What is the purpose of the encounter between Paddy and Yank in the first scene of The Hairy Ape?

The encounter between Paddy and Yank in the very beginning
of the play serves several purposes. It establishes the time period of the drama, the
early years of the Twentieth Century. America has entered the modern Industrial Age, but
Paddy's presence on the ship establishes that the "old days" before industrialization
are within memory. The conversation between Yank and Paddy develops the sharp contrast
between the modern era and its engine-powered ships that Yank so identifies with and the
beauty and freedom of working ships under sail that Paddy remembers and
mourns:

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Oh, to be back in the fine days of my youth,
ochone! Oh, there was fine beautiful ships them days--clippers wid tall masts
touching the sky . . . Oh, to be scudding south again wid the power of the Trade Wind
driving her on steady through the nights and the days! Full sail on her! Nights and
days! Nights when the foam of the wake would be flaming wid fire, when the sky'd be
blazing and winking wid stars. Or the full of the moon maybe. Then you'd see her driving
through the gray night, her sails stretching aloft all silver and white, not a sound on
the deck, the lot of us dreaming dreams . . .
.

The imagery in Paddy's
speech contrasts sharply with the cramped, confined, below-decks setting in which his
encounter with Yank occurs, and Yank's reaction expresses the modern disdain for the
romance of Paddy's era. Instead of celebrating beauty and freedom, Yank celebrates the
power and speed produced by men like him shoveling grimy coal into fiery furnaces
:

Sure I'm
part of de engines! Why de hell not! Dey move, don't dey? Dey're speed, ain't dey? Dey
smash trou, don't dey? Twenty-five knots a hour! Dat's goin' some! Dat's new stuff! Dat
belongs! But him [Paddy], he's too old. He gets dizzy. Say, listen. All dat crazy tripe
about nights and days; all dat crazy tripe about stars and moons; all dat crazy tripe
about suns and winds, fresh air and de rest of it--Aw hell, dat's all a dope dream!
Hittin' de pipe of de past, dat's what he's doin'. He's old and don't belong no more.
But me, I'm young! I'm in de pink! I move wit it! . . . De engines and de coal and de
smoke and all de rest of it! He can't breathe and swallow coal dust, but I kin, see?
Dat's fresh air for me! Dat's food for me! I'm new, get me? Hell in de stokehole? Sure!
It takes a man to work in hell. Hell, sure, dat's my fav'rite climate. I eat it up! I
git fat on it!

The
conversation between Yank and Paddy also establishes the terrible working conditions
brought about by industrialization that Yank and the others live in daily. Yank may
revel in breathing and swallowing coal dust, but his description of the men's job aboard
this "modern" ship voices strong social criticism.

Another
purpose of the encounter between Yank and Paddy is that it establishes Yank's character
so strongly that the dramatic changes that occur within him as the play develops become
even more meaningful.