3-047-037 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Voyage to China: stokehole of a steam-ship on the Red Sea, 1872. '...the half-naked stokers tending the engines, which [is] terrible work in August, with the thermometer, on the deck above, standing at 94 in the shade. The temperature in the stokehole was 145 deg. This warm region is close to the ship's keel, so it is very far below. There are twelve boilers, six on each side, each with a blazing furnace, which must be opened at regular intervals to put in new coals, or to be poked up with long iron rods. This is the duty of the poor wretches who are doomed to this work. It is hard to believe that human beings could be got to labour under such conditions; yet such persons are to be found. The work of stoking or feeding the fires is usually done by Arabs; while the work of bringing the coal from the bunkers is done by sidi-wallahs or n*groes. At times some of the more intelligent of these are promoted to the stoking. The n*groes who do this kind of work come from Zanzibar. They are generally short men, with strong limbs, round bullet heads, and the very best of good nature in their disposition. Some of them will work half an hour in such a place as the stokehole, and come up to deck again without a drop of perspiration on their dark skins'. From "Illustrated London News", 1872.