JD
At last tracked you down and none too soon,
To give you more grief "Ed of the famous SPARTOON"
As a fwd stoker you were the cream of  the crop,
Then as a  back afty your status took a big drop,
With malicious odes ,cartoons and wise dits,
We endeavored and strived to give each other the shits,
On sneakies and jollies, just no one was free,
From that elusive pen of old JD,
Joking aside oppo what ever you wrote,
Spartan and crew were one hell of a BOAT!!!!!!
                    Flo.....14/10/2001

ENGINEERS

               From 'The Manufacturer & Builder', December, 1873

A position, which we have always taken, is that the position of engineer
should be elevated. It is a position demanding real scientific knowledge
but, instead of that, men are often employed to whom no Board of Boiler
Inspector, if really an expert, would give a license. On the ferryboat
*Westfield*, at the time of the explosion which killed sixty persons and
wounded many more, was a man acting as engineer who did not know the meaning of "vacuum." Another did not know the difference between steam and water.
Must the public daily entrust their lives to such men? The position of steam
engineer should be one of the most honourable. We should be consistent, and
pay the class of men adapted for this responsible office so liberally that
every man might feel, in accepting it, that he was doing himself honour. The
butcher, however honourable the business, is only a butcher; but the
surgeon, engaged in a business as filthy as that of the butcher, stands in
the front rank of men, because of the standard of skill and culture demanded
of him. Elevate the standard for the running of steam machinery, insist upon
it that none but cultured, scientific men shall engage in it, pay them what
they are worth, and such cultured, scientific men will take up their places.

Florrie that's us they are talking about.......we knew the difference between steam and water. Although some of us had problems knowing when we had a good seal on the turd-gun, and when we didn't have a good seal .....remember?....I do...You probably still got bog paper in your hair to this day.