The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1866-12-25 00:00:00

:t Cif Ctioll.6 from Christmas Littratiirt.

AN EXCITING INCIDENT AT SEA.
(97 E. T. Liddell, is lb.. Christmas number of London
fionitry.)

It wax tvisui years ago—when the Californian gold.
~,,egt sera attracting everybody's attention—that
rut.' .nt :ot third relristeer of 'steamer from rename to
F Wo ertired out safety, wit..out au,
ajfeatUle ; but We latil 10 trait a long time there In fore
Iry coui.i out I Ward voyage. Notaitl uteltd•
preclOitau,s, a aft at sonny of Out Watt to.. seat
itaa sr chiel • ugineer died. Ou the very last day berm;
the uqoaot, of whom we had seen but Mlle for

,
tie,e eit. trifle on horrd with • tenon vaunt be
itTodece I to the enAineoruoirs bands as their new chit 4.
He woo no the only new arrival on board. There were
I.._rer) f• pivoingers ; sods tidy. who I heard, to
sitot id.inen,, ors the captaio's wile, whom he Ind
garnet air o• we lout been at San rraneienn. Now. as I
1,4 none hi. wile asid little daughter but • abort time
hire, I wa. very much surprised at uur captain, whom
taken (or a different port a • wan; bet it we. all
De basin/aid eine, so I held my toogniraboot it. This
new woman that he had now wee very
yoly, though id • hod, 1111.411 in. style of beauty, and
with iucli an e)e ! I thought I shouldn't exactly like
bo fr wife nirelf ; though she was really handsome,
sal 1. ws. lie wonder that any man should be taken up

;Sith
,org. T form my opinions of people pretty
quickly ; and I didn't like our new &Att. Ile wan quiet
egg gold is. hie manner' certainly—wonderfully so fur
g„,l ie that part of she world—bat them was
s wild, dissipated, wicked look, if you understand me.
root o.rn..d to mo to sell that be soul., be
verr different if he chow. One thing wag evident to
Mt from the first time be name into the engin•-roona- -
be was not • praMieel working eogineer. At length.,
were ready for era, having takes on board a 'mall eergo
end oho none gold on its way to the Sta.ea. Our new
if seldom found fault with anybody; and very of g
indeed, almost every night, be amid to send down grog
to the Molts is sod trimmers on watch, no that they
In (asto *insider him a Port of sernaagel, and to wish
e tiny cool 4 always have him for • objet. Oor sap-
tits, too, of lb.
„ erred to think more a hi. .if. than
,f mete be drinking pretty much,
and Neepberion aeon found !hat be might take hia
little drop when be bk.A, having no one to find fault
with him, 'seep( my. If, who was Ida subordinate. So
altogether diacipline ber■o3•l Very Ist, •nd except for
the mores, who were bloat. rero of the genuine Yankee
type. we west quite a imppy hourly at am. I would not
101 p.r.eving ler-ever that it.., all too good to lost,
and so it tamed ant.
. sed got well down the goad, and I knew we
gg, for ay the land. when one sight—a fine night
it ow, but very dark —lt was my turn below from mid-
night to four in the morning. I Wed to go to sleep but
I -eon toned that it was hopeless; eo turning out again
without much diloy, I w. nt below to the engine-town,
ged mid into • ores little spot between the starboard
etheler ,1 the forward bulkhead of the engine-room.
wined !bad reword times be/ore, on our outward voyage,
u-od for. moiler purpose. In this favourite spot el
sloe flay down, and in • yelp few miautes was tut
• • • • —•

