The Log of a Privateersman Read online

  CHAPTER TWELVE.

  THE DESTRUCTION OF THE MANILLA.

  "I will only detain you a moment, gentlemen," said the medico, as heclosed the cabin door behind us; "but I wanted to speak to you strictlyin private; since, if overheard, what I have to say might possiblyproduce a panic. The fact is that I am afraid we are not yet aware ofthe full extent of the disaster that has happened to us. I have beendown in the forecastle attending to the wounded men; and I had no soonerentered the place than I noticed a faint smell as of burning; but Iattached no importance to it at the moment, believing that it arose fromthe fire on deck. But, instead of passing away, as it ought to havedone, with the extinguishment of the fire, it has persistentlycontinued; and I am almost inclined to believe that it is now, ifanything, rather stronger than it was when I went below. Do you thinkit possible that the ship's cargo is on fire?"

  "By Jove!" exclaimed the skipper; "I never thought of that. It shall belooked to at once. I am much obliged to you, Doctor, for mentioning thematter; and should have been even more so if you had communicated withme rather earlier. Come along, Bowen; we must investigate withoutfurther delay."

  The doctor hurriedly entered into an explanation to the effect that hecould not leave his patients until they had been properly attended to,and that there was no one by whom he could send a message; but we couldjust then ill spare the time to listen to him; so, with a hastyacceptance of his excuses, the skipper led the way out on deck, Ifollowing.

  We made our way straight to the forecastle, into which we forthwithdescended; and, sure enough, we were no sooner fairly below the coamingsof the hatchway than we became aware of a distinct smell of fire, towhich also one of the less seriously injured of the wounded menimmediately directed our attention. We sniffed about, hither andthither, and soon found that the smell was stronger as we stooped nearerto the deck, or approached the bulkhead dividing the fore-hold from theforecastle. It was now almost certain that there was a smouldering ofsomething somewhere below; and without more ado the skipper flung offhis coat, lifted the hatch of the forepeak, and descended. He remainedbelow about five minutes; and when he reappeared he composedly closedthe hatch, resumed his coat, and beckoned me to follow him on deck. Thecrew were now busily engaged, under the direction of the chief andsecond mates, in clearing away the wreck of the foremast; we thereforewalked aft until we were out of hearing of everybody; when the captainpaused, and, turning to me, said:

  "I am very much afraid that the ship is on fire, but I cannot be sure.The smell is distinctly stronger in the forepeak than it is in theforecastle, yet not strong enough to lead to the belief that it isanything serious. Still, it must be attended to at once. So I shallknock off the men, call them aft, and speak to them before doinganything, or we shall have a panic among them. Then I shall have thefore-hatch opened, and proceed to make a proper examination of thecargo. Mr Priest," he continued, calling to the chief mate, "knock themen off for a minute or two, and send them aft, if you please."

  The mate, marvelling, no doubt, at this untimely interruption of anoperation of great importance, did as he was bid, and in a few minutesall hands, except the injured men, were mustered in the waist, waitingto hear what the skipper had to say to them. As soon as silence hadbeen secured, Captain Chesney advanced and said:

  "My lads, I have sent for you to come aft in order that I maycommunicate to you a matter that may prove of very considerableconsequence to us all, and to invite your best assistance and co-operation in an investigation that I am about to cause to be made. Thematter in question may or may not prove to be of an alarming character;but, in case of its turning out to be the latter, I want to impress uponyou all the paramount importance of order, method, and the most implicitobedience, without which nothing of real importance can ever beachieved. There is at critical moments an impulse in every man to thinkand act independently, under the conviction that no one is so capable ashimself of dealing efficiently and effectually with the matter in hand,and when this impulse prevails confusion and disorder follow, and alluseful effort is frustrated. Where a number of men are working jointlytogether there must be a leader--one who will think for and direct theefforts of the rest, and it is essential to success that the orders ofthat leader should be obeyed. Now, in the present case, my lads, I willdo all the thinking and planning and arranging, and if you will do thework quietly, methodically, and steadily there is no reason why allshould not be well.

