The chief and second mates had, when named by Captain Staunton, gone
down upon the main deck; and upon the conclusion of the skipper's
address they at once marshalled their watches and led them to their
proper stations. The third mate, boatswain, sailmaker, cook, steward,
and apprentices were embodied with the chief mate's gang, part of whom
were told off to work the force-pump which was to feed the tank of the
fire-engine, while the remainder were formed into line along the deck to
pass buckets to the seat of the fire. The fire-engine, which had
luckily been frequently in use at fire-drill, was in perfect order, and
the men knowing exactly what to do, it was rigged and ready for action,
with tank filled, the hose screwed on and laid along the deck, in a
remarkably short time.
Captain Staunton, on seeing that the men were cool and thoroughly under
control, had immediately gone below again to rejoin the carpenter, whom
he had left busily engaged in seeking the locality of the fire, of the
actual existence of which he had no manner of doubt; indeed one had need
only to go to the companion and breathe the heated and pungent
atmosphere which ascended thence to have resolved any doubt he might
have entertained upon the subject.
"Oh, how dreadful!" exclaimed Blanche, turning with white quivering lips
to Evelin, as the skipper disappeared below; "do you think there really
_is_ fire, Mr Evelin?"
"It is quite impossible to say," answered Evelin calmly, keeping to
himself his own convictions; "but if there is, it cannot have yet gained
much hold, and I daresay a half an hour or so of vigorous work with the
fire-engine will effectually drown it out. And if it does not; if,
looking at the matter in its worst possible light, the fire should after
all get the upper hand and drive us out of the ship, the night is fine,
and the water smooth enough to enable us easily and comfortably to take
to the boats. Then the boats themselves are amply sufficient to take
everybody without crowding; they are in perfect order and the best
equipped boats I have ever seen; so that let what will happen, I think
we need not alarm ourselves in the least.
"I think, however," he added, the other passengers having gathered round
him, "that it could do no possible harm, and might be of advantage,
supposing that the worst happens, if you ladies were to go to your
berths and make up a package of your warmest clothing, together with any
valuables you may have with you, so as to be in perfect readiness to
leave the ship, if need be. But take matters quietly, I entreat you;
for I sincerely hope it will prove that there is no necessity for any
such decided step."
The two girls turned away, and went together to the cabin which they
jointly occupied. Mrs Staunton had already followed her husband below;
and Dale also hurried away, loudly bewailing his ill-luck in ever having
embarked on board such an unfortunate vessel.
"For heaven's sake follow him, Fortescue, and stop his clamour!"
exclaimed Lance; "he is enough to demoralise an entire regiment, let
alone a small ship's company like this."
Rex nodded, and followed his partner; seizing him by the arm and leading
him aft, instead of allowing him to go below as he evidently intended:
Just then the carpenter came on deck, and advancing to the break of the
poop, shouted--
"Pass along the hose, boys, and start the engine. There is a spark or
two of something smouldering down below, but we'll soon have it out."
The men stationed at the engine gave a ringing cheer and, one of them
starting an inspiriting _shanty_, began at once to work away at the
handles.
"Well, this here's a pretty go, ain't it?" observed Brook, addressing
himself to Evelin as the two stood together at the break of the poop,
watching the men at work.
"A most unfortunate circumstance," replied Lance. "Luckily there are no
signs whatever of anything approaching to panic; and if all keep as cool
as they are at present, we may hope to get out of this difficulty one
way or the other without mishap. _You_ seem tolerably collected, Mr
Brook; so perhaps there may be no harm in telling you that I fear
matters are much more serious than they at present appear to be. All
day to-day the saloon has appeared to me to be extraordinarily hot; and
the presence of fire in the ship now sufficiently accounts for it. And
if it has been burning for some time, it may prove to have obtained so
strong a hold as to defy mastery. In such a case it behoves each one of
us to set an example of quiet self-possession to all the rest. You
behaved so nobly the other day during the gale that I think we may
depend on you not to fail in that respect."
"Oh, _I'm_ all right," returned Brook. "I don't believe in being put
out about any think; I'm ready to help anywheres; and I'd begin at once
if I knowed where I could do any good. And if the `governor' (referring
presumably to Mr Dale) makes any fuss, I shall roll 'im up in a blanket
like a parcel and take care of 'im myself."
