"Watch your step."
We weren't outside the bridges yet when the young father and his daughter, maybe around 5 or 6, showed up at the firebox. She wanted to come down here, he explained. To get away from the loud noise of the music.
Sure, I said. I hear all kinds of things when I work the firebox. Sometimes guys who work with boilers want to come down and talk shop, much to the frustration of their wives. I once I had a guy on some kind of scavenger hunt that wanted "something to remember the trip by" that was from the firebox. All the dads want to come and look at the fire. I get a few firebug pixies who come and plop down on the floor right in front of the big port side burner. Once, right when the heat first settled into the river valley, a different little girl, maybe 8 or 9, wandered down alone because the a/c on the dance floor was too cold.
This little girl wore an expression on her face that told me coming down to the boiler was not necessarily her idea... but more of a suggestion embraced out of desperation. The firebox is not a quiet place when the burners are going. I leaned in and smiled so both her and her father could hear me.
You picked a funny place to hide from the noise! My tone was, I hope, friendly. The firebox can be scary enough. I really go out of my way to try and not scare little kids.
Even though we weren’t north of the bridges yet, I went ahead and let them in. I normally don't. The bridges: The 2nd Street Bridge, the I-65 Bridge -- or, if you must, The Kennedy Bridge -- and the Walking Bridge make up a boundary. Except for the Great Steamboat Race, only one boat is allowed under the bridges at a time. That's a Coast Guard regulation. It's a safety thing. And also, while the engine cut-off* is generally engaged before we cross under the Walking Bridge, it's still considered a potential for the need to maneuver.
They didn't stay long. The dad tried to get her interested in the burners. I think she would have been had the box 1) not been so noisy, and 2) not been so hot. I tell parents of smaller kids that kids' ears are more sensitive to the noise. It's not just that some things are big and noisy and scary. It's that their ears haven't been desensitized and broken by years of modern life.
Life is noisy. There's a baseline noise to nearly every part of life touched by human hands. It's easy to forget that.
Engaging the cut-off valve limits the amount of steam allowed into the piston cylinder. When maneuvering (slow ahead or slow astern, for example) the cut-off is disengaged to allow for more power to the paddlewheel. During regular full ahead cruising, the cut-off is engaged to limit steam and wear on the engine and paddlewheel.