[Alan Bates]

That boiler explosion thread got out of hand!

Bob Reynolds the term pulling a fire simply means cleaning the grates when cooling down. I never heard of any fire smothering device. This tale isn't about that.

Captain G. W, McBride worked on the Str. Duffy many times. On one of his first trips he found out about a bad practice on the part of the firemen the hard way. In order to go home soon after they landed they would allow the pressure to drop during the last half-hour of the trip from the digger to the sand yard. They had to clean their fire and bank it for the night before going home, so they started early. Unaware of this G. W., who also wanted to get home, made a quick landing, sailed into the fleet, rang to back and the engines said, "pho-o-o-o," instead of "CHOW, CHOW!"

Sure enough, the tow went on in and cornered a barge. Nothing sank, but the whole bunch got home late that night.