280 THE SEA. 



still as the grave, save the monotonous throbbing of the engines. He happened to look 

 towards Mr. Treweeke at that moment, and saw him leaning listlessly against the railing 

 of the bridge. Suddenly Treweeke started up, and looked earnestly at something apparent! v 

 issuing from the engine-room. That officer had discovered flames issuing thence, and 

 Dunsford was detailed to call the captain : and although he should have performed his duty 

 noiselessly, he managed, rather boisterously, to disturb some of the passengers. The 

 captain immediately ran out of his cabin, half nude, and after finding that the fire was 

 serious, ran back and put on some clothes, immediately returning to the scene of action. 

 At the same time, Mr. Stone, the fourth engineer, saw fire on the starboard foremost boiler 

 from the iron platform on which he was standing, and instantly gave the alarm. He even 

 attempted to stop the engines, but the smoke was so dense that he was obliged to retreat. 

 One of the men, who was going to the engine-room to warm himself, observed a glare of 

 light in the fore stoke-hole, and on examination found between the starboard fore-boiler 

 and the bulkhead a flame issuing as far as he could see. The firemen's backs were turned 

 at the time, and he shouted out to them, "Don't you see the fire? Why don't you get 

 water?" They did not, however, seem to notice it. He rushed aft, where the hose was 

 kept, and tried to drag it forward, shouting for assistance ; but by the time the hose was 

 brought the flames of fire were rushing up through the oil, tallow, and waste store-rooms. 

 The flames were leaping upwards to the deck above. Owing to the smoke, he was obliged 

 to give up the hose, and rush on deck, it being impossible to remain below any longer. 

 The chief engineer, Mr. Angus, and one of his assistants, tried to put on the hose, and 

 kept by it till they could not breathe. Hearing a cry for buckets on deck, Angus ran aft 

 as fast as he could, and the passengers were then breaking open the saloon door to get on 

 deck. Several attempts to get water to the flames were unsuccessful or utterly ineffective. 



The second engineer, Mr. William Angus, stated that when he was alarmed by the 

 cry of " Fire ! " he was in the act of " blowing off " * the after-boiler, and on coming 

 up the lower platform ladder of the engine-room, ran to set the "donkey" engine (which 

 pumps the ship and keeps the boilers a-going). A blast of smoke stopped him, and when 

 he recovered more or less from the suffocation he attempted to work her, but failed. All 

 the lamps were extinguished by the smoke. Mr. Stone, the fourth engineer, came to his 

 assistance, but was forced to retire. The stokers and others found it equally impossible 

 to remain. One of the survivors described the progress of the flames in the engine-room 

 " as that of a great wave of fire, before which no man could stand and live." He stated 

 that it rushed upon his mind that if the boilers were left in their then state the water 

 would soon become exhausted, and the boilers themselves explode, so he turned on the 

 water into them, and attempted to remove the weights from the safety valves, so as to 

 ease the pressure of the steam. The glass above was cracking with the intensity of the 

 heat. "It was not three minutes from the time that the fire was discovered till the ship 

 was in flames." 



Above, on deck, all was horror, confusion, and despair, among the passengers and crew. 

 The flames, having broken out abaft the foremast, rapidly extended across the whole breadth 



* In sea-going steam-vessels the salt water employed in the boilers incrusts the sides with a deposit of salt, and 

 it is necessary to " blow off " every now and again, and discharge the water from them. 



