Page:The Development of Navies During the Last Half-Century.djvu/292

 as rank goes, on the same level as the medical and accountant officers, but his pay is considerably less than theirs, which is a constant occasion of complaint With regard to the rank and file of the engine-room, the introduction of a class of skilled artificers, which took place in 1869, has proved of very great benefit to the navy, by rendering it possible to reduce very largely the number of highly trained engineer officers, which reduction has, however, been carried too far. The entry and training of stokers — firemen as they are called in the mercantile marine — are in anything but a satisfactory state. As the necessity for increased intelligence among these men becomes more manifest, on account of the number of small yet anything but simple engines that have to be confided to their care, it will probably be found advisable to train them up from boys for their particular duties, in the same way as has long been the practice with seamen. What the future of engineering in the navy may be he would be a bold man who would attempt to prophesy. It is, however, unlikely that in the next decade anything like the same progress will be made as in the past one. There must be a point beyond which, except in matters of detail, improvement of the marine steam engine cannot go. That point has probably very nearly been attained. To the ambitious and sceptical it may be called to mind that, with every inducement, to inventors, no substantial difference exists to-day between the best example of a railway locomotive and one of thirty years ago. If any startling revolution in the economy of marine steam propulsion does take