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John Braid, carpenter of the Queen Charlotte, reports, that twenty minutes after 6 o'clock in the morning, as he was dressing himself he heard throughout the ship a general cry of 'fire. On which he immediately ran up the after-ladder to get upon deck, and found the whole half-deck, the front bulk-head of the admiral's cabin, the main-mast's coat, and boat's covering on the booms, all in flames; which, from every report and probability, he apprehends was occasioned by some hay, which was lying under the half-deck, having been set on fire by a match in a tub, which was usually kept there for signal guns.
"What passenger?" demanded Riggs, in surprise. "A parson," said the spokesman, and as he said it Meeker himself came up the after-ladder. "Ah, the captain," he said. "I am the Rev. Luther Meeker," he explained, presenting his ticket. "I am going to Hong-Kong, and, if I am not mistaken, this is the good ship Kut Sang" "That your baggage? All right, you men come aboard and look sharp."
But whilst the Wager, with these views, was making the best of her way to her first rendezvous off the island of Socoro, she made the land on the 14th of May, about the latitude of 47 degrees south, and the captain, exerting himself on this occasion in order to get clear of it, he had the misfortune to fall down the after-ladder, and thereby dislocated his shoulder, which rendered him incapable of acting.
As soon as the lieutenant of the middle watch had been called by the mate, who lighted his candle and left him to dress himself, I came up by the after-ladder, and, watching an opportunity when the sentry at the captain's cabin door had walked forward, I softly descended by the skylight ladder into the gun-room.
One morning, when, as usual, Tommy Dott had come through the port, we were so busily employed with a caricature which we were making of old Culpepper, that the captain's boat came alongside without our being aware of it, and the captain's voice speaking to the first lieutenant as he was descending the after-ladder was the first intimation we received of his being on board.
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