. Around the world in the yacht 'Sunbeam,' our home on the ocean for eleven months . under full sail, flying the red union-jack upsidedown, and with signals in her rigging, which our signal-man read as Ship on fire. These were lowered shortlyafterwards, and the signals, Come on board at once,hoisted in their place. Still we could see no appearanceof smoke or flames, but we nevertheless hauled to thewind, tacked, hove-to, and sent off a boats crew, wellarmed, thinking it not impossible that a mutiny had taken 104 A SHIP ON FIRE. 105 place on board, and that the captain or officers, mistakingthe
. Around the world in the yacht 'Sunbeam,' our home on the ocean for eleven months . under full sail, flying the red union-jack upsidedown, and with signals in her rigging, which our signal-man read as Ship on fire. These were lowered shortlyafterwards, and the signals, Come on board at once,hoisted in their place. Still we could see no appearanceof smoke or flames, but we nevertheless hauled to thewind, tacked, hove-to, and sent off a boats crew, wellarmed, thinking it not impossible that a mutiny had taken 104 A SHIP ON FIRE. 105 place on board, and that the captain or officers, mistakingthe yacht for a gunboat, had appealed to us for were now near enough to the bark to make out hername through a glass—the Monkshaven, of Whitby—and we observed a puff of smoke issue from her decksimultaneously with the arrival of our boat alongside. Inthe course of a few minutes, the boat returned, bringingthe mate of the Monkshaven, a fine-looking Norwegian,who spoke English perfectly, and who reported his shipto be sixty-eight days out from Swansea, bound for Val-. Monkshaven on Fire. paraiso, with a cargo of smelting coal. The fire had firstbeen discovered on the previous Sunday, and by 6 Monday the crew had got up their clothes and provi-sions on deck, thrown overboard all articles of a combusti-ble character, such as tar, oil, paint, spare spars and sails,planks, and ropes, and battened down the hatches. Eversince then they had all been living on deck, with no pro-tection from the wind and sea but a canvas screen. Tomand Captain Brown proceeded on board at once. Theyfound the deck more than a foot deep in water, and alla-wash; when the hatches were opened for a moment 106 JUST IN TIME. dense clouds of hot suffocating yellow smoke immediatelypoured forth, driving back all who stood near. From thecaptains cabin came volumes of poisonous gas, which hadfound its way in through the crevices, and one man, whotried to enter, was rendered insensible. It was pe
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Keywords: ., bookcentury180, bookdecade1870, booksubjectvoyagesaroundtheworld
