The fire in the passenger shed burned very rapidly, and as it died down_ relieved us of some anxiety. Still many barges had to be dealt with, all hands working unceasingly. When a barge came near the ship's side, buckets were held in readiness in the inside of the ship, but fortunately this was only necessary aft on the starboard side where the barges were drifting on to the Andre Lebon and then down to us. This must be explained. The Andre Lebon had no steam up, so when the shed took fire she was also in danger. She let go from the wharf and owing to the wind was easily able to drift off, being on the opposite side to us. She then anchored off the wharf but remained at a right angle to us so that any barges that drifted against her eventually came down near our stern.
There is one thing—any barges that got within range of our hoses got short shrift. The Chinese seemed to take ai delight in it. They have the highest praise from me; they were rallied along by the petty officers, stewards and No. 1 boys. A system of signals was arranged, because no sooner had they dealt with a fire on the starboard side than they were all wanted for another on the port quarter, and so it went on until] late in the evening "until. everything which was liable to create a menace was burnt out.
At one time during the afternoon we managed to get a line to a warping buoy and tried to heave off to it. but the wind was too strong and the effort had to ye abandoned. Late in the evening, when there seemed to be
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.