# women allowed in engine rooms?



## ssake1 (Dec 11, 2018)

I am trying to prove that Margaret Fuller was not the author of the star-signed reviews and reports in the 1844-46 New York Tribune. One of the pieces signed this way is a report on the newly-built steamship Great Britain, and the writer poetically infers that he or she has been invited to view the engine room:

Once again we envied him of whose thought this is the full-grown offspring, and when admitted to see the apparatus of heart and lungs, felt that if Man is no longer a giant he is at least the creator of giants. It is a proud feeling to tread these decks from end to end; ought indeed to be proud for those who steer her mighty path upon the Ocean.

My question is whether a female reporter would have been permitted in the engine room in 1845, even with the ship at dock.


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## Varley (Oct 1, 2006)

Dare I suggest, in these politically correct #MeToo times, that it would depend on her pulchritudinous rather than journalistic accomplishments.


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## ssake1 (Dec 11, 2018)

*pulchitrudinous*

She was brazen, but perhaps not so pulchi...pulchi...what you said.


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## Varley (Oct 1, 2006)

Beauty.

It might also depend on who was on the 8 to 12. I gather from one of passenger ship material that the 4 to 8 were only there to warm up the pretty ones for the 8 to 12 to get off watch.


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## ssake1 (Dec 11, 2018)

I'm not clear on your meaning--do you mean sailors on watch, or girls? At any rate, Fuller was a feminist, one of the (if not the) first female reporters in America. She would not have been interested in any hootchy-kootchy. The odd thing is that while the writer (who I believe was actually a man) did seemingly visit the engine room, he didn't write about it. The man I suspect of being the real writer would have definitely done so, ordinarily, citing facts and figures about the length of the ship and tonnage, the power of the engine, and so-on. But Fuller was the literary editor, and she may have either prevented him, or edited it out.


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## chris8527 (Jul 26, 2008)

Varley said:


> Dare I suggest, in these politically correct #MeToo times, that it would depend on her pulchritudinous rather than journalistic accomplishments.


I wouldn't be surprised if Google crashed under the onslaught of SN'ers looking up the meaning of this magnificent word.(Jester)


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## Varley (Oct 1, 2006)

SN'ers would be too erudite and/or polite to do that. And the monstrous regiment can't roast me either it is entirely genderless.

Ssake1.Dear me. I am told (I was not PSM) that when the 8 to 12 got off watch the lady passengers were at their most receptive in the way of receiving pitched woo. Whatever grade of feminist, were she to want access to an area normally off limits to the cargo, she would have fraternised to do so. Either that or whistled. Were she to have been disadvantaged in the pulchritude stakes she would probably have had practice at whistling.


(Having only had the slightest of passenger experience I must point out this wisdom is of the received and unverified kind).


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## Ian860B (Dec 17, 2015)

Not exactly common practice but we used to invite female passengers to the boiler room on the night 12/4 watch to assist in sootblowing, lots of fun and highly not permitted. crazy stuff we used to get away with.
Jock


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## Varley (Oct 1, 2006)

You cads. What did the 8 to 12 do? Any Sooty handprints (can't get me for that either - capital S).


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## Ian860B (Dec 17, 2015)

The 8/12 were waiting on their starting blocks at 2355 hrs, could be showered, dressed and up on decks sucking on the first G&T by 0010 hrs searching to see what talent was left. All the best girls had been stolen by the 4/8 and the day workers.
Jock(Pint)


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## ssake1 (Dec 11, 2018)

Thanks, I get the gist. I don't know, but my impression is that Fuller was a brazen highbrow feminist, and probably wouldn't have resorted to such tactics to gain access to the engine room. The big clue here, is that it is clearly hinted that this was included in the tour, but it is not described. That means, to me, that if Fuller had wanted to see it badly enough to flirt, as a sort of female undercover reporter, she certainly would have written about it. This writer was shown the "heart and lungs" of the ship, and was impressed by it, but either didn't write about it (or, more likely) Fuller, as the literary editor, cut the details and specs the male writer had written about it. This pretty-much tells me what I needed to know. Thanks!


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## makko (Jul 20, 2006)

I was on Barber Priam, on watch looking after the ER, receiving spares and watching over bunkers prior to departure from New York (well really Port Elizabeth NJ) in 1983 when an alarm went off. 

I dutifully went down to the control room and through the window could see people walking around the top plates, a man in a suit and two women in dresses and high heels. How they had got in I do not know. Anyway, I exited the control room tout suite and explained, in rather broad Anglo Saxon expletives, that they had no right to be there and to exit immediately.

I was quietly rebuked later by the Chief, Bill Turner, for my choice of words as it was a high up from the New York office with visitors. Going to the bar, now back in uniform, I was able to apologize to them and explain why they should not have been in the ER without informing the duty engineer.

Something that has always made me cringe a bit!

Rgds.
Dave


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## mcglash (Oct 14, 2005)

A view of the golden rivet was an attraction that some females fell for, but unfortunately the site was always awash with oily bilge water which was most disappointing for them.So to make up for it they were invited to have a drink in the Engineers Bar!


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## gordonarfur (May 27, 2018)

I did,nt know that the black gang had a bar, I thought that a *** and a can near the ER door met their social needs.


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## Ian860B (Dec 17, 2015)

Quite right, never saw an "engineers" bar on any ship I was on, most alcohol was consumed in cabin drinking, drinking was too expensive on decks a lot was watered down anyway.
Jock


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## mcglash (Oct 14, 2005)

Ah Well guys you were not with the right company. In Shaw Saville on the MV Aranda the Engineers/ Officers Bar was at the aft end of the Engineers Accommodation but not only was it convenient to access it overlooked the Lido pool, furthermore the lift from the public decks went right up to our accommodation, how good was that! Great Company SS&A


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