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A Summer Reading Suggestion

by John J. Fanning

My favorite class to teach has always been Basic Steam Plant Operations. I have always considered it an introductory class to Power Engineering and I relish the opportunity to welcome students into our profession and provide them some insight into what they can expect, and what is expected from them from their chosen career.

I have always made it a practice to suggest to newcomers entering the profession that they pick up a copy of Richard McKenna’s classic novel, The Sand Pebbles, and read it in their spare time. The Sand Pebbles is by far, the best novel I have found that describes the relationship between an engineer and the machinery he or she operates and maintains.

First published in the Saturday Evening Post in 1962, it is the only novel written by McKenna, who enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1931 and spent ten years with the China Fleet, including two years on a Yangtze River gunboat.

McKenna’s story takes place during the 1920s in China, as the country moves into revolutionary turbulence. The novel’s hero is Machinist First-Class Jake Holman, a superb engineer whom, like many engineers of the past, is somewhat lacking in people skills. Holman has experienced some problems accepting authority at his earlier assignments with the U.S. Navy’s Asiatic fleet, and is reassigned to a small gunboat patrolling the backwaters of China’s Yangtze River.

As he assumes his duty as “Chief Engineer” of the small boat, the reader follows along as he develops a Zen-like relationship with the equipment under his charge. His ability to sense the rhythm of the boat’s machinery leads him to discover ways to alter the propulsion system and greatly improve the capabilities of the vessel.

This part of the novel is why I recommend it to engineers just starting their careers. The very best engineers in the profession develop the same awareness and feeling for the equipment they operate and maintain, just like Jake Holman did in the novel. It is not at all surprising to me when I see an engineer suddenly stop whatever he or she is doing because they “sense” something is not quite right within an engine room. Even when the engine room is several floors or decks away from where they are standing. And as I explain to my students, it is the development of those “feelings” for your equipment, and the “rhythm” of the plant or building you are operating, that truly defines one’s ascension from the ranks of being merely a building mechanic, to the role of a true Power Engineer.

Today, however, I find myself recommending the same novel to more and more Chief Engineers. McKenna, who died at the age of 51, put far more into his writing of The Sand Pebbles than most literary critics seem to have realized. And although the events depicted in the novel take place long ago and far away, the lessons one can learn from the novel are perhaps more relevant today than they were in 1962 when it was first published.

Jake Holman is content within the confines of his small engine room on the gunboat. But outside that gunboat the world is changing rapidly. And despite his efforts to protect and isolate himself and his engineering crew from the events outside, eventually those events invade his engine room, forcing him to confront the reality that lies beyond his orderly world of machinery and motion.

Beginning in the 1970s, the realities of the world started to invade all of our engine rooms. Today, an event occurring in the most remote regions of the world could have immediate impact upon the way we operate our equipment, what fuel we choose to burn, what economies we are required to undertake in our facility operations, what security considerations we undertake...

Most engineers have adapted to this changing reality, they have seized the opportunity to obtain additional education and training and have acquired the skills needed to operate and maintain new technological devices. This increase in education and training has resulted in the advancement of power engineers, many of whom are now taking on responsibility for the overall management of commercial, industrial and institutional facilities.

Still, however, there have been some engineers who remain reluctant to accept the reality of change surrounding them and still attempt to isolate themselves within engine rooms and boiler rooms, concentrating all of their energy trying to preserve their own orderly worlds of machinery and motion.

In The Sand Pebbles, Jake Holman waits too long to confront the reality of change happening outside his engine room, which eventually crashes into his orderly world with tragic results. Unfortunately, some engineers of today may be waiting too long to accept the tide of change happening around them and will also, ultimately meet with a tragic result.

So if you’re looking for some summer reading for that long awaited vacation, you might want to consider picking up a copy of The Sand Pebbles. It’s not only a great classic novel filled with adventure. It’s also an important work, filled with lessons for every power engineer.

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