Alfred Howard
According to the Snohomish County arrest book, Alfred Howard was from New York, 28 years old, 5’8 1/2″, 148 pounds, with a medium build and brown eyes and black hair. He arrived at the Snohomish County Jail on 10 November 1916 and was released 8 May 1917.
He also wore glasses and worked as a coal passer.
The world of the coal passer was a private hell, filled with coal dust, dim lights, backbreaking work, and in action the terrible noise and fearful sudden movements of the coal as the ship shook from hits and its own guns firing. It is little wonder that the 1918 mutinies in the [German] High Seas Fleet started with the coal passers. (Egan, “Technical Description and Evaluation of S.M.S. Goeben,” page 280.)
A coal passer hauled coal from a ship’s bunker to the boiler furnaces, hauled ash and clinkers out of the furnaces, cleaned and scaled boilers and bilge strainers, all hot, dirty, and dangerous work. (O’Donnell, The Merchant Marine Manual, page 108.) Coal passers were also the first to fight bunker fires, having to dig into the pile of coal, expose the embers, and either shovel the burning coal to the boiler furnaces or douse it with water, while in a swirl of super-heated air and coal smoke. Living among the coal bunkers and the heat, coal passers, firemen, and others working in similar conditions were known as the “black gang,” because they could seldom ever get really clean.