thud not been whop very long, when I awoke with
o gam and with an ecstasy nonscionmess that there
ege—m.thing unusual in the working of the engine..
I Treat on my elbow and listened. They were going
mueh more slowly than usual, and there was • prealiar
kyking style about their motion which seamed as if thry
were working espeneively with high steam; and the
mil.known rushing sound in the steam-pipes, like the
mid through a door-way, when*e door is ajar, showed
to. in a moment that they were clearly " throttlei,"—
that i., that the valves in the pipes; leading to the
cylinders even partially chided, no .to check the tow
di steam Pont the boilers to the engines. I saw, ton,
that there was a very bright glow from the furnaces.
and that the fires were inos• than usually intense. I
fancied, also, list the absence of the visual currents of
sir, except through the windmill and from the forehold
and the appearance of tie lights and shadow+, that the
batches over the crank gratings, and the companion
leading to the deck, were closed—a thing that was very
unusual ezeept I. bed weather.
' I we. about to creep out of my lair, to see what we
meaning of all this, when I heard persons in ...Dyer
'mien in the paaasse between the engines, and almost
elov.• to oh. in I was. By a slight movement I gr. able
also to see them. One was our chief engineer, who had
never before been known to be in the engine•rooin at
tide burnt thy night; be had his hands on the injec•
. .. . . .

tin hsndles, and Zee ;regulating the supply of Irate; to
the diminnheil quantity of steam passing through the
engines. The other, with his back turned towards we.
was 'Anon whom I did not know at all. He appeared
• gramfully•fornied young man,of middle hvight,
dn—ed in sailor's elothea of a fine texture, and with the
voice oft vouth rather than of a man. I should have
gone ror at .11re to see whet was doing, but the first
vents I distinguished arrested my Atte neion in a moment.
It wit the youth who said—
' " How long befoio we shall leave the shipr
Not long row," repli • i the chief, "but we have
nothing mere to do, exe,pt to start when it is time."

• " ire you ears the third enginein is all right "

'" Yes. He sleeps in one of the wheelhouseas. and I
hare turned the key upon him. Dick lint the eheel;
the rent .4 the watch on deck. and them smutty fellows I
eve disrooed of. We have lowered the boat all safe,
sad all Is ready for a start."
Then, why not go now r
• "No, we might atilt he dieeovered in time to spoil
all. Let us wait till the last moment, and we shall he
sirs that we bane got rid of the inferred ship and all
rat amid ewer give us trouble. Bet, by o—d," he
said, with • Rhinos towards the gauges, there isn't
much time tospere, either. The steam mount. quieker
than !thought ; it is at tweety-lve alreedy, and shy
water is all out of the gauge.. Just step on deck, and
tell Disk w• shall be off at ones."

"Tbe youth turned, and ascended quickly to the
deck; and the chief went to the stoke hole, opened the
furnace-doors, looked at the ilrer, and threw in some
soda sad teliow.

" I aliould make a bad band at describing my feelings
ant all tkat sort of thing ; bet I think you may imagine
that the unaccountable appesrance of • atranpr in the
ship—the intelligenes that the watch both on deck and
In the engine-room were disposed of—the knowledve
that the ideal's was at twenty-fire pounds to the inch.
our usual working pros-ore being fifteen, and rapidly
rising, with the safety-valveo, of course, fastened down
or very heavily loaded—the engines throttled of half
their steam the feed in the boilers very low, and the
fumaces feci with oil and tallow, it was altogether enough
to make one feel queer. The boilers were new and
strong; but, for that very reason, when they did give
way, the destruction would be the greeter; and I ex-
pected aeon atomic explosion, which might probably
send Ile aliip to the bottom. I understood at ones—
indeed there was no room for doubt after what I had
seen and heard—that the sillains had by some mean.
got hold id the gold on beard; that they haA either
drugged or overpowered the watch, and that it was
their intention to blow up the ship, sad recaps in the
cinfueon ; Sr to res away is little beforehand, end trust
to the esplotion, which mue inevitably hollow to remove
all proof of tie ir crime and all tread of capture. I saw
what it was ; but I confess to you sir, at the risk of
being thoualit • wieard, that I stood at fintt unable to
think or act to any useful purpose. Had I been prompt
and decided, now was my tine to have acted while the
irtrangtr was on deck; but town that I stood rooted to
the not, with olialty knees, with quivering lips, and
with the coil, clammy perspiration standing on my
forehead. I have often been in peril, but I never Glt
so unmanned, before or since, as I did then; and I
serae believe that, had I been left alone, I should have
allowed tto. ship, and the gold, and my own life, and
the lives of all on board, to take their chimes, rather
than venture out to face these desperado..,

