The Columbus weekly dispatch., 1909-01-28
STORIES OF THE SEA-.
Quenching a Blaze In Hurry on
Board a War Vessel.
PRANK OF A TRICKY MASCOT.
There Were Lively Times on Deck
When the Big Monkey Got Himself
Mixed Up With Hot Pitch and Gun
Cotton and Took Trip Aloft.

We were making passage from Nor
folk, Va. to Lisbon. Portugal In the
United States steamship Alliance 1t
was shortly after O'Clock had just
gone to my room for pfpeful of to-
bacco when the sailmaker came to my
door with a scared face. Got any wa
ter In your room. Mr.. Du BOis?' he
said.
@Yes; here's pailful"
For Gods sake give 1t to me quick
The sail rooms afire, but don't say
anything! I'll have 1t out In a min
uter'
/ handed him the pail of water, but
was not going to take any chances Of
a fire on man-Of-war with fifteen
tons of powder not six feet away, so
I ran to the ships bell and rang the
fire alarm as furiously as | could. In
less time than it takes you to read this
hand grenades were being thrown and
water was pouring into the now sti-
ding mass of burning canvas. Men
Jumped in among the great bundles of
Turled sails and passed them out. and
when one could not endure the smoke
any longer another took his place At
Il
20 look around and take stock of the |
affair.
l had often wondered what l would
do in case of a fire on the ship. |
would save my watch watch is |
never used at sea. so it hung from
slook over my desk 1 would be sure |
90 take along my best girls picture, /
and there were few other little be- /
AnnUfnnS W no ta1
with. Well, when the thing was over, |
what had l gathered together? Not I
my watch, not my best girls picture, I
not anything that l had thought I /
would, but l had filled my pockets
with extract of beef and nothing else
Dumb instinct. not a thought of any
thing but of something good to eat In
dire extremity
How did the fire start? The sail
maker, whose duty it is to keep the
sails in good order, is privileged to go
TO the sail room at any time, but he is
supposed TO always carry a peculiar
lantern, consisting of a common candle
set in a globe of horn, sufficiently
Opaque TO give enough light for his
needs there. The candle does away
with any danger from oil that might
|
being OF horn instead Of glass, pre-
cIudes a possibility of breakage This
time the sailmaker, desiring a little
more light. had taken out the candle.
1t had dropped from his fingers away
down into the blight of a furled sail,
and the cloth had caught fire. There
was a terrible mess of burned and
smoky sails in there, and they were
all hauled up on deck and spread out
In the sun to dry and to find out just
what the damage was. In the bottom
OF the room on the floor one of the
men found the stump of candle and
put it In his pocket. The sailmaker
was a favorite on board, and the Off
GERS never found out how the fire
started. They thought they knew
The captain broke" the sailmaker-
that is, reduced him to the decks But
he couldn't prove anything So after
a week or so he restored him TO his old
rank,
We came near having another fire
once, and. while 1t might have been
very serious. it was really funny
We had several hundred pounds of
gun cotton on board. and. fearing that
&c might have gathered dampness, the
gunner's gang got up the cases from
the magazine pulled it all out and
spread it on the warm decks far aft in
the sun to dry. Away forward the
boatswain's mate and his gang were
busy with tar pots and ropes putting
some of their stuff in order.
We had on board a mascot in the
shape of a monkey. one of the largest
have ever seen. He would stand
quite three feet high. and he was the
very Old Nick for mischief. He was a
great nuisance, that monkey. and must Z
always be doing what he saw any of
the men doing.
Well, Mr.. Monkey saw the men with
the warm tar, and nothing would do
but he must have a hand in the job
literally, so he ran forward and dipped
his hands into the pot and in a minute |
was all besmeared with the sticky
stuff; then he bolted aft as fast as he
could scamper and rolled In the gun
cotton. got himself well covered with
1t and ran aloft into the rigging. Sail s
ors have saying. s'The devil to pay {
and no pitch hot" but the pitch was
hot this time and the condition was {
actually appalling. Some OF the men |
ran after him. but 1t was impossible to
catch hiu1 He was too shrewd for
that. The gunner's gang gathered up Q
that gun cotton as men never did so
fast In their lives before and put It
back into the cans. for had that fool
monkey dropped from aloft into It be I
would have blown the ship to king 6
dom come. They got 1T opt Of the way =
without disaster but everal hours 8
that creature sat up the picking gun ,
cotton from himself n q throwing 1t s
overheard. AS | So = the episode
suould have been cohiical had Ii not