The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1901-05-10

| hotShCS. llC COttl DClOW was SdcSy "
degree, and If the ventilation was
stopped it would be terribly liable to
explosion. The engine and boiler rooms
We're hulkheadcd off and thcre was no
danger from Ihese, but the subtle coal
gas would spread over all the rest OF
the vessels living quarters as the
smell hintel-and carelessly lit
match might very comfortably send
the whole of her decks huItling into
the air. Kettle had no wish to meet
Mr.. Gelee's unspoken wishes by an
accident CT this sort
However, it began to be plain that
as they drew nearer to the bay the
weather grew worse steadil.7, and at
last 1t came to be a choice between
battening down the matches both for
ward and aft or being incontinently
Swamped. Hour after hour Kettle, in
his %liSteninG oilSkins, had been stump
ing backward and forward across the
upper bridge, watching his steamboat
like a cat, and holding on with his or
der till the very last moment. But at
last he gave the command to batten
down, and both watches rushed to help
the carpenter carry it out. The men
were horribly frightened. 1t seemed to
them that III that gale and with that
sea running it was insane not to have
battened her down long before.
The hands clustered on the lurching
iron decks with the water swirling
against them waist high and shipped
k1l, 4,
tarpaulins over, and then the Norwe-
gian carpenter keyed all fast with the
wedges, working like some amphibious
animal, half his time under water.
The Sultan Of Labuan was fitted
with no cowl ventilators to h"r holds,
and even if these had been fitted they
would have been carried away. So from
the moment of battening down the gas
which oozed from the coal mixed with
the air till the whole ship became one
huge explosive bomb, which the mer-
est spark would touch off. Captain
Kettle called his mate to him and gave
explicit orders.
''You know what a powder hulk is
like, Mr.. Mate?"
aye" said Murgatroyd.
"Well, this ship is u s.::rrht more dam
gerous, and we have got to take care
il we do not want TO go to heaven
quick. It's got to be all lights out
aboard this ship till the weather cases
and we can get matches Of again. Go
round now and see it done yourself,
Mr.. Murgatroyd, please. Watch the
doctor dousc the galley fire and then
go and take away all the forecastic
matches, so the men can't smoke. Put
out the side lights, the masthead light
and the pinnacle lamps. The quarter
masters must steer as best they can
from the unlit card"
AYE, aye. But you don't mean the
side lights, too, do you? There's 4 big
lot of shipping here in the bay, and we
might easy get run down. The old
man caught an ugly look from Kettles
face and broke off, and, grumbling
some ancient saw about "obey.ng Or
ders if you break owners" he shuffled
off down the ladder.
Heavier and heavier grew the squalls.
carrying with them spindrift whio
beat like gravel against the two oil
skinned tenants of the GOLFERS upper
bridge; worse and worse grew the sea-
Great green waves reared up like walls,
crashed on board and filled the lower
decks with boiling, yeasty surge. The
funnel stays and the scanty rigging
hummed like harp strings to the gale.
Deep though she was In the water,
there were times when her stern heav-
ed up clear and the propeller raced in
noisy catherine wheel Of fire and
foam. On every side-ahead, abeam
and astern-were nodding yellow lights
jerked about by unseen ships over
thunderous, unseen waves. 1t was
regular Biscay gale, such as all vessels
may count on in that corner of the seas
one voyage out of eight, a gale with
heavy seas in the midst of a dense
crowd of shipping. But there was moth
ing in it which seamanship under ordi-
nary circumstances could not meet.
Captain Kettle hung ON hour after
hour under shelter of the dodgers on
the upper bridge, small wind brush
ed figure in yellow oilskins and black
rubber thigh boots. About such
"breeze" in an ordinary way he would
have thought little. Taking his vessel
through it with the minimum of dan
ger was only part of the daily me-
ehanical routine. But he stood there,
q prey to the liyeliest anxiety. The
thousand and one dangers in the bay
appeared before him magnitied. IL the
ship, for eny sudden and unavoidable
reason, went down, the odds were that
he himself and all hands would be
drowned, but at the same time Gedge
would be gratified in so easily touch
ing the coveted insurance money. The
fear of death did not worry the little
skipper in the very least degree what
ever; but he had most thorough OBJ
lection to being in any way Mr..
Gedge's eatspaw.
Twice they had near escapes from
being run down. The first time was
from a sodden, laundering Cardiff ore
steamer, which was driving north
through the thick Of it with very little
of herself showing except two slumpy
masts aud a brine washed smokestaek.
She would have obviously drowned out
any lockout on her fore deck, and the
bridge officers got too much spindrift
in their eyes to see with any clearness.
But time is money, and even Cardiff
ore steamers must make passages, and
so her master drove her blindlY ahead
full steam, slap slop waliow, and trust