Ship heater

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Ship heater was a maritime and inland shipping profession , both in merchant shipping and the navy . The profession has died out today. Ship heaters can only be found on museum ships . In seaman's slang, however, "stoker" has been preserved as a lovingly mocking collective term for machine personnel.

Stoker of the museum steamer Schaarhörn at work
Stoker of the museum steamer TIGER on its first use

The ship's heater had to operate the steam boiler entrusted to him in such a way that there was always sufficient steam available at the required voltage (pressure) to operate the ship's piston steam engines or ship's steam turbines . This operation included the regular and controlled throwing and pushing of coal, the control of the boiler water level, the topping up with boiler feed water , the regular cleaning of the fire, the removal of the ashes , the treatment of the boiler water with chemicals that prevent the formation of scale should prevent or mineral deposits (eg, soda and trisodium phosphate), if not to, cleaning and repair work and, if necessary. also the coal trimming coal trimmer and trimmers were available. This refers to the bringing in of coal from the coal bunkers, some of which are far away.

The work was usually done on a 3-watch trip. This meant that a stoker worked 4 hours, had 8 hours of rest and then did another voyage of 4 hours of work plus 8 hours of rest. 24 hours therefore consisted of 8 hours of work and 16 hours of off-duty. A total of 3 guards were required to maintain operations around the clock (24 hours). In the port, this rhythm was changed frequently, that is, 8 hours of work were carried out in port operations and 16 hours were free (free watch) in order to enable shore leave.

The work in the partly dark and hot (30 - 40 ° C, in tropical waters up to 60 ° C) boiler rooms of the ships was extremely strenuous, exhausting and not without danger. Burns and scalds from leaking valves or pipes were common. A skilled ship heater could burn a maximum of around 750 kg of coal per hour, taking into account all the work. The so-called fire utensils, various tools such as a coal shovel, sluice, cleaning crutch, ash crutch, pricker, pipe brush and grate tongs were available for his work. They were long iron bars weighing 20–30 kg, which were equipped with special ends for the respective purpose.

The profession of ship heater was made considerably easier with the changeover to oil-fired boilers and lost in importance with the introduction of diesel (motor) driven ships.

literature

  • Karl Helbig : Seafaring Before the Fires . 1987, ISBN 3-925769-02-1
  • AS Alexandrov: Practical Guide to Ship Heaters . Fachbuchverlag Leipzig, 1953
  • Wilhelm Leder: Ship engineering, Vol. II: Ship steam boiler. Fachbuchverlag Leipzig, 1957
  • Jürgen Taggesell: Photo documents of old ship piston steam engines .
  • Bösche, Hochhaus, Pollem, Taggesell u. a .: steamers, diesel and turbines . 2005, ISBN 3-934613-85-3
  • Armin Wulle: The Szczecin Vulcan . Koehler, ISBN 3-7822-0475-1
  • KE Th. Schlippe: The steam boilers and their operation . 1913
  • A. Loschge: The steam boiler .
  • B. Traven : The death ship . 1926