  "I have said all this with a double purpose: first, to prepare you forrather serious news; and, second, to quiet and steady you for the workwhich lies before us. And, first, as to the news. I fear that thelightning has done us rather more damage than we have hitherto hadreason to suppose. In a word, men, I fear that it has set the cargo onfire--steady, lads, steady; I only say I fear that such is the case; Iam by no means certain of it. But it is necessary that the mattershould be investigated forthwith; I am, therefore, about to have thefore-hatch lifted and the cargo examined. Mr Priest, you, with yourwatch, will take off the hatches and rouse the cargo up on deck; andyou, Mr Simcoe, with the starboard watch, will muster the bucketsagain, rig the pumps, and lead along the hose ready to play upon thefire, should such be discovered. Away, all of you, to your duty."

  It may possibly be thought by the reader that the above was rather along speech for a man to make at a time when he believed the ship to beon fire under his feet, and when moments were consequently precious;but, after all, the delay amounted to only some three minutes, and thosethree minutes were well spent, for the skipper's speech had the effectof steadying the men, subduing any tendency to panic among them, andrendering them amenable to that strict discipline which is of suchinestimable value and importance in the presence of great emergencies.They went away to their work in as quiet and orderly a manner as thoughthey had been dismissed below.

  The wedges were quickly knocked out, the battens removed, the tarpaulinstripped off, the hatches lifted, and the upper tier of cargo disclosed,with the result that almost immediately a thin wreath of pale-brownsmoke began to stream up from between the bales and cases.

  "No mistake about that, sir," observed the chief mate to the skipper,pointing to the curling smoke wreaths; "there's fire somewhere downthere. Now, lads, let's get down to it, and make short work of it.You, Jim, and Simpson, get to work, and break out that bale and as muchelse as you can get at, and rouse it out on deck. Chips! ... Where'sthe carpenter?"

  "Here I are, Mr Priest," answered the carpenter, emerging from theforecastle hatchway after having stowed away his mawl again in the mostmethodical manner.

  "That's right," observed the mate. "Now, Chips, our foremast havinggone, we want a derrick or a pair of sheers over this hatchway to helpus in breaking out the cargo. Find a spar, or something that will serveour purpose, and let the bo'sun rig up what we want. Well done, men;now, out with that crate; jump down into that hole, one or two of you,and lend the others a hand."

  The work went forward rapidly and steadily, and in a very short timethere was a goodly display of cargo on the deck about the fore-hatch.The smoke, however, which at first had streamed up in a mere thread-likewreath, was now pouring out of the hatch in a cloud so dense that themen working at the cargo were obliged to be relieved every three or fourminutes to avoid suffocation. The business was beginning to assume avery serious aspect. And now, too, the storm having passed off, thepassengers had ventured out on deck once more, and, observing the lightsand the bustle forward, had gradually approached the fore end of theship to see what was going on. The skipper, however, at once orderedthem aft again, and, following them into the cuddy, explained just howmatters stood, remaining with them until their excitement had subsidedand he had got them pretty well in hand.

  Hitherto no water had been used, Captain Chesney being anxious to get asmuch of the cargo as possible--which was mostly of a valuablecharacter--out on deck uninjured; but the rapidly increasing density andvolume of the smoke showed that the question of damaging the cargo hadn
ow become a secondary one. The safety of the ship herself wasimperilled, and the head pump was accordingly manned, the hose coupledup, and the second mate pointed it down the hatchway, while the thirdmate superintended the operations of a party of men who had been set todraw water and pass along a chain of buckets by hand. But when waterhad been pouring continuously down the hatchway for fully a quarter ofan hour, and the smoke continued to stream up from below in ever-increasing volume, unmingled with any indication of steam, it becameapparent that the seat of the fire was at some distance, for the waterhad evidently not yet reached the flames. Nevertheless, the men workedsteadily on; but whereas at the commencement of their labours they hadsung out their "Yo-ho's" and "Heave-ho's", and other encouragingexclamations, after the manner of sailors engaged in arduous labour,they now toiled on in grim silence.

  At length a feathery jet of white vapour began to mingle with the thickcolumn of smoke surging up the hatchway, and was immediately greetedwith a shout of triumph by the mate, followed by a few crispejaculations of encouragement to the men, who apparently accepted thesame in good faith. Nevertheless, I could see by Priest's face that,although he might have deceived the men, he had not deceived himself,and that he knew, as well as I did, that the appearance of steam was anindication, not that the water had reached the fire, but that the firehad spread sufficiently to reach the water, a very different and muchmore serious matter.

  Suddenly the smoke thickened into a dense black cloud of a pungent, waxyodour, and immediately afterwards bright tongues of flame came dartingup between the bales and packages upon which the men in the hold wereworking. There was a loud, hissing sound, as the water that was beingpoured down the hatchway became converted into steam, and then, with aquick, unexpected roar of fire, the flames shot up in such fierce volumethat the men were driven precipitately up on deck.

