3 04 MY LIFE 



when, about nine in the morning, just after breakfast, Captain 

 Turner, who was half-owner of the vessel, came into the cabin, 

 and said, 'I'm afraid the ship's on fire. Come and see what 

 you think of it.' Going on deck I found a thick smoke coming 

 out of the forecastle, which we both thought more like the 

 steam from heating vegetable matter than the smoke from a 

 fire. The fore hatchway was immediately opened to try and 

 ascertain the origin of the smoke, and a quantity of cargo was 

 thrown out, but the smoke continuing without any perceptible 

 increase, we went to the after hatchway, and after throwing 

 out a quantity of piassaba, with which the upper part of the 

 hold was filled, the smoke became so dense that the men could 

 not stay in it. Most of them were then set to work throwing 

 in buckets of water, and the rest proceeded to the cabin and 

 opened the lazaretto or store-place beneath its floor, and found 

 smoke issuing from the bulkhead separating it from the hold, 

 which extended half-way under the fore part of the cabin. 

 Attempts were then made to break down this bulkhead, but 

 it resisted all efforts, the smoke being so suffocating as to pre- 

 vent anyone stopping in it more than a minute at a time. A 

 hole was then cut in the cabin floor, and while the carpenter 

 was doing this, the rest of the crew were employed getting 

 out the boats, the captain looked after his chronometer, sextant, 

 books, charts, and compasses, and I got up a small tin box 

 containing a few shirts, and put in it my drawings of fishes 

 and palms, which were luckily at hand ; also my watch and a 

 purse with a few sovereigns. Most of my clothes were scat- 

 tered about the cabin, and in the dense suffocating smoke it 

 was impossible to look about after them. There were two 

 boats, the long-boat and the captain's gig, and it took a good 

 deal of time to get the merest necessaries collected and put 

 into them, and to lower them into the water. Two casks of 

 biscuit and a cask of water were got in, a lot of raw pork and 

 some ham, a few tins of preserved meats and vegetables, and 

 some wine. Then there were corks to stop the holes in the 

 boats, oars, masts, sails, and rudders to be looked up, spare 

 spars, cordage, twine, canvas, needles, carpenter's tools, nails, 

 etc. The crew brought up their bags of clothes, and all were 



