第11章

On Thursday, the 19th, she sighted the Island of Rodrigues, and arrived at Mauritius on Monday the 23rd."The Nile and Trafalgar are not more glorious to our country, are not greater victories than these won by our merchant-seamen.And if you look in the Captain's reports of any maritime register, you will see similar acts recorded every day.I have such a volume for last year, now lying before me.In the second number, as I open it at hazard, Captain Roberts, master of the ship "Empire," from Shields to London, reports how on the 14th ult.(the 14th December, 1859), he, "being off Whitby, discovered the ship to be on fire between the main hold and boilers: got the hose from the engine laid on, and succeeded in subduing the fire; but only apparently; for at seven the next morning, the 'Dudgeon' bearing S.S.E.seven miles'

distance, the fire again broke out, causing the ship to be enveloped in flames on both sides of midships: got the hose again into play and all hands to work with buckets to combat with the fire.Did not succeed in stopping it till four P.M., to effect which, were obliged to cut away the deck and top sides, and throw overboard part of the cargo.The vessel was very much damaged and leaky: determined to make for the Humber.Ship was run on shore, on the mud, near Grimsby harbor, with five feet of water in her hold.The donkey-engine broke down.The water increased so fast as to put out the furnace fires and render the ship almost unmanageable.On the tide flowing, a tug towed the ship off the mud, and got her into Grimsby to repair."On the 2nd of November, Captain Strickland, of the "Purchase"brigantine, from Liverpool to Yarmouth, U.S., "encountered heavy gales from W.N.W.to W.S.W., in lat.43 deg.N., long.34 deg.W., in which we lost jib, foretopmast, staysail, topsail, and carried away the foretopmast stays, bobstays and bowsprit, headsails, cut-water and stern, also started the wood ends, which caused the vessel to leak.Put her before the wind and sea, and hove about twenty-five tons of cargo overboard to lighten the ship forward.Slung myself in a bowline, and by means of thrusting 2 1/2-inch rope in the opening, contrived to stop a great portion of the leak.