Coal trimmer

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Coal trimmer at the bunkering of the Rotterdam ocean liner in Hoboken (New Jersey)

The coal trimmer or coal puller was a profession in the sea and inland shipping , both in merchant shipping and in the navy . The job of the coal trimmer was to move coal on coal -fired steamships from the coal bunkers, some of which were far from the boiler room. The actual firing of the boiler for generating steam was done by the ship's heaters . With the spread of oil firing and the introduction of diesel-powered ships, the profession lost its importance and no longer exists today.

The work was usually done in a three-watch trip . This meant that a trimmer worked four hours, had eight hours of rest, and then did another voyage of four hours of work plus eight hours of rest. Twenty-four hours consisted of eight hours of work and sixteen hours of off- duty .

The working conditions of the trimmers were often almost unreasonable by today's standards. The coal bunkers were lightless, angled ship rooms with frames, supports and stringers, some of which were at the same height and some were higher than the boiler rooms. If the coal did not trickle out of the bunker holes by itself, it was shoveled into wheelbarrows with the help of trimmer shovels. The wheelbarrows were then brought to the boiler room via wooden planks that lay on the coal and unloaded there in front of the boilers. In the bunkers, which were often filled with stuffy air and coal dust, a simple cable lamp served as makeshift lighting. In high bunkers that stretched over several decks, work was often dangerous when the coals loosened like an avalanche and slid downwards due to the formation of funnels during shoveling or the rough sea.

The coal trimmers were at the bottom of the shipboard hierarchy. Ship heaters usually started out as coal trimmers and after two years they could switch to the boiler room.

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