Navy·Consolidated / merged·In Memoriam
Water Tender
WTSnipes
Served: 1884–1948
The sailor who managed boiler feedwater — quality, level, and chemistry — to keep boilers from blowing up.
The Story
Chief Water Tender was one of the *original* CPO ratings established in 1893. The job survived three rename cycles (WT → Boilerman → Boiler Technician → absorbed into Machinist's Mate, 1996) before fully disappearing.
Epitaph
“Watched the water so the boiler wouldn't. Outlived by chemistry textbooks.”
Sources
- Wikipedia — Watertenderen.wikipedia.org