A thin vapour of smoke was by this time rising from the companion,
accompanied by a strong and quite unmistakable smell of fire; and in a
minute or two more Captain Staunton, in his shirt sleeves, appeared on
deck and called forward for more water.
"There is rather more of it than we at first thought, lads," he said;
"but stick steadily to your work and we'll conquer it yet."
The gang at the fire-engine was rapidly relieved; a fresh shanty was
struck up; the chain of men with buckets got to work; and the quickened
_clank clank_ of the engine handles showed that the crew were still
confident and determined.
"Now is our time," exclaimed Lance to Brook; "cut in here," as a rather
wide gap in the chain of bucket-men revealed itself just at the head of
the saloon staircase; and in another moment both were hard at work, with
their coats off, passing buckets.
Another twenty minutes might have elapsed when Captain Staunton and the
carpenter staggered together up the saloon staircase to the deck,
gasping for breath, their clothes and skin grimy with smoke, and the
perspiration streaming down their faces.
"Send two fresh hands below, if you please, Mr Bowles," shouted the
skipper; "and you, lads, drop your buckets, and lend a hand here to cut
some holes in the deck; the fire is spreading forward, and we must keep
it to this end of the ship if possible."
Two of the most determined of the crew at once stepped forward and
volunteered to go below; Captain Staunton nodded his permission, and led
them to the scene of their labours; while the chain of men who had been
passing buckets along the deck dropped them, and, under the carpenter's
supervision, at once commenced the task of cutting through the deck.
The smoke was by this time pouring in volumes up the companion and
through the skylight. Lance had been too busy to take much notice of
this whilst engaged in passing the buckets; but now that a respite came
he had time to look about him. He saw the great dun cloud of smoke
surging out of the companion and streaming away to leeward; and he saw
indistinctly through it at intervals a small group gathered together aft
by the weather taffrail. He thought he would join this group for a
moment, if only to ascertain whether the girls had succeeded in securing
such things as they were most anxious to save; and he sauntered toward
them in his usual easy and deliberate manner. As he drew near Violet
rose and said--
"Oh, Mr Evelin! I am _so_ glad you are come; I was beginning to feel
quite anxious about Blanche--but where is she; I do not see her with
you?"
"She is _not_ with me, Miss Dudley," answered Lance; "what led you to
suppose she would be?"
"Not with you! Oh, Mr Evelin, _where_ is she, then? If she is not
with you she must still be in her cabin. I stayed there until the smoke
was too thick to see or breathe any longer, and then I came on deck. I
spoke to her, urging her to come also, and receiving no reply thought
she had left without my noticing it; but she is not here anywhere."
The latter part of this speech never reached Lance's ears, for, upon
fully realising that Blanche--"his own sweet darling," as he had called
her in his inmost thoughts a thousand times--was missing, he darted to
the companion-way and plunged down the stairs, three or four at a time,
into the blinding pungent suffocating smoke which rushed momentarily in
more and more dense volumes up through the opening.
On reaching the foot of the staircase, he found that several of the
planks had been pulled up to allow the men tending the hose to get below
the saloon floor and approach as near as possible to the seat of the
fire. So dense was the smoke just here that it was only by the merest
chance he escaped falling headlong into the abyss. Catching sight,
however, of the aperture just in time to spring across it, he did so;
and glancing back for an instant on reaching the other side, he saw a
broad expanse of glowing white-hot bales of wool, and, dimly through the
acrid smoke and steam, the forms of the men who were plying the engine
hose.
Groping his way into the saloon, which was by this time so full of smoke
that he could barely distinguish through it a feeble glimmer from the
cabin lamp, he made his way in the direction of the state-room
appropriated to Blanche and Violet. The smoke got into his eyes and
made them water; into his throat and made him cough violently; into his
lungs, producing an overpowering sense of suffocation, and impressing
unmistakably upon him the necessity for rapidity and decision of
movement. Blind, giddy, breathless, he staggered onward, groping for
the handle of the state-room door. At length he found it, wrenched the
door open, and rapidly felt with hands and feet about the floor and in
each berth. No one there. Where then could Blanche be? She was not on
deck, and it was hardly probable she could have fallen overboard. Then
as he hastily began the search anew his foot kicked against something on
the floor, which he at once picked up. It was a boot--a man's boot
unmistakably, from its size and weight. This at once satisfied him that
in the obscurity he had groped his way into the wrong state-room; and he
must prosecute his search further.
