, and there was one radial davit on each side of the deck just abaft the third hatch, so that the boat could be launched from whichever side was most appropriate. Lifeboat No. 2 was carried under radial davits on the starboard side of the hurricane deck, atop the boilerhouse. The WEED carried her steering engine up forward rather than back aft. The steamer had a reverse type of steering gear, which meant that the wheelsman had to give her right wheel in order to turn the ship to port. Steering gear of this type was not unusual at that time. Ahead of No. 1 hatch were five rooms contained in the full-topgallant fore castle under the turtle-back. Access to them was through double doors at either end of the U-shaped hallway. There was a lamp room, a room with quarters for the watchmen, and one for the wheelsmen. On the starboard side was the paint locker, a stairway, and a large room for the two mates. Aft of the first hatch was the large texas cabin, which had the captain's quarters on the port side, and on the starboard side was his office. Plenty of space also was provided for passengers in two separate rooms in the texas. Above the texas was placed an unusually large pilothouse, with a curved front and many large windows. Photos would indicate that access originally was gained via a door in the aft bulkhead of the house, but that a door later was fitted in each side of the house. Navigation generally was done from the open bridge on the monkey's island atop the pilothouse, with protection from the elements offered by means of a canvas weathercloth and an awning overhead. A closed dodger later was fitted around the bridge. The accommodations for the rest of the crew were located in the doghouse and in the after cabin. The latter had a large clerestory to admit daylight to the interior. There was one rather unusual arrangement in the aft cabin, in that there was no door between the galley and the crew's messroom, but only a pass-through. The men did not eat at a regular table; instead one had been built around the walls of the messroom, and consequently everyone ate facing a bulkhead. Typical of package freighters of the day, the ship had a very long and fine ly cut counter stern, and a davit was provided on the fantail to lift the stern anchor. The tall and fairly heavy smokestack rose out of the boile r house, and it was heavily raked to match the masts, giving the ship a rather racy appearance. The jackstaff was carried atop the after cabin. The WEED had a straight stem and, at first, stocked anchors were carried up on the forecastle head, with their chains running from hawsepipes leading to the chain locker below the forecastle. After a few years, however, this ar rangement was changed and newer-style stockless anchors were suspended from new hawseholes cut on either side of the bow just above the loaded wa t e r line. There were no pockets. Two heavy wooden fender strakes ran along either side of the hull to protect the hull plating, and especially the side cargo port doors, from damage in canals and at docks. The WEED also carried wooden fenders suspended by chains from the spar deck, and photos show that at times there were as many as nine of these fenders on either side of the ship. In July of 1890, the ship's owners signed a contract with the Edison Company to furnish an electric search light to be mounted atop the EMILY P. W E E D ' s pilothouse. The manufacturer claimed that this light would show a buoy lo cated a quarter of a mile off, and would penetrate a half mile into fog. This lamp undoubtedly would have been of the carbon arc variety, and al though the manufacturer's claims may seem somewhat exaggerated, arc search