Not the least wonder of our day is the improvement in the machinery of
steam-vessels of all kinds.
The engineer’s department of a first-class cruiser or battle-ship is
a bewildering and wonderful sight to one not accustomed to it. The
complicated engines, with their numerous cylinders, which use the steam
over and over, seem almost too delicate, and too like a fancy creation,
to be capable of driving the propellers at such a rate as they do.
Instead of the rude levers of former days, these giant machines are
managed by the turning of wheels which look like playthings as compared
with the forces which they control so easily.
The boilers not only serve to drive the main engines, but there are
others devoted to different uses; among which the principal are the
distilling of salt into fresh water, and thus giving an abundant
supply of one of the very first necessaries of life, and rendering
the vessel and the crew independent of the shore in that respect. It
is also most conducive to health; for much of the disease found on
ship-board, within even recent times, was due to the character of the
water obtained from the shore. Then there are the electric dynamos, and
their boilers which must run when the ship is at anchor, as well as
when she is under weigh; while her steam steering-gear, when in motion,
renders her guidance very easy in the hands of one man, when four or
six would be required at the wheels of vessels in the old days.
[Illustration: U. S. S. BALTIMORE.
Protected cruiser. Twin screw. Main battery, four 8-inch and six 6-inch
breech loading rifles. Secondary battery, four 6-pounder, two 3-pounder
and two 1-pounder rapid fire guns, four Hotchkiss revolving cannons and
two Gatlings. Thickness of protective deck, 4 inches on slope, 2¹⁄₂ on
the flat. 36 officers, 350 men.]
As for war-ships, the vessel is under complete control of one man, the
Captain, who, with the helmsmen, occupies the fighting-tower. He is
informed by indicators of what is going on all over the great craft
below him, and his orders to the engineers, to the gun divisions, and
to all other parts, are transmitted in the same way. But ordinary
speaking-tubes and such matters are not forgotten, in case hostile
shot should destroy the other means of communication; while, far
below the water-line, is the old-fashioned steering-wheel, secure
from shot or shell, to be used in case the more delicate and more
exposed steering-gear should be shot away. The number of trained and
experienced men which such a complicated machine as a modern war-ship
or first-class passenger vessel requires, is very great. There is less
need for old-fashioned sailors--who could go aloft in any weather to
reef and furl--but there is seamanship still required to navigate,
to heave the lead, to man and manage boats, and many other things,
beside the mere drilling and working of artillery and small arms. It
requires some training even to be able to take care of one’s self in
bad weather, especially in a large ship, where places to hold on are
far apart. Of course, in a modern ship the engineer’s force, as well
as those immediately in charge of dynamos, of electric lights, and of
search-lights, comprise a much larger proportion of the whole ship’s
company than in former times; and the vigilance, experience, and
foresight which have to be displayed in the depths of the vessel is
equal to that required upon the spar-deck and bridge.