But he was suffocating. Already his brain began to reel; there was a
loud humming in his ears; his eyes ached and felt as though they would
burst out of their sockets; and he found his strength ebbing away like
water. Should he at once prosecute his search further? That seemed
physically impossible. But if Blanche were in that fatal atmosphere she
must soon die, if not dead already. And if he left the cabin to obtain
a breath of fresh air was he not likely to go astray again, and lose
still more precious time? No; the search must be proceeded with _at
once_; and, reeling like a drunken man, Lance felt for the state-room
door, staggered into the saloon, and felt along the bulkhead for the
handle of the next door. Oh, heavens! what a search that was. His head
felt as though it would burst; he gasped for breath, and inhaled nothing
but hot pungent smoke; the saloon seemed to be miles instead of yards in
length. Thank God! at last; the handle is found and turned, and the
door flung open. Lance, with the conviction that unless he can escape
in a very few seconds he will die, gropes wildly round and into the
berths. Ah! what is this? Something coiled-up at the foot of the
bottom berth. A human body! A woman! Lance grasps it tightly in his
arms; stumbles out through the door with it, along the saloon, through
the passage. A roaring as of a thousand thunders is in his ears; stars
innumerable dance before his eyes; he sees as in a dream the yawning
gulf in the floor; a broad glare of fierce white light reels madly to
and fro before him; a confused sound of hoarse voices strikes upon his
ear; he feels that the end is come--that he is dying; but with a last
supreme effort he staggers up the saloon staircase to the deck, turns
instinctively to windward out of the smoke, and with his precious burden
still tightly clasped in his arms, falls prostrate and senseless to the
deck.
Rex Fortescue, who had been present when Violet spoke to Lance of
Blanche's absence, and who had witnessed the hasty departure of his
friend upon his perilous search, was at the head of the companion, on
his way below, having grown anxious at Lance's prolonged absence, when
the latter reappeared on deck; and assistance having been hastily
summoned, the pair who had so nearly met their deaths from suffocation
were, with some little difficulty, at length restored to consciousness.
Meanwhile, it had become apparent to Captain Staunton that the fire was
of a much more serious character than he had anticipated, and that it
was every minute assuming more formidable proportions. He therefore at
length decided, as a precautionary measure, to get the boats into the
water without further delay. He was anxious more particularly about the
launch and pinnace, as these boats were stowed over the main hatch and
would have to be hoisted out by means of yard-tackles. This would be a
long and difficult operation, the ship being under jury-rig; and should
the fire attack the heel of the main-mast before these craft were in the
water, the two largest and safest boats in the ship might be seriously
damaged, if not destroyed, in the process of launching, or perhaps might
defy the unaided efforts of the crew to launch them at all. There would
be no difficulty about the other boats, as they could be lowered from
the davits.
The mates were busy superintending and directing the efforts of their
respective gangs towards the extinguishing of the fire; Captain
Staunton, therefore, after a moment or two of anxious deliberation,
confided to Bob the important duty of provisioning and launching the
boats, giving him as assistants the cook, steward, and two able seamen,
and soliciting also the aid of the male passengers.
Now it happened that the _Galatea's_ boats were somewhat different in
character from the boats usually to be found on board ship. Captain
Staunton had, when quite a lad, been compelled, with the rest of the
ship's company of which he was then a junior and very unimportant
member, to abandon the ship and take to the boats in mid-ocean; and he
then learnt a lesson which he never forgot, and formed ideas with
respect to the fitting of boats which his nautical friends had been wont
to rather sneer at and stigmatise as "queer." But when the _Galatea_
was in process of fitting out he had, with some difficulty, succeeded in
persuading his owners to allow him to carry out these ideas, and the
boats were fitted up almost under his own eye.
The chief peculiarity of the boats lay in their keels. These were made
a trifle stouter than usual, and of ordinary depth. But they were so
shaped and finished that a false keel some eight or nine inches deep
could be securely fastened on below in a very few minutes. This was
managed by having the true keel bored in some half a dozen places along
its length, and the holes "bushed" with copper. The copper bushes
projected a quarter of an inch above the upper edge of the keel, and
were so finished as to allow of copper caps screwing on over them, thus
effectually preventing the flow of water up through the bolt-holes into
the interior of the boat. The false keel was made to accurately fit the
true keel, and was provided with stout copper bolts coinciding in number
and position with the bolt-holes in the true keel. To fix the false
keel all that was necessary was to unscrew the caps from the top of the
"bushes," apply the false to the true keel, pushing the bolts up through
their respective holes, and set them up tight by means of thumb-screws.
