Wintry weather offers Stokers a reminder of the past

Recent wintry weather offered Staff and students from HMS Sultan a rare opportunity to link in with practices of the past when the Engineering Technician Initial Career Course (ETICC) carried out a No1 inspection in the wonderful surroundings of Watt Hangar.

It was shadows of the past for the Divisional Officers from the Defence College of Technical Training’s Defence School of Marine Engineering supervising the students, as they remembered their own experiences of being surrounded by machinery of the past in Newcomen Hangar.

Chief Petty Officer Nigel ‘Curly’ Watts said: “The inspection was a fantastic reminder for all of the Staff of our own early training.

"Even looking back further, thoughts of our heritage come to mind as we walk past the black and white photographs on display within the ETICC, including the images of our ‘stoker’ ancestors down below in square rig and coaling ship in tropical whites!”

“Nothing much changes, as ‘stokers’ in No1’s we all fell in next to the machinery that they are sure to grow to know and love.” 

As the Y100 boiler and steam turbines have now been replaced by WR21 gas turbines and state of the art CAT and Wartsila diesel engines. 

The experience of the No1 Inspections held as a testament that despite technology moving on at a phenomenal rate since those days of old, a stoker in No1’s next to machinery still remains a spectacle to behold.