<P> Fireman or stoker is the job title for someone whose job is to tend the fire for the running of a steam engine . On steam locomotives the term fireman is usually used, while on steamships and stationary steam engines, such as those driving saw mills, the term is usually stoker (although the British Merchant Navy did use fireman). The German word Heizer is equivalent and in Dutch the word stoker is mostly used too . The United States Navy referred to them as watertenders . Much of the job is hard physical labor, such as shoveling fuel, typically coal, into the engine's firebox . </P> <P> The Royal Navy used the rank structure ordinary stoker, stoker, leading stoker, stoker petty officer and chief stoker . The non-substantive (trade) badge for stokers was a ship's propeller . Stoker remains the colloquial term used to refer to a marine engineering rating, despite the decommissioning of the last steam - powered naval vessel many years ago . </P>

What was a stoker in the royal navy