• But I had not the choice. The chief, after looking
at the fir., end examining the gauges, crowed the stoke
bole In the other pawingn under the starboard platform
with the view probably of getting at some mews sod
tallow that wee stowed away aloes by where I bad matte
sty couch. I saw that I must now be discovered; but
with the prospect rd a struggle with one man singly, my
courage revived, my limbs became steady, and the
1:01141A feeling left my hurt. He groped his way
slowly up the peonage, end then made the rash
rieeessery to avoid the water from the rere.
pip.. This rash brought him elose to me ore
be stopped, said we stood feu to face. My eye, were
aceistoined to the dion light of the plum, while his were
yet ilassleii be the bright glare of the era ; so that I
meld distinguiah his features, while he was yet mum.
lain whether there wan moping) there bat himself. I
ought to have *Used the opportunity, and 'attacked him
at one., but I foolishly let the moment pees, and
inst..] of acting promptly I song out. "Who is there?"
Ina moment his eyes lit Op with • look of fierce intel-
trine ; ust with • suppressed exclamation, he sprang
nPon me. The suddenness of the attack made me start
tack and my feet being tripped up by the bag of cotton
I me 4 for abed, we fell heavily on the deck together. I
being ondermont. Hie left hand was on my thresh;
WWI clutching my hair with his right, be. with a quick
lift sod jock, moved my heed to one nide towards the
engine- I did not resist the movement much, for I had
not thought exactly •bere I was lying; bat, oh, think
what was my horror at the neat instant to see
directly over one, the end of the side lever descend-,
tor, end not more than three feet above my head.
By • violent effort I got out of the way just in time;
but even the. the cutter at the end of the lover grased
my forehud in its cleaoest. The horror of my position
seemed to gins me for the moment preternatural
strength, ant I rueceeded is rolling my antagonist ever
notil I W.:sum utmermost ,• uarl then I struck him with
my clenched fiat two or three heavy blows on lb. fool
with such effect, that hie hem ;ye,. releted, and
ghouglit I had stunned his. I mo nt I 'aid my
feet and fled; but I had bee: a:mistaken in fancyisç I
bid quieted my L 014,015114; be wee as Dearly as quick
ee I was, and pursued me closely. I embed through
the peeeage by the side of the ship, a 5,... the stoke'
bole through the pular, between the gi and
thee. to the platform end up the ladder l:ditZirm'to the
druk. The chief was close behind a, so ti et I dared
not loot time by turningsay bend, and I re-
member how I beard his feet slip as he armed the
iron floor of ti's stok•-hule directly after me. I tried
to fling open the door of the companion, end min the
deck—l thought that maps we. certain. But, oh eh%
I had oo sooner touched the door than I found that it
was closed, fastened on the outside. I looked dove.
The chief was standing on the platform at 16 foot of
the ladder; he held • revolving pistol in his hand, end
was 'hen in the act of cocking it! There wee no time
for Ineeitetioo, and I dung myself right off the lulder
upon him- He fired, but without having time to take
end I was not bit. With the fonts of my fall, we
both rolled off the platform into the passage between
the engines, the pistol being at the same time dashed
from hi, hand. How we botb escaped harm samba by
the machinery I scarcely know; bat so it we., sad
directly we were both on our feet man, and anweling
th ..... rh the manage on to the slippery stoke-hole Boor.
"Here, atilhgreoping sash other's throats, we paired
V. take breath;- awl I sew thee that Meepheresn and the stokers, and Women of the matt were lying