Boilerman

Stoker was a professional in the maritime and inland waterway transport, both in the merchant navy and the navy. The profession is now extinct. One finds stoker only on museum ships. In sailor slang has " heater " but as a lovingly mocking term for machine operators.

The stoker had entrusted to him steam boiler to operate so that at all times sufficient steam was available in the required voltage ( pressure) for operation of the ship - piston steam engines or marine steam turbines. At this operation included the regular and controlled raising and penetration of coal, control of the boiler water level, the make-up of boiler feed water, regular cleaning of the fire, disposing of the ash, the displacement of the boiler water with chemicals that form the should prevent boiler scale or mineral deposits (for example, sodium carbonate and trisodium phosphate), cleaning and repair work, and possibly also the coal trimming, if this were no coal trimmer and Trimmers available. This refers to the pre- creation of coal from the sometimes distant coal bunkers.

The work was driven generally in the 3 -watch cruise. This meant that a heater worked four hours, had eight hours sleep time and again held a sailing trip of 4 hours of work plus 8 hours of rest. 24 hours passed thus from 8 hours of work and 16 hours off duty. Total 3 guards were needed to maintain the operation around the clock (24 hours). In the harbor of this rhythm was changed frequently, ie in port operations was 8 hours worked and 16 hours were free ( watch below ) to also allow ashore.

The work in the sometimes dark and hot (30 - 40 ° C, in tropical waters up to 60 ° C) boiler rooms of ships was extremely stressful, exhausting and dangerous. Burns and scalding by leaking valves or pipes often came before. A skilled stoker could burn a maximum of about 750 kg of coal, taking account of all work per hour. For his work, he called the fire dishes, various tools such as shovel, sluice, clean Do crutch Aschfallkrücke, Drippers, tube brush and pliers rust was available. It was a long iron bars of 20-30 kg weight, which were equipped with special ends for the corresponding application.

The profession of ship heater learned for conversion to oil-fired boiler a considerable relief and lost with the introduction of diesel (motor ) -powered ships in importance.