UNDERCOVER on the TITANIC (book 1)

Part 33 - Triple Expansion

Isambard was talking to a man wearing a black cap but he was speaking in an incomprehensible dialect. I couldn't understand a word. He turned to us and pointed to a doorway opposite the firemen's passage. 

'Sir Denny went dat way,' Sam interpreted. 'Wotch yer step . . . an' yer 'ead.'

It was only a few paces to the other side of Boiler Room 6 but we didn't dawdle. It was too hot. We left the area though a narrow corridor between the boilers while took off our coats and sweaters but we were still sweating profusely. At the end of the corridor was another doorway, with a heavy steel door hanging overhead portcullis style, when Isambard stopped and stared at Licia. 'Oy, yer a girl?' 

Licia smiled sweetly. 'I thought you'd never notice.'

Isambard blushed under the grease on his face. 'I fought you wuz a boy,' he mumbled. 'I never saw no girl wearin' trousers afore.'

Through the doorway was another cross tunnel identical to Boiler Room Number Six.

'This must be Boiler Room Five?' I suggested as the denizens stared at us. They were all doing the same things. Except for one in front of us who was casually shovelling hot white ash from a wheel barrow into a floor hatch. 'Ash ejector,' Isambard explained as we edged around the barrow get to another corridor also about six metres long. This one was much wider and cooler than the one between the boilers. A gong sounded as we were leaving. 

Licia stifled a shriek. 'We're going to be trapped.'

'Dat's d' stokin' indicator,' Isambard said as we hurried across Boiler Room Four. 'Ev'ry seven minutes dey 'ave to put coal inta one o' d' boilers.'

Pacman emitted a sound between a yip of alarm and a groan of pain and I looked down. His tongue was dangling from is mouth and he was panting, trying to lower his body temperature. I picked him up quickly. Isambard led us to another hot narrow passage between the boilers which ended up on the other side of the boiler room and another wider passage surmounted by another watertight door leading to Boiler Room Three. I kept count as we jogged through Boiler Room Three and Two, both filled with men shovelling coal and raking ash. A surreal journey through alternately narrow and wide corridors that seemed it might last forever. 

'Ziff!' someone called in a high pitched shout. I looked around. It was no one in our group.

'Ziff! It is I, Kozak,' the voice said as one of the firemen pushed through the men leaning on their shovels. I stared at the small, thin apparition hurrying toward me. His face was black with soot and coal dust but it was Kozak alright.

'What? How did you get here? I stuttered.

'Murga sent me. I hav' to extricate you from your predicament.' He grabbed my sleeve.

Sam, Miguel and Licia were already through the last doorway so I followed towing Kozak after me, into another incredible universe.

It was a huge space like the inside of an old church except it was almost completely filled with two enormous engines each the size of a two story house. And they were in motion. The noise was incredible. From both sides, a deafening roar mixed with the sound of moving machinery pulsing with rhythmic intervals and tones from bass to piccolo. High above our heads, gleaming piston rods rose and fell with rapid precision driving massive crankshafts, while cam shafts, levers and gears rotated and oscillated in eccentric synchrony. An incongruous pair of balls spun around a vertical axis. The air smelled of hot oil and smoke. 

Feeling like midgets, we stared in fearful awe. Would we be engulfed and mangled in the moving parts? But these monstrous engines were tended by men who looked totally unconcerned. They moved around pouring oil into small containers or peering at valves, cams, gauges and push rods while the machinery flashed up and down within centimetres of their faces. About half way down the narrow space between the two engines were two platforms with huge steering wheels facing each other. Isambard pointed up at large pipes that ran horizontally along the top of the engines as he explained that the roar was caused by high pressure steam rushing into and out of four cylinders on each engine. 'Dat pushes the pistons down and d' piston rods push d' connecting rods and dey turn d' crankshaft,' he announced proudly. 

Isambard started to explain how he filled pots with oil to keep the crankshaft bearings lubricated but Licia interrupted. 'But what are the engines for?'

He looked puzzled. 'Dey're driving the steamer.' Suddenly the vibration and the floor moving under our feet made sense. 

'We're on a ship!' I exclaimed. 

'Ow gawd 'elp us!' Isambard was looking at something behind us, an expression of extreme terror on his face.

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Copy this link into your browser for a larger picture of this animated demonstration of the engines

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptDFqY-0Do8

AND

The following link shows photos of the engines and more information

(note the man lower right on the first photo).

https://nmni.com/titanic/Design-Build/Drawing-Office-to-Slipway/Titanic-s-engines.aspx

Unfortunately you cannot copy and paste.