by Hornbeam » Sun Jul 26, 2020 11:15 am
She certainly had a large pair of vents, the Sammy was a powerful Tug in its day before the Diesels came along and as such her steam output from the single Boiler would be high, being a natural draught coal burner the Stokehold would need all the Air it could get. The Stokehold Vents served another purpose, inside the Vent pipewok on the top flight of the Stokehold was a small winch this was used to lift the canvas ash bags up to Deck Level for the contents to be put over the side.The ashbags were handmade by the sailmaker out of canvas at the Graving Dock, they were around about the size of a 25kg bag with rope stitched around the outside with a loop on each corner for lifting. The sailmaker Uncle Tom (ex Constantine Shipping) must have made hundreds of them over the years as all coal burners used them, they did not have steam powered Ash ejection chutes fitted as with the larger seagoing coal fired vessels. Must add that the bags and rope attachments were all hand stitched with Palm and Needle a skill which Uncle Tom taught me, I still have my Hockey Stick Bearing Scraper complete with its canvas sheath which I made myself.