The whole operation could be performed in a couple of minutes, and the
boats were then fit to beat to windward to any extent.
As far as the gigs were concerned (with the exception of the whaleboat
gig, which was an exquisitely modelled boat, fitted with air-chambers so
as to render her self-righting and unsinkable), beyond greater attention
than usual to the model of the craft, this was the only difference which
Captain Staunton had thought it necessary to make between the boats of
the _Galatea_ and those of other ships; but in the cases of the launch
and pinnace he had gone a step further, by fitting them with movable
decks in sections, which covered in the boats forward and aft and for
about a foot wide right along each side. These decks were bolted down
and secured with thumb-screws to beams which fitted into sockets under
the gunwale; and when the whole was once fixed each section contributed
to keep all immovably in place. The decking being but light it was not
difficult to fix, and in an hour after the order was given to launch the
boats, the launch and pinnace were in the water alongside, and the gigs
hanging at the davits ready to lower away at a moment's notice.
Thanks also to Captain Staunton's never-ceasing care with regard to the
boats, they were all in perfect condition, and not leaky as baskets, as
are too many boats when required to be lowered upon an unexpected
emergency. The gigs and the launch were regularly half-filled with
water every morning before the decks were washed down, and emptied at
the conclusion of that ceremony; while the pinnace, which was stowed
bottom-up in the launch, was liberally soused with water at the same
time. In addition to this the proper complement of oars and rowlocks,
the stretchers, boat-hook, mop, baler, anchor, rudder, yoke, and tiller,
together with the compass, masts, and sails, were always stowed in the
boat to which they belonged, and were carefully overhauled once every
week under the skipper's own eye.
Thus, on the present occasion, there was none of that bewildered running
about and searching high and low for the boats' gear; it was all at hand
and ready for use whenever it might be wanted; there was nothing
therefore to do but to make sure that each boat was amply provisioned.
This, the launch and pinnace being safely in the water, was Bob's next
task, to which he devoted himself coolly but with all alacrity.
The boats' water-breakers, which were slung, ready filled, between the
fore and after gallows, under two of the gigs (each breaker bearing
painted upon it the name of the boat to which it belonged), were cast
adrift and passed into their proper boats as they were lowered, and then
followed as large a quantity of provisions as could possibly be stowed
away without too much encumbering the movements of the occupants.
Meanwhile the scuppers had all been carefully plugged up, the decks
pierced, and all hands set to work with buckets, etcetera, to flood
them, and still the fire increased in volume. It was 11:30 p.m. by the
time that the boats were veered astern, fully equipped, and ready to
receive their human freight; and at midnight the main-mast fell, flames
at the same time bursting up through the saloon-companion and skylight.
Upon perceiving this it became evident to Captain Staunton that it was
quite hopeless to further prolong the fight; the crew had been for four
hours exerting themselves to their utmost capacity, with the fire
gaining steadily upon them the whole time; they were now completely
exhausted, and the fire was blazing furiously almost throughout the
devoted ship; he therefore considered he had done his full duty and was
now quite justified in abandoning the unfortunate _Galatea_ to her fiery
doom. He accordingly gave orders for the crew to desist from their
efforts, to collect their effects, and to muster again upon the quarter-
deck with all possible expedition.
The men needed no second bidding, they saw that the moments of the good
ship were numbered; and, throwing down whatever they happened to have in
their hands, they made a rush for the forecastle, and there, in the
midst of the already blinding and stifling smoke, proceeded hurriedly to
gather together their few belongings.
In less than five minutes all hands were collected in the waist, waiting
the order to pass over the side.
The boats had meanwhile been hauled alongside, and the ladies, with
little May, carefully handed into the launch. This, when the attempt
came to be made, proved a task of no little difficulty, for the ship's
sides were found to be so hot that it was impossible to touch them.
However, by the exercise of great caution it was accomplished without
mishap; and then the male passengers were ordered down over the side,
Rex and Lance going into the launch with the ladies, while Dale and
Brook were told off to the pinnace. The crew were then sent down; each
man as he passed over the rail being told what boat he was to go into.
Mr Bowles was appointed to the command of the pinnace, and Mr Dashwood
was ordered to take charge of the whaleboat gig, with six hands as his
crew.