  "Ah!" ejaculated the mate in an aside to me; "I know what that is; andit's what I've been fearing. There's a lot of shellac and gums ofdifferent sorts down there, and the fire's got at 'em. They'll burnlike oil, or worse, and I'm afraid we shall have our work cut out now toget the fire under."

  I fully agreed with him, or rather I began to entertain a suspicion thatthe ship was doomed, for the heat, even while the mate had beenspeaking, had grown intense. The whole contents of the hatchway hadburst into flame, and the ruddy tongues of fire were now darting throughthe hatchway, as through a chimney, to a height of fully twenty feetabove the deck. The coamings were on fire, the pitch was beginning tobubble and boil out of the seams of the deck planking, and the planksthemselves were already uncomfortably hot to stand upon. Unless thefire could somehow be checked it seemed to me that it would soon be timeto think about getting out the boats.

  The skipper meanwhile had come forward again, and, although looking veryanxious, was, I was glad to see, perfectly self-possessed.

  "We shall have to clap the hatches on again, Mr Priest, and endeavourto smother the fire," said he. "Let it be done at once."

  "Ay, ay, sir," answered Priest. "Now then, lads, on with the hatchessome of you. Shall the carpenter cut holes in the deck, sir, for thewater to pass through?"

  "Yes," answered the skipper. "We must keep the hose going, certainly."

  But when the men came to attempt the replacing of the hatches, it wasfound that the fire was already too much for them. The heat was sofierce, and the flames poured forth so continuously, that they could notget near enough to the hatchway to achieve their object. Then theskipper and I made the attempt, with no better success, getting severelyscorched for our pains.

  "Perhaps," said I, "it might be possible to do something with a wettedsail--"

  "An excellent suggestion, for which I am much obliged to you, MrBowen!" exclaimed the skipper, interrupting me. "It shall be tried atonce."

  And he forthwith gave the necessary orders.

  A main-topgallant-sail was got up out of the sail-room and droppedoverboard, made fast by a line to one of the clews. Then, as soon as itwas thoroughly saturated, it was dragged inboard, stretched athwart thedeck, and dragged over the flaming hatchway, several men holding it inposition while the carpenter rapidly spiked the head and foot of it tothe deck. Meanwhile, the hose was played incessantly upon it, whilebucket after bucket of water was emptied into it with frantic energyuntil the hollow of it over the hatchway was full of water. By keepinga continuous stream of water pouring into this hollow we seemed to checkthe fire for a time, although it was difficult work, on account of thegreat clouds of scalding steam that soon began to rise from the water.But in less than a quarter of an hour the scorched canvas gave way. Thewater that it had contained plumped down through the rent on to theblazing cargo, and was immediately converted into a vast volume of steamthat momentarily checked the fire, and then the flames leaped up againfar more fiercely than ever.

  "It is no good," murmured the skipper, turning to me; "the ship isdoomed! The fire is rapidly spreading in spite of all that we can do.There is nothing for it, therefore, but to take to the boats, and thesooner that they are in the water the better."

  This was quite my own opinion, and I said so. The chief mate wasaccordingly called aside and given his instructions, and while thesecond mate, with his gang, continued to fight the fire, Mr Priest,with a few picked men, went to work to provision and water the severalboats preparatory to getting them into the water. The long-boat was anexception to this arrangement. She stood on chocks upon the top of themain hatch, and, under ordinary circumstances, was hoisted out by meansof yard tackles on the fore and main-yard-arms. Now, however, that theforemast was destroyed, it was no longer possible to handle her in thisway, and the only plan that suggested itself was to launch her bodilyoff the deck, afterwards bailing out such water as she would probablyship during the operation. This was accordingly done very successfully,and in about two hours' time all the boats were alongside, with oars,rowlocks, a baler each, masts, sails, and other gear complete, and asmuch provisions and water as there was room for after allowing space forthe necessary complement of passengers and crew. The Indiaman was wellprovided with boats, so there was room for everybody withoutovercrowding.

  While these preparations had been going on, Captain Chesney had been inthe cuddy, stating the condition of affairs to the passengers, anddirecting them to prepare for their forthcoming boat-voyage by dressingin their warmest clothing and providing themselves with such extra wrapsas would be useful at night or during severe weather. He also permittedthem to each take a small package of valuables with them, explaining atthe same time that they must be prepared to throw these overboard shouldthe boats prove to be dangerously deep in the water, or should badweather come on.

