Firing the Boilers

Heroes Remember

Firing the Boilers

Transcript

We had a trimmer, which I started off as. A trimmer is a coal passer if, you know, some people don’t know what that is, and you were with three firemen. Okay, that was one room. You were four to a room. We had sort of a lead fireman. When he opened the door of his fire, of his boiler, the other two did so accordingly. So that you were all in sync with one another. That way there was less heat loss. So your first thing to do, you opened the first door on your left and you had what they called a splice bar. I’m sure it weighed about twenty pounds. It was a two-inch steel bar and about eight feet long. You put that into the fire and you shook it up to get the air into it and you moved on to the next one which you did the same thing and also the third one. Then you came back to that first one and you raked it a bit to loosen it up and then you went on to the other two to do the same thing and everybody sort of in sync with the others doing the same thing and then on the final one, you start your shoveling and you shoveled from a hole that had been brought down by the, from the bunkers, by the trimmer that I mentioned earlier, which I did on the first trip and you put your coal in. That Sydney slack was just, almost every watch you were shoveling coal continuously. So it was hard work and if, you know, if you were young like I was like we all were, it was no effort and it was sort of an adventure. Coming back we took on what they call bunkers loading coal from, well there was two ports, Cardiff, Wales and Swansea, Wales and the coal was totally different. It was called, Welsh anthracite. We got big chunks like that. You’d fire that and it would last probably ten, fifteen minutes. So it was great coal to have coming back.

Description

Mr. Colcomb describes in detail the make up of an engine room watch, and goes on to describe synchronism required among the crew to keep the boilers properly fired.

Ross Colcomb

Ross Colcomb was born in Montreal, Quebec on July 2, 1926. After being an Air Cadet in his early teens, he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force at age seventeen, and took air crew training. The demand for air crew was low near the end of the war, so Mr. Colcomb was discharged after nine months. He immediately joined the Merchant Navy. After a short period of engineering and gunnery training, Mr. Colcomb went to sea as a fireman aboard the SS Elk Island Park, which ferried war materials to England for the duration of the Second World War.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 2:07
Person Interviewed:: Ross Colcomb
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Battle/Campaign:: Battle of the Atlantic
Branch:: Merchant Navy
Units/Ship:: Royal Canadian Electrical Mechanical Engineers
Occupation:: Fireman

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Enlistment and Training Profile

Mr. Colcomb describes receiving gunnery instruction and boiler theory, but no practical instruction, before qualifying for engine room duty.

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Mr. Colcomb describes joining the SS Oak Island Park in Halifax harbour as part of a convoy. He describes seeing a freighter converted to a miniature aircraft carrier, a late edition to the Allies effort to thwart German U-boats.

Foul Weather and Risks

Mr. Colcomb describes forming up a convoy in the fog-shrouded St. Lawrence River and being nervous because his ship was loaded with munitions. He also describes an incident during that crossing in which a tank lashed to the deck breaks loose and is re-secured without any damage occurring.

London Rubble and Pubs

Mr. Colcomb describes shore leave in London and seeing St. Paul's Cathedral standing unscathed and surrounded by rubble. He also describes visiting a pub nearby and being surprised to see a clergyman sharing a pint with the locals.

Reliving the Past

Mr. Colcomb recalls visiting Halifax and showing his wife and friends exactly where his ship had positioned itself for a convoy leaving the Bedford Basin. He also recalls that the weather conditions were remarkably similar.

Date modified:: 2019-06-20