The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-03-22
SOME CARGOES THAT
 SAILORS DISLIKE
Carbide Is Much More Dangerous Than Dynamite-Hate Carrying
 Sugar and Coffee

Ask the average landsnan what Is the worst cargo for ship to carry and he would probably say dynamite, says Pear sons Weekly.
 The sailor would differ. He would tell you that there were worse things with which to fill ships hold than even such q terrible explosive as dynamite.
 Carbide of calcium, for instance, is a deal more dangerous than dynamite. This is the chemical from which acetylene gas is made. and the gas is constantly given off if the carbide is exposed to air. Some little time ago the Hamburg barque Hebe was lowed into Plymouth sound in a dis abled condition. Aboard her were 200 tons of carbide
 The -chief< at Davenport at once ordered all the war vessels in the sound to take refuge in the Hamoaze, and forbade the Hebe to come in for repairs until the whole of her psrilous cargo had been removed by war department barge.
 The cargo carried by the burnt Volterno was of a sort calculated to make pretty bonfire. It included rags, peat moss, bar rels of spirits, tar and oils, together with drums of various chemicals. Small won der that water had little effect in sub duing the flames.
 Burnt Their Flesh Like Fire CHe1fllcdlS IOTHi u very tdHStiOuS SdISo, especially acids such as nitric or sulphuric which are both carried in tens of thou sands of tons in the course of year.
 Two years ago the Phoenix liner Michi- gan was caught in a gale while on a voyage westwards aeross the Atlantic. She had a deckload of sulphuric and mu- riatic acid in metal drums.
 A huge sea struck her bows and cov- cred the forward deck. breaking a num- Der of drums from their lashings and sending them crashing around the deck. The captain called for volunteers to throw the loose drums overheard. The men re- sponded bravely. but some of the drums were cracked and leaking, and the deadly acid burnt the flesh like fire.
 For an hour or more the battle went on. Man after man wGs forced to fall out and go below to get his wounds dressed. At last came another huge wave which ended the mems toll. 1t swept the deck from end to end, and when it passed the whole cargo of acid had gone, taking with it the lee rail.
 All shipmasters dislike carrying drums of acid where they cannot be got at. A Chilian ship put in at the Falkland Is- lands, leaking hadly. Her cargo was mainly drums of acid which had been packed in chalk. The acid had eaten through the drums and mixed with the chalk, so forming carhonic acid gas, which is the same as ''choke damp"
 Coffee Carriers Lost Their Appetites
 Consequently the crew could not go be- low at all. Meantime the leaking acid had collected at the bottom of the hold and eaten away the iron frames of the ship, damaging her so badly that she was practically a wreck.
 Cotton is another deadly cargo. If a little oil happens to touch raw cotton the result is what is called spontaneous con- bustion. A single bale of cotton partial ly saturated with such an oil as boiled linseed, and lying at the bottom of a hold, is every bit as dangerous as slow match attached to a bomb.
 l Other forms of cargo are dangerous tt sailors rather than ships. Coffee, for in stance. While the odor of green coffee is | at first not unpleasant it rapidly pals | upon the nerves of smelling. In damI | weather it becomes dreadful. It seems tC 1 impregnate everything in the ship ant eventually the crew lose all appetite ant often become seriously i'll.
 l. Sugar is as bad. Put some hundreds O 1 tons of cane sugar in casks in the holt and let the ship steam through belt O
 hot weather. The odor is sickening; yo, cannot get the sweet taste out of you mouth. The men simply crave vinegar O. lemon juice-anythhg sour. Deliver u | from sugar is the sailors prayer. Onions give off fumes which are actu ally deadly. The Yarra, French steam