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6 MARINE REVIEW. 'One Man's Work"--By One Who Does it. Two engravings are presented in connection with the com- munication which follows, and which was received from an en- gineer last week in reply to an article that appeared in the En- gineer, New York, February 20, 1892. The communication was held until cuts could be secured which make a more telling cor- rection than the article itself of the mis-information set forth in the New York journal. Engineers on the lakes were suprised that such misrepresentation should be admitted to the colums of a paper whose editor is noted for his technicality, swooping down as he does in every issue on daily paper reporters who may be led to state that a boiler exploded, when,technically, it collapsed, or the crown sheet came down. It was suprising to see the cut, for which we are indebted to the American Shipbuilder, of the twin triple expansion engines of the twin-screw cruiser Hdgar of the British navy, used in the Engineeer to illustrate the fol- lowing from that journal : 'The engraving represents a triple cylinder high expansion engine of a vessel of war. It is very like any other engine of its class and we have not inserted it because it has novelty or is in any respect striking, but simply to call attention to the fact that on the great lakes one man is expected to care for all this mass of machinery. * * * Consider that this system is managed by one man on watch--one man only ata time." * * * %* "© Dangerous collisions have been avoided by extra care and forethought of the engineers, but the day cannot be far off when a terrible disaster will occur through want of sufficient help in the engine room."' Mr. Watson admits that nothing has happened, but proph- esies something terrible, and perusal of the article is calcu- lated to drive lake engineers to the limits of despair, insure their lives and carry a case of some nerve tonic. The large en- graving shows what the Engineer says one man has charge of on the lakes, while the small engraving shows what, not one, but really two men have in charge at all times, excepting in only a few cases. Consider the chimerical text of the engineer--Twin triple engines with cylinders 40,59 and 88 inches by 51 inches stroke, which developed 10 178 indicated horse power, making ninety- nine revolutions per minute, and under forcéd draft 13,460 horse power was developed while a speed of 21 knots was made, steam being furnished by four double-ended boilers 16 feet in diameter by 18 feet long. 'Then consider the real text portrayed by the small illustration Triple engines, with cylinders 24, 38, and 61 inches by 42 inches stroke, which develop 1,354 indicated horse power making eighty revolutions per minute,steam being furnish- ed by three single-ended boilers 11 feet, 10 inches diameter by 12 feet long. (The boilers are mentioned in both cases for Mr. Wat- son compels our lake engineers to run the boilers and engines.) The entire article is a reflection on lake engineers in general. Just how they feel about it is shown in the communication which follows : ~ EpitoR MARINE REVIEW :--The Engineer of New York has taken up the subject of "more help in the engine room"' again and,unfortunately,over-steps the mark by making it appear that the engineers on the great lakes are driven by their neccessi- ties to do that which is not "common justice between man and man.' That the Engineer means well no one doubts but that it has been misinformed regarding the real position and standing of the marine engineer on the lakes is very evident to us who live here and are personally acquainted and closely associated with them. The editor of the engineer has not been connected with lake marine since 1851 and his ignorance of the situation is pardonable. We have only one steamer, the Virginia of the Goodrich line, that has twin triple engines and she carries a crew of seven engineers and as many firemen as the chief de- sires. All of our Buffalo line steamers, carry three engineers while the Northern line boats have four each and the Lehigh Valley line five engineers. They all carry three firemen, some four, and the Chemung, Owego and Susquehanna have six and eight men in the fire-hold. The same may be said of the Detroit Chicago, and Milwaukee lines of steamers. They are all fully manned and the engineers as a rule are hired the year around at a good salary, and by working on their engines during the win- ter are able to keep them in good condition at a small expense to the owners. The Missoula and Sitka are the only two steamers out of Cleveland with triple cylinder engines that carry only two en- gineers. The Elphicke, Craig, Gilchrist, Gilcher, all single triples, only carry two engineers. 