Two stokers enjoy a few moments on deck, away from feeding coal to the boilers used to power HMCS Niobe's two large steam engines.

Niobe's 30 boilers needed large gangs of stokers to keep them supplied with coal. Covered from head to foot with soot and coal dust, these two stokers in their ragged overalls bear evidence of the arduous and demanding nature of their work, shovelling coal out of storage bunkers and into the boilers' hot fireboxes deep within the ship.

George Metcalf Archival Collection
CWM 20030174-074