The boat on which I was serving as a stoker had just received two new
men as stokers.
On coming down the stokehold one of them seemed intent on finding out
what different perils could happen to him.
After he had been inquiring for about an hour a little Cockney,
rather bored, got up and said, "Now look here, mate. The job ain't
so bad, looking at it in this light--you've three ways of snuffing
it: one is _burnt_ to death, the other is _scalded_ to death; or,
if you're damn lucky, _drowned_. That's more chances than they have
upstairs."--_B. Scott (late Stoker, H.M.S. "Marlborough"), 29 Stanley
Road, Southend-on-Sea, Essex._