'The Philip Minch only car- oe" engineers last summer but will carry three again this one of the two men on watch as: insurance. > The Bradley steamers, the Cleveland Rolling Mill Company's, Cleveland Iron Mining Company's, inch steamers,and the Men- ominee Mutual and Minnesota line steamers are well manned by good engineers, and positions in these boats are eagerly sought after. For that matter places in the half dozen boats that carry two engineers are fought for by some engineers--we -will not say what kind of: engineers. Stacks of applications. on... the desks of the managers of these "one-man's- work" steamers would indicate clearly that it is the engineers' own fault that there are such. Engineers are not driven on board these boats; neither are there any strings tied to them to keep them there, so whgse fault is it? 'Their neccessities," says Mr. Watson! Amn engin- eer surely had "necessities" before he became a chief and it strikes us that we would rather be an assistant ona good boat -- with plenty of help than chief of one of these "'neccessities" Seven men,not four--four engineers and three firemen--run many of our 2,000-ton ships 800 miles as hard as they can be run, watch and watch about, and when they get to their destina- tion they turn around in three or four hours and drive'them back again. We would like to see some salt: water men come here and try to do it. é We have engines here that have been driven like this tor the past eight years without one cent of repairs on their crank- pin brasses, cylinders, piston rings, valves and valve seats. A fore and aft compound, 30 and 56 inches with a 4-foot ~ stroke, turning eighty-four revolutions a minute, and ; having ate _record of this kind, can be seen here at any time. This, of course, speaks well for our engineers, showing 'close "attention on their part both in fitting out in the winter and' while running - through the season. But. sucha thing as climbing up* three flights of stairs and diving down three more into a firé-hold to take a hasty glance at boilers is not practiced by our engineers. What does Mr. Watson want an engineer to do this for anyhow? Maybe on salt water the cook is liable to carry off the boilers to his galley so that he may have something to soften the hard tack and boil the salt horse in that they get down there. - On the lakes it is not necessary for the engineer to take this "hasty - glance around," for we have good cooks and the best' of food. _- "For whatever happens, the engineer must answer and beheld -- Who else ought to answer | responsible," says the Engineer. | or be held responsible? 'The cook? Does he come in again ? Who does the Engineer expect would answer if not :the chief. But the "firemen may burn the boilers by letting the water down." What water? No fireman on the lakes has anything to with the water in the boilers. The engineer has his»water glasses and gauge cocks close at hand in the engine room, and the: en- gineer who would allow a fireman to look after the water im-the boilers of any of our lake steamers would very shortly be on the dock looking after the steamer going out with another .engineer -- on-board. 'The end of the world that Mr. .Watson predicts may not come, for as he says, forethought of engineers has prevented hitherto terrible disasters, anda voluntary advance in. salary 1s not going to make engineers lose their forethought. 2:5) © The sense of the whole article can be summed up in one sentence without misrepresentation and without any"bogie-man" nonsense. When one man is alone in the engine room, and as I have mentioned, this is only true in a. half-dozen of the- lake steamers having triple engines, the owner can understand, that the factor of safety, that is considered when the engines. and boilers are built, is -wery low. Even if he does not consider the amount of work an engineer can do, he does. consider the risk on his investment. It will not figure up Wed, a-very high rate. We were shipmates with a captain a few years, ago,.-who~ owned an interest in the steamer. He was a fine man to, work for, but he could not see any use in having more help. in the engine room. We did not care to argue with him so from time to time put him off by saying that he did not see it as we did. -- One nice morning as we were going up Detroit river, the flyers and fast side-wheelers meeting and passing us and everything working nicely, he saw me comfortably seated, enjoying a smoke. "Well, it is too bad you have not more help" said he, "to fill your pipe and get youa match. You sit there for a half hour at a time and don't touch an oil can once in two hours."? Theen- -- gine had sy phon wick-feeds for pins and guides, compression dope cups on journals and eccentric straps,and was, I admit, what is termed a "snap." 'I am pleased," he continued, "to see every thing running so easily and I would much rather see you sitting there comfortably than flying around with a big. oil can inone hand and a hose in the other, but you maintain that you ought @ Why not consider the wages of --