LONDON, AND VOYAGE TO SINGAPORE 311 



is come; and I expected to see the captain rush up on deck 

 with his axe. But he only swore a good deal, sought out a 

 dry coat and blanket, and then lay down on the sofa as if 

 nothing had happened. So I was a little reassured. 



Not less alarming was the circumstance of the crew coming 

 aft in a body to say that the forecastle was uninhabitable, as it 

 was constantly wet, and several of them brought handfuls of 

 wet rotten wood which they could pull out in many places. 

 This happened soon after the first gale began; so the two 

 captains and I went to look, and we saw sprays and squirts of 

 water coming in at the joints in numerous places, soaking 

 almost all the men's berths, while here and there we could see 

 the places where they had pulled out rotten wood with their 

 fingers. The captain then had the sail-room amidships cleared 

 out for the men to sleep in for the rest of the voyage. 



One day in the height of the storm, when we were being 

 flooded with spray and enormous waves were coming up behind 

 us, Captain Turner and I were sitting on the poop in the driest 

 place we could find, and, as a bigger wave than usual rolled 

 under us and dashed over our sides, he said quietly to me, " If 

 we are pooped by one of those waves we shall go to the bot- 

 tom ; " then added, " We were not very safe in our two small 

 boats, but I had rather be back in them where we were picked 

 up than in this rotten old tub." It is, therefore, I think, quite 

 evident that we did have a very narrow escape. Yet this 

 unseaworthy old ship, which ought to have been condemned 

 years before, had actually taken Government stores out to 

 Halifax, had there been patched up, and sent to Cuba for a 

 cargo of heavy timber, which we were bringing home. 



I may here make a few remarks on the cause of the fire, 

 which at the time was quite a mystery to us. We learnt 

 afterwards that balsam-capivi is liable to spontaneous com- 

 bustion by the constant motion on a voyage, and it is for that 

 reason that it is always carried in small kegs and imbedded 

 in damp sand in the lowest part of the hold. Captain Turner 

 had never carried any before, and knew nothing of its prop- 

 erties, and when at the last moment another boat load of 

 small kegs of balsam came with no sand to pack them in, 



