
in which this most important duty had been performed on board the Grampus was a
most shameful piece of neglect on the part of Captain Barnard, who was by no
means as careful or as experienced a seaman as the hazardous nature of the
service on which he was employed would seem necessarily to demand. A proper
stowage cannot be accomplished in a careless manner, and many most disastrous
accidents, even within the limits of my own experience, have arisen from neglect
or ignorance in this particular. Coasting vessels, in the frequent hurry and
bustle attendant upon taking in or discharging cargo, are the most liable to
mishap from the want of a proper attention to stowage. The great point is to
allow no possibility of the cargo or ballast shifting position even in the most
violent rollings of the vessel. With this end, great attention must be paid, not
only to the bulk taken in, but to the nature of the bulk, and whether there be a
full or only a partial cargo. In most kinds of freight the stowage is
accomplished by means of a screw. Thus, in a load of tobacco or flour, the whole
is screwed so tightly into the hold of the vessel that the barrels or hogsheads,
upon discharging, are found to be completely flattened, and take some time to
regain their original shape. This screwing, however, is resorted to principally
with a view of obtaining more room in the hold; for in a full load of any such
commodities as flour or tobacco, there can be no danger of any shifting
whatever, at least none from which inconvenience can result. There have been
instances, indeed, where this method of screwing has resulted in the most
lamentable consequences, arