eded with all our energy to pump water down upon the
flames.

We had been thus engaged for about a quarter of an hour, the lightning
raging round us all the while in undiminished fury, when, in an instant,
down came the rain in a perfect flood.

"Shut the ports!" yelled Hawsepipe.

We understood in a moment the object he had in view, and, leaving the
engine, went round the decks, closing the ports and stopping up the
scuppers with pieces of canvas, so as to prevent the water from flowing
off the deck. The rain was descending in such copious torrents that in
a few minutes we were up to our knees in warm, fresh water, when the
hose was withdrawn from the hole in the deck and the water allowed to
stream down into the store-room. A dense jet of steam rushed up through
the hole immediately that we withdrew the hose and its packing.

We now had a moment in which to take a look below, and see what result
had attended our labours. A glance at the fore-scuttle was anything but
reassuring, dense clouds of steam and smoke issuing by this time from
the opening, and as we looked the smoke suddenly became tinged with the
lurid reflection of flames. I darted to the opening, and looking down
as well as I could through the blinding suffocating clouds which rushed
up in denser volumes every instant, saw that the bulkhead was burned
through, and the flames already spreading in every direction.

The fire-engine was instantly started once more, the hose being this
time directed down into the forecastle, and for twenty minutes we played
upon the fire there--the rain all the while rushing down in sheets and
fast filling our decks--without result; at the end of that time it
became apparent that the ship was doomed.

Hawsepipe and the doctor had meanwhile pressed their investigations
farther aft, soon reappearing with the alarming news that the fire was
spreading aft with great rapidity.

"Then there is nothing for it but to take to the boat without further
delay," said I.

And we set about getting her over the side forthwith, our motions being
considerably accelerated by the increasing loudness of the roaring
crackling sound of the fire, the dense cloud of smoke which now
enveloped the ship, and the almost unbearable heat of the deck. The
flames spread so rapidly that by the time we had got the boat into the
water, with her oars, sails, etcetera, a couple of breakers of water, a
bag or two of biscuits, and a miscellaneous collect