I am reading Lawrence Beesley's (a survivor) account called "The Loss of S.S. Titanic. Its story and its lessons" (Available on Gutenberg.org free.)
Okay, in chapter 2, From Southampton to the Night of Collision, there is a paragraph I can't decipher:
"As one of the tenders containing passengers and mails neared the Titanic, some of those on board gazed up at the liner towering above them, and saw a stoker's head, black from his work in the stokehold below, peering out at them from the top of one of the enormous funnels--a dummy one for ventilation--that rose many feet above the highest deck. He had climbed up inside for a joke, but to some of those who saw him there the sight was seed for the growth of an "omen", which bore fruit in an unknown dread of dangers to come. An American lady--may she forgive me if she reads these lines!--has related to me with the deepest conviction and earnestness of manner that she saw the man and attributes the sinking of the Titanic largely to that."
I don't understand. What is a stoker? What was he doing in the funnel? And why did the passengers on the "tender" find that odd?