1849.] Miscellaneous. 167 



On a spontaneous combustion of Coal wetted with salt water, on hoard 

 the ship Sir Howard Douglass, Capt. Ogilby. By Henry Pid- 

 dington, Curator Museum of Economic Geology. 



Part I. Narrative. 



In a pamphlet printed by me for trie Lords Commissioners of H. M. 

 Admiralty in June 1847* and which has been reprinted at home in the 

 Nautical Magazine for 1847, the following passage occurs : — 



" When coal reaches the ship it should be carefully examined and it 

 should be noted if wet with fresh or salt water." 



And the note to this says : — 



" It is said that a coal-laden vessel was recently burnt at Aden from 

 the Master's having wetted his coal with the salt water to increase the 

 weight, and I have heard it said that coal wetted with salt water is 

 more dangerous. As a new set of chemical actions would go on be- 

 tween the salt water and the pyrites and copperas this may not be 

 improbable. " 



Up to that period this was all, I believe, that was known on this side 

 of the Cape on the subject of the combustion of coal wetted with salt 

 water. But the recent arrival in the port of Calcutta of a ship which 

 had narrowly escaped burning in consequence of her coal heating, after 

 being wetted with salt water, was an event calculated to afford so much 

 information on the subject that I have taken every pains to procure the 

 fullest accounts of it and to investigate the changes which the coal has 

 experienced : I begin by a narrative of the facts. 



The ship Sir Howard Douglass, Capt. Ogilby, of 7 15 tons burden, from 

 Newport to Bombay, laden with coal for the Peninsular and Oriental 

 Steam Navigation Company, ran on the 15th of January 1838 into a 

 hurricane of excessive severity, in about Lat. ll-j-° S. Long. 80J° East, 

 and, being thrown on her beam ends, her cargo shifted, she lost her 

 mizenmast, topmasts, rudder, &c. and was for a time in considerable 

 danger of foundering. She however reached Point de Galle and refitted 

 there as she best could, and proceeded on her voyage towards Bombay 



* A cheap, simple, and certain method of obtaining early warning of any approach 

 to spontaneous combustion, or ignition by accident, on board of steamers, coal or 

 other ships ; and of instantly conveying water nearly to the spot, with chemical 

 notes and practical deductions for the use of sailors. 