  At length, all being ready, the process of embarkation in the boatsbegan, both gangways being used for this purpose. First of all, thecrew of the long-boat and the first cutter descended into theirrespective boats, and stood by to receive the other occupants. Thelong-boat was a particularly fine and roomy craft, with accommodationenough to take all the women and children in her, and these were nowaccordingly ushered down the accommodation ladder, each being called byname by the skipper, who stood at the gangway with a list in his hand,which he ticked off by the light of the flames as each person left theship. This was at the starboard gangway. Meanwhile Simcoe, the secondmate, at the port gangway, was receiving the men who had been injured bythe lightning that had set the ship on fire. All these were taken intothe second cutter, and her full complement was made up with bachelorpassengers. As soon as these two boats had received their full numberthey were ordered to pull away from the ship far enough to allow twoother boats to come to the gangway, which in like manner quicklyreceived their human freight, and hauled off. And so the work went onuntil everybody but the skipper and myself had left the ship, the gig,with eight hands, being at the gangway to receive us. The whole of thefore part of the ship, to within a few feet of the main hatchway, was bythis time a roaring and blazing fiery furnace, the flames of whichreached as high as
the main-topmast-head. Part of the fore deck hadfallen in; the heel of the bowsprit had been consumed, causing the spar,with all attached, to plunge into the water under the bows, and the deckplanking, as far aft as the gangway, was almost unendurably hot to standupon, while small tongues of flame were constantly springing intoexistence here and there about us in the most extraordinary way as thetimber ignited with the intense heat. There was consequently not amoment to lose, and, as Captain Chesney very rightly insisted upon beingthe last to leave the ship, I wasted no time in making my way down intothe gig, which I was to command, and into which I had already passed myfew traps and my sextant. The skipper, meanwhile, had gone into thecuddy to take a final look round. He was absent nearly five minutes,and I was growing so anxious about him that I was at the point ofleaving the boat again to hunt him up, when he appeared at the head ofthe gangway. The poor fellow seemed to be dreadfully cut up as heallowed his glances to wander fore and aft the noble ship, now ablazealmost to the spot upon which he stood, and with thick jets of blacksmoke and little tongues of flame forcing their way through the seams ata hundred different points. He had commanded the vessel ever since sheleft the stocks; he had conducted her safely to-and-fro over thousandsof miles of ocean, through fair weather and foul; he had studied heruntil he had come to know every quality that she possessed, good or bad;had taken pride in the first, and found ample excuses for the last; hehad grown to love her, almost as a man loves his wife or child, and nowthe moment had come when he must abandon her to the devouring flamesthat had already seared and destroyed her beauty, and were fast reducingher to a charred, shapeless shell of blazing timber. Involuntarily, asit seemed to me, he doffed his cap, as a man might do in the presence ofthe dying, standing there in the gangway, with his figure in bold reliefagainst the glowing furnace of flame and the dense volumes of heavy,wreathing, fire-illumined smoke, while his eyes seemed to wander hitherand thither about the burning ship as though unable to drag himselfaway; but at length the fire burst through the deck close to where hestood. Fiery flakes were falling thickly about him; the mainmast wastottering ominously; it was obviously full time to be gone. Such hintswere not to be ignored, and replacing his cap upon his head with onehand as he dashed the other across his eyes, he slowly descended theladder and gave the word to shove off. The men, who had latterly beengrowing very anxious and fidgety, lost no time in obeying the order.But we were none too soon, for the gig had barely left the gangway whenthe mainmast fell over the side with a loud crash and a fierce up-darting of millions of fiery sparks, followed by a great spout of flamethat seemed to indicate that the mast, in falling, had torn up aconsiderable portion of the deck. The poor skipper, who had sunk downbeside me in the stern-sheets of the boat, shuddered violently andheaved a heavy, gasping sigh as the mainmast struck the water closeunder the boat's stern, raising a splash that nearly drenched us to theskin.

  "Another half-minute and I should have been too late," he murmured, witha ghastly smile. "Well," he continued, "so far as the poor old ship isconcerned, my duty is done. But there is still a heavy responsibilityresting upon me, inasmuch as that the lives of all these people dependalmost exclusively upon my judgment and foresight. Put me aboard thelong-boat, please."