Accidents > Dangers of the deep, or, Narratives of shipwreck and adventure at sea

380 BURNING OF TUB
that the lamp burned dimly, the officer tools
the precaution to hand it up to the orlop
deck to be trimmed. Having afterwards dis¬
covered one of the spirit casks to be adrift,
he sent the sailors for some billets of wood
to secure it; but the ship in their absence
having made a heavy lurch, the officer unfor¬
tunately dropped the light; and letting go
his hold of the cask in his eagerness to re¬
cover the lantern, it suddenly stove, and the
spirits communicating with the lamp, the
whole place was instantly in a blaze.
I know not what steps were then taken;
but having received the alarming information
that the ship was on fire in the after hold, I
hastened to the hatchway, whence smoke was
slowly ascending, and where Captain Cobb
and other officers were giving orders, which
were promptly obeyed by the seamen and
troops, who used every exertion by means of
the pumps, buckets of water, wet sails, ham¬
mocks, &c. to extinguish the flames. Find¬
ing, however, that the devouring element was
rapidly spreading, and that volumes of smoke
were issuing from all the four hatchways,
Captain Cobb, with an ability and decision of
cliaracter that seemed to increase with the