‘Let go, let go your hold, you idiot!’ cried Nixon, ‘you will have the ship on fire.’
‘And what’s that to me!’ shouted the infuriated man. ‘An’ you will not drink, by God I shall souse thy head in the burning liquor.’
At these words they grappled, and yelling and cursing, they fought for a minute or two, staggering backwards and forwards, when the brute force of Jerry prevailing, he dragged Nixon up to the blaze, and dashed him head first into the flame, falling himself on the top of the struggling wretch, and upsetting the tub, which instantly sent a flood of liquid fire surging all over the cabin.
Oh, then, the oaths, the yells, the frantic strugglings, which filled that hell upon the waters! Dozens of bottles had been already broken or spilt, and their contents, surging about, had thoroughly drenched the clothes of the wallowing brutes, who lay sprawling upon the floor. The cabin was, in a moment, one blaze of flame, in which men with their clothes and hair a-fire, and their faces livid and ghastly in the glare, leaped and staggered, and sought to clamber on barrels and casks, blaspheming, and screaming, and scuffling madly with each other.
‘Up, up!’ shouted Rumbold, ‘up for dear life!’ All that I have described took place almost in the time that one sees a flash of lightning. In a moment, without knowing how I had done it, I was upon the deck, with my clothes and hair singed, but otherwise unscathed. As I drew in the first blessed breath of the fresh cool night, a loud explosion shook the deck under our feet, and we heard the tinkling crash of the cabin windows as the glass was blown out of them.
‘There went a powder flask!’ cried Rumbold; and then, as if the word appalled him, he staggered back from me, crying—
‘The magazine—the magazine—it is just beneath the floor of the cabin!’
What I did for the next moment I hardly know. It is only a vision, of rushing to the davits where a quarter boat hung—of the rope flying hot through my hand—of Rumbold searching frantically for oars on the deck, while a blue flame streamed up through the sky-light and cabin stairs, and the shrieks of the burning men mingled in the roar of the fierce fire!
But in that vision, I had one awful glimpse down into the cabin. May I be enabled to forget what I saw! The masses of fat meat, the dry bedding, the clothes scattered on the floor, masses of them being drenched with spirits, were all flaming together, while the drunkards rolled, roaring and scuffling, on the table and the floor, their flesh actually scorching from the bones! I say no more on’t. Would I could think no more on’t.
Over the side went we with a single leap down into the surging boat. ‘Off, off—push off!’ And as the pinnace glanced away from the ship, tongues of flame curled and roared out of the cabin windows all round the stern. ‘Pull for life!’ We stretched to the oars like madmen, and the boat flew over the water. The mizen-sail, which was as dry as dust, for there was no dew, caught fire from the blaze, roaring up from the sky-light, and in a minute, the scorching element ran all aloft, blazing along the ropes, licking up the broad sails, making the strong canvas tinder, and lighting up for miles and miles the lone midnight sea! There! A bright sheet of red fire shot forth, as if a volcano had burst out under the ocean, the glare showing us for an instant, and no more, a vision of huge beams, and rent masses of timber, flying out and upwards; and then—just as we heard the sound of the explosion, not a loud sharp crack, but a smothered roar, which made all the air shake palpably around us—down with a stately swoop, fell the flaming mizen-mast into the sea!