The most common type of tramp steamer has a raised section amidships, where are placed the bridge, the funnel, and a group of houses containing the galley (which is the kitchen of a ship), staterooms for her officers, and, perhaps, a messroom. Below this lie the boiler and engine rooms. Forward of the bridge the deck drops six or eight feet to a lower level, and as it nears the bow, it is raised again to a little above the altitude of the midship deck. This is still called the forecastle, after those weird structures raised at the bows of ships in the Middle Ages. Aft the midship section the deck drops away as it does forward, and at the stern is raised again, until the stern is about level with the midship deck. Long since, however, the name sterncastle has been dropped. This section is the “poop.” Sometimes light bridge-like runways are raised above the lower parts of the deck forward and aft of the midship section, connecting the bow and stern with the group of deck houses amidships, for when the cargo has been stowed these ships are deep in the water, and these low decks are but a little way above the surface. Once they are at sea, at least in heavy weather, “lippers,” or waves that reach their crests just over the low bulwarks, seem for ever to be flooding these sections of the ship. And once a storm blows up, these decks are often buried beneath tons of solid water, and the crew, housed forward in the forecastle, and the captain, who sometimes lives astern, would, without the raised runway, be more or less marooned and helpless on board the very ship they are supposed to operate. So diverse in design, in operation, and in equipment are these ships that it is impossible to describe them as a unit. Their tonnage ranges from a few hundred to ten thousand. Their crews range from fifteen, perhaps, to fifty. Their engines may be reciprocating or turbine. It is usual, however, for them to have but one propeller, and their speed is low. Seldom do they make less than eight knots an hour, and seldom, too, are they able to make as much as fifteen. Some are well equipped with useful auxiliary machinery for doing much of the heavy work. Others have hardly more than a few steam winches installed to aid in loading and discharging their strange variety of cargoes.