Shoveling coal is not a task
we associate with a seafaring life.
For thousands of years, ships sailed the oceans
zigzagging on the force of wind.
Then beginning in the 1830s,
ships gained an ability to move in straighter lines
under the power of massive steam engines.
we associate with a seafaring life.
For thousands of years, ships sailed the oceans
zigzagging on the force of wind.
Then beginning in the 1830s,
ships gained an ability to move in straighter lines
under the power of massive steam engines.
No longer did sailors have to climb tall masts,
hang on a swaying yard and unfurl a canvas sail.
Instead, deep down inside the ship,
seamen toiled in a sweltering hold,
feeding a firebox that boiled the steam.
It was very hard work.
And oddly enough,
sometimes musicians joined in too.
hang on a swaying yard and unfurl a canvas sail.
Instead, deep down inside the ship,
seamen toiled in a sweltering hold,
feeding a firebox that boiled the steam.
It was very hard work.
And oddly enough,
sometimes musicians joined in too.
Navy sailors wore
their distinctive white uniforms
with a special pride.
their distinctive white uniforms
with a special pride.
But inevitably that whiteness
got soiled,
got soiled,
coated with a sooty griminess
that was probably the normal tint
for a sailor's work clothes.
_ _
We wouldn't expect
that a ship's band
would take part
in such grubby chores.
that a ship's band
would take part
in such grubby chores.
But they did.
These twelve begrimed musicians
belong to the band of the battleship USS Georgia.
belong to the band of the battleship USS Georgia.
It was August 1919
and they were performing an important duty:
Coaling Ship.
_ _
Two of the men were good buddies,
Swaboda on tenor sax
and Hudson on trombone.
They were used to the coaling ship duty
as they did it three
months before
in May 1919.
.
Swaboda on tenor sax
and Hudson on trombone.
They were used to the coaling ship duty
as they did it three
months before
in May 1919.
.
_ _
There was just one difference
between the work in August and May.
In May the sailors were in the North Atlantic
but in August they were in the Pacific,
heading on to San Francisco's Mare Island Navy Yard.
between the work in August and May.
In May the sailors were in the North Atlantic
but in August they were in the Pacific,
heading on to San Francisco's Mare Island Navy Yard.
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| USS Georgia (BB-15) Source: www.navsource.org |
The USS Georgia (BB-15) was a battleship of the United States Navy. Commissioned on September 24, 1906, she was the third of five Virginia Class battleships. Each one of these so called pre-dreadnought battleships was built in a different shipyard, their keels laid from 1901 to 1902. The USS Georgia and its sister ships became part of the Great White Fleet ordered by President Theodore Roosevelt to embark on a global tour in December 1907 that would showcase America's new naval power to the world. In this era a battleship's steam engines were powered by coal, and the fleet of 38 ships would need 125,000 tons of coal just to cruise from Hampton Roads, Virginia, to San Francisco. Remember the Panama canal was not completed until 1914. The complex logistics of moving a naval fleet, then and now, required setting up numerous ports to refuel the ships called coaling stations. For this purpose America made good use of its new colonies of Hawaii, Guam, and the Philippines, recently acquired in 1898.
 |
| USS Georgia 1907-08 Source: www.navsource.org |
By 1917 as the United States joined the allied efforts in WW1, the USS Georgia had long been outclassed by bigger, faster, and more deadly battleships in the US Navy. More importantly they were no longer powered by coal. The US Navy was now following Britain's lead and converting all its new ships from coal to oil powered engines.
Just as it the Georgia was about to be decommissioned the war department brought the Georgia back to fleet but relegated it to gunnery training in Virginia.
In September 1918 it was assigned to an escort convoy taking troops and war material to France. On this its first war service the ship was overburdened by an extra 525 long tons of coal added to its normal stocks which forced it to struggle through heavy seas. As a consequence the crew was confined to close quarters which created conditions ideal for the spread of disease. The ship's medical officer recorded 120 cases of influenza and 14 cases of pneumonia. Seven men died from disease. And despite the extra coal, the USS Georgia ran out of fuel on the crossing and being unable to complete the voyage, returned to its home port.
_ _
Before the USS Georgia could be reassigned, in November 1918 the Germans signed the armistice ending the war. The following month the battleship joined hundreds of other ships to serve as a troop transport, and from December 1918 to June 1919, the Georgia made five trips bringing over 6,000 soldiers back from France. The crowd of soldiers and sailors now on the ship introduced another vector for the virulent influenza pandemic that would soon kill millions more people than died in the Great War.
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| USS Georgia 1919 Source: www.navsource.org |
It's difficult to find photos of how engine rooms of steam ships once operated. Perhaps the dim light was too challenging for photographic film of the time. Maybe photographers didn't want to get coal dust on the camera lens. But in 1906 one British photographer tried, captioning his postcard: In the Stokehole of a Battleship. The dark image shows two men called stokers, or sometimes coal passers, standing on the black rubble floor of a battleship's engine deck ready to throw coal into the inferno that was a steam engine's firebox.
The card was addressed to A. Lucas, Mess 22, Boscawen III, Harwich and posted January 2, 1906 from Portsmouth, England.
Dr. Bert
I hope you
spent a happy
Xmas. I went to
Forest Gate for
my leave hope you
are well just drop
a line
Fred Lucas
I hope you
spent a happy
Xmas. I went to
Forest Gate for
my leave hope you
are well just drop
a line
Fred Lucas
 |
| HMS Agincourt (1865) Source: Wikipedia |
My guess is that Fred and Albert Lucas were brothers serving in Britain's Royal Navy and assigned to different ships. Bert's Boscawen III was a converted Minotaur-class armored frigate, originally named the HMS Agincourt. It was commissioned in 1868 and over its career served as the flagship for 15 admirals. But like many navy ships it eventually became too outmoded for active service. So from 1893 to 1909 it was renamed the Boscawen III and used in Portsmouth and then Harwich as a depot ship for boys entering navy service. Essentially a floating barracks.
By a strange coincidence for my story, this old ship was moved to Sheerness in 1909 and converted into a coal hulk known simply as C.109. For five more decades it retained this useful purpose, surviving until 1960 when it was finally broken up for scrap. As a coal hulk it may have resembled the barge these American sailors are standing on in 1919.
Dozens of seamen armed with broad shovels and large sacks swarm atop the flat deck of a coal barge. The photo was taken atop the radio mast of the USS Georgia in 1919. It's quite possible that Swaboda and Hudson, the tenor saxophonist and trombonist of the battleship's band, are in this picture. If they aren't, they may be performing on another deck to give the other sailors some rousing march to speed up the task. Music was not just for officers' parties.
 |
| USS Georgia 1919 coaling ship Source: www.navsource.org |
And every lump of coal in the ship's bunkers
was loaded sack by sack
by shovels manned by sailors
and sometimes musicians too.
was loaded sack by sack
by shovels manned by sailors
and sometimes musicians too.
 |
| Postcard circa 1910-20 Source: The Steel Navy |
I think the two postcards of the USS Georgia Band in 1919 were preserved by one of the bandsmen for a special reason. The battleship's destination in August 1919 was to be its final port of call. The ship was decommissioned in July 1920 and sold for scrap in November 1923. The buddies who served together during America's contribution to the Great War shared a bond that only sailors fully understand. It was a friendship sustained by coal dust.
This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
click the link for more stories of the sea.
click the link for more stories of the sea.
6 comments:
I was so expecting to see from you late 19th century/early 20th century images, this series of photographs came as a great surprise - but a wonderful match for this week’s prompt. Music and muscle coming together!
I especially like the buddies and brothers that you mentioned, as well as many details in your informative descriptions of the USS Georgia (and other ships.) Thanks for sharing how sailors did form friendships that are hard for others to understand, as I'm sure that's true.
Nicely done & fits right in with the prompt. It's sad when ships have served their useful purpose and get scrapped or burned or sunk after having provided so much for so many. But that's the way of it . . . even for those steamships sailing not on the ocean, but a lake. A large lake. But still, just a lake. Doesn't seem to matter where they earned their 'stripes', when they're old and outdated, away they go!
I'm almost certain that in Ernest Poole's The Harbor he includes passages about how hard the men shoveling coal on the ships had it.
Fascinating post. Coal dust is a respiratory hazard, and I can't help but wonder if the work on the USS Georgia increased the seamen's susceptibility to the 1918 Influenza. Also wonder whether the ship was adequately cleaned out before transporting those troops from France back home. Some public schools in New York City still use coal for fuel, many dating from 1905 putting them in the same era as the Georgia. Interesting to learn that the ship had its own band to liven things up during those long stints at sea.
Well, I've learned something old again - ship bands who stoked coal. Seems like a terrible job. But music feeds the soul. Good that they had music and camaraderie to sustain them.
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