“The fireman that reported it happened to be this midshipman, sir; his name is Osborn.”
“By Jove, Mr. Osborn, your report has saved us from a boiler explosion. I’ll tell the captain. Those furnaces are twenty-five years old and are badly laminated; a blister formed and acted as a non-heat conductor, so the iron got red hot and the furnace caved in from the boiler pressure. We’ll cut out the blister to-morrow and rivet on a hard patch.”
This was very interesting to Ralph. His report was really an accident and was made principally through curiosity. Mr. Stroud soon left and Ralph went over to the safety-valve wheel that Hester had operated. This was on the side of the fire room between the back ends of two of the boilers. While looking at this he was startled by a terrific cry of: “Furnace crown in boiler E coming down!” Then followed penetrating shouts from Hester. “Haul fires, disconnect, open the safety-valve!”
Ralph turned to go into the open part of the fire room and then heard a fearful yell of: “Run, everybody! Drop everything! Get out of the fire room, everybody!”
Ralph started to run, but tripped and fell headlong, striking the floor plates with great force. While he was struggling to get up he was conscious that the fire room was suddenly filled with hot steam.
One of the furnace crowns of boiler E had come down so rapidly that there was no time to save the boiler. Hester closed the great iron door between the engine and fire room, and then cracked it open. No steam came into the engine room.
“It’s not a bad break,” said Hester. “Hello, where is Mr. Osborn? He was in there. Did any of you see Mr. Osborn come out?”
“I saw him go behind the boiler to the safety-valve wheel,” said Turner.
Collins, with white face, stood beside Hester. He immediately said to a man beside him: “Quick, give me your shirt.” The man tore it off and Collins plunged it in a bucket of water. “Now tie it around my head,” he cried. “Now throw some water over me.” Instantly a bucket was thrown over him. The whole incident took but a matter of a few seconds. Hester looked at Collins keenly. “This is mine, Hester; I’m going after Mr. Osborn. Open the door.”
“All right, Collins. Get down on your knees and crawl. He’s between boiler E and F. You’ll get him.”