t threw both
the furnace doors open, and the fuse from the shell struck my feet. It was
a terrible crash, and the boiler-room was filled with dust and steam. For
several seconds I was partially stunned, and my ears rang so I could hear
nothing. I went up on the deck to report to Captain Bernadou.

"I saw him near the forecastle gun, limping about with a towel wound
around his left leg. He was shouting, and the noise of all the guns was
like continuous thunder. 'Captain,' I cried, 'the forward boiler is
disabled. A shell has gone through it.'

"'Get out the hose,' he said, and turned to the gun again. I made my way
to the boiler-room, in a few minutes went up on the deck again, and the
fighting had grown hotter than ever. Several of the men were missing, and
I looked around.

"Lying all in a heap on the after-deck in the starboard quarter, near the
after conning-tower, I saw five of our men where they had wilted down
after the shell struck them. In other places were men lying groaning, or
dragging themselves about, wounded and covered with blood. There were big
red spots on the deck, which was strewn with fragments and splinters.

"I went to where the five men were lying, and saw that all were not dead.
John Meek could speak and move one hand slightly. I put my face down close
to his.

"'Can I do anything for you, John?' I asked, and he replied, 'No, Jack, I
am dying; good-bye,' and he asked me to grasp his hand. 'Go help the
rest,' he whispered, gazing with fixed eyes toward where Captain Bernadou
was still firing the forward gun. The next minute he was dead.

"Ensign Bagley was lying on the deck nearly torn to pieces, and the bodies
of the other three were on top of him. The coloured cook was a little
apart from the others, mangled, and in a cramped position. We supposed he
was dead, and covered him up the same as the others. Nearly half an hour
after that we heard him calling, and saw that he was making a slight
movement under the clothes. I went up to him, and he said:

"'Oh, boys, for God's sake move me. I am lying over the boiler and burning
up.'

"The deck was very hot, and his flesh had been almost roasted. He
complained that his neck was cramped, but did not seem to feel his
terrible wound. We moved him into an easier position, and gave him some
water.

"'Thank you, sir,' he said, and in five seconds he was dead."

Ensign Bagley had been fearfully wounded by a shot, which practically tore
through his