Youth, a Narrative

by Joseph Conrad

something like a thinfog, a puff of faint haze, rose from the opening. The ascending air washot, and had a heavy, sooty, paraffiny smell. I gave one sniff, andput down the lid gently. It was no use choking myself. The cargo was onfire.

  "Next day she began to smoke in earnest. You see it was to be expected,for though the coal was of a safe kind, that cargo had been so handled,so broken up with handling, that it looked more like smithy coal thananything else. Then it had been wetted--more than once. It rained allthe time we were taking it back from the hulk, and now with thislong passage it got heated, and there was another case of spontaneouscombustion.

  "The captain called us into the cabin. He had a chart spread on thetable, and looked unhappy. He said, 'The coast of West Australia isnear, but I mean to proceed to our destination. It is the hurricanemonth too; but we will just keep her head for Bankok, and fight thefire. No more putting back anywhere, if we all get roasted. We will tryfirst to stifle this 'ere damned combustion by want of air.'

  "We tried. We battened down everything, and still she smoked. The smokekept coming out through imperceptible crevices; it forced itself throughbulkheads and covers; it oozed here and there and everywhere in slenderthreads, in an invisible film, in an incomprehensible manner. It madeits way into the cabin, into the forecastle; it poisoned the shelteredplaces on the deck, it could be sniffed as high as the main-yard. Itwas clear that if the smoke came out the air came in. This wasdisheartening. This combustion refused to be stifled.

  "We resolved to try water, and took the hatches off. Enormous volumesof smoke, whitish, yellowish, thick, greasy, misty, choking, ascended ashigh as the trucks. All hands cleared out aft. Then the poisonous cloudblew away, and we went back to work in a smoke that was no thicker nowthan that of an ordinary factory chimney.

  "We rigged the force pump, got the hose along, and by-and-by it burst.Well, it was as old as the ship--a prehistoric hose, and past repair.Then we pumped with the feeble head-pump, drew water with buckets, andin this way managed in time to pour lots of Indian Ocean into the mainhatch. The bright stream flashed in sunshine, fell into a layer ofwhite crawling smoke, and vanished on the black surface of coal. Steamascended mingling with the smoke. We poured salt water as into a barrelwithout a bottom. It was our fate to pump in that ship, to pump outof her, to pump into her; and after keeping water out of her to saveourselves from being drowned, we frantically poured water into her tosave ourselves from being burnt.

  "And she crawled on, do or die, in the serene weather. The sky was amiracle of purity, a miracle of azure. The sea was polished, was blue,was pellucid, was sparkling like a precious stone, extending on allsides, all round to the horizon--as if the whole terrestrial globe hadbeen one jewel, one colossal sapphire, a single gem fashioned into aplanet. And on the luster of the great calm waters the _Judea_ glidedimperceptibly, enveloped in languid and unclean vapours, in a lazy cloudthat drifted to leeward, light and slow: a pestiferous cloud defilingthe splendour of sea and sky.

  "All this time of course we saw no fire. The cargo smoldered at thebottom somewhere. Once Mahon, as we were working side by side, said tome with a queer smile: 'Now, if she only would spring a tidy leak--likethat time when we first left the Channel--it would put a stopper on thisfire. Wouldn't it?' I remarked irrelevantly, 'Do you remember the rats?'

  "We fought the fire and sailed the ship too as carefully as thoughnothing had been the matter. The steward cooked and attended on us. Ofthe other twelve men, eight worked while four rested. Everyone tookhis turn, captain included. There was equality, and if not exactlyfraternity, then a deal of good feeling. Sometimes a man, as he dasheda bucketful of water down the hatchway, would yell out, 'Hurrah forBankok!' and the rest laughed. But generally we were taciturn andserious--and thirsty. Oh! how thirsty! And we had to be careful with thewater. Strict allowance. The ship smoked, the sun blazed.... Pass thebottle.

  "We tried everything. We even made an attempt to dig down to the fire.No good, of course. No man could remain more than a minute below. Mahon,who went first, fainted there, and the man who went to fetch him outdid likewise. We lugged them out on deck. Then I leaped down to showhow easily it could be done. They had learned wisdom by that time,and contented themselves by fishing for me with a chain-hook tied to abroom-handle, I believe. I did not offer to go and fetch up my shovel,which was left down below.

  "Things began to look bad. We put the long-boat into the water. Thesecond boat was ready to swing out. We had also another, a fourteen-footthing, on davits aft, where it was quite safe.

  "Then behold, the smoke suddenly decreased. We re-doubled our effortsto flood the bottom of the ship. In two days there was no smoke at all.Everybody was on the broad grin. This was on a Friday. On Saturday nowork, but sailing the ship of course was done. The men washed theirclothes and their faces for the first time in a fortnight, and had aspecial dinner given them. They spoke of spontaneous combustion withcontempt, and implied _they_ were the boys to put out combustions.Somehow we all felt as though we each had inherited a large fortune. Buta beastly smell of burning hung about the ship. Captain Beard had holloweyes and sunken cheeks. I had never noticed so much before how twistedand bowed he was. He and Mahon prowled soberly about hatches andventilators, sniffing. It struck me suddenly poor Mahon was a very, veryold chap. As to me, I was as pleased and proud as though I had helped towin a great naval battle. O! Youth!

  "The night was fine. In the morning a homeward-bound ship passed us hulldown,--the first we had seen for months; but we were nearing the land atlast, Java Head being about 190 miles off, and nearly due north.

  "Next day it was my watch on deck from eight to twelve. At breakfast thecaptain observed, 'It's wonderful how that smell hangs about the cabin.'About ten, the mate being on the poop, I stepped down on the main-deckfor a moment. The carpenter's bench stood abaft the mainmast: I leanedagainst it sucking at my pipe, and the carpenter, a young chap, came totalk to me. He remarked, 'I think we have done very well, haven't we?'and then I perceived with annoyance the fool was trying to tilt thebench. I said curtly, 'Don't, Chips,' and immediately became aware of aqueer sensation, of an absurd delusion,--I seemed somehow to be inthe air. I heard all round me like a pent-up breath released--as ifa thousand giants simultaneously had said Phoo!--and felt a dullconcussion which made my ribs ache suddenly. No doubt about it--I wasin the air, and my body was describing a short parabola. But short asit was, I had the time to think several thoughts in, as far as I canremember, the following order: 'This can't be the carpenter--What isit?--Some accident--Submarine volcano?--Coals, gas!--By Jove! we arebeing blown up--Everybody's dead--I am falling into the after-hatch--Isee fire in it.'

  "The coal-dust suspended in the air of the hold had glowed dull-redat the moment of the explosion. In the twinkling of an eye, in aninfinitesimal fraction of a second since the first tilt of the bench, Iwas sprawling full length on the cargo. I picked myself up and scrambledout. It was quick like a rebound. The deck was a wilderness of smashedtimber, lying crosswise like trees in a wood after a hurricane; animmense curtain of soiled rags waved gently before me--it was themainsail blown to strips. I thought, The masts will be toppling overdirectly; and to get out of the way bolted on all-fours towards thepoop-ladder. The first person I saw was Mahon, with eyes like saucers,his mouth open, and the long white hair standing straight on end roundhis head like a silver halo. He was just about to go down when thesight of the main-deck stirring, heaving up, and changing into splintersbefore his eyes, petrified him on the top step. I stared at him inunbelief, and he stared at me with a queer kind of shocked curiosity.I did not know that I had no hair, no eyebrows, no eyelashes, that myyoung moustache was burnt off, that my face was black, one cheek laidopen, my nose cut, and my chin bleeding. I had lost my cap, one of myslippers, and my shirt was torn to rags. Of all this I was not aware. Iwas amazed to see the ship still afloat, the poop-deck whole--and, mostof all, to see anybody alive. Also the peace of the sky and the serenityof the sea were distinctly surprising. I suppose I expect
ed to see themconvulsed with horror.... Pass the bottle.

  "There was a voice hailing the ship from somewhere--in the air, in thesky--I couldn't tell. Presently I saw the captain--and he was mad. Heasked me eagerly, 'Where's the cabin-table?' and to hear such a questionwas a frightful shock. I had just been blown up, you understand, andvibrated with that experience,--I wasn't quite sure whether I was alive.Mahon began to stamp with both feet and yelled at him, 'Good God! don'tyou see the deck's blown out of her?' I found my voice, and stammeredout as if conscious of some gross neglect of duty, 'I don't know wherethe cabin-table is.' It was like an absurd dream.

  "Do you know what he wanted next? Well, he wanted to trim the yards.Very placidly, and as if lost in thought, he insisted on