Lurking in the Darkness

Marine boilers have had a phenomenal development history, beginning with little more than a water tank with a fire burning under it, to the sophisticated, efficient, forced draught, fire-tube boilers of later years. However, their use in ships has seen the appearance and disappearance of an entire workforce, all within the space of little over 100 years. The first marine boilers were mostly coal fired and had to be fueled by stokers. The stokers were, in turn, supported by trimmers, who shoveled the coal out of its bunkers and carried in wheelbarrows it to the stokers. Stoking and trimming were filthy jobs which, however, demanded a high level of skill from those engaged in them. In contrast to what is shown in movies, a stoker had to get his fire going, spread the burning coal over the heating surface, then gradually feed small amounts of fuel in as the fires burned down- there was little of the endless shoveling that you see on screen. The trimmers had to shovel coal out of the bunkers in a way which did not upset the balance, or trim, of the vessel as the fuel was used up. Some of the most famous ships in the world were coal fired- Great Eastern, Lusitania and Titanic were, as was the little Xantho. However, with the introduction of fuel oil, neither traditional stokers nor trimmers were required, and their jobs disappeared when solid fuel was replaced by oil.

A Dangerous Business - Boiler explosion on board the HMS Thunderer
Credit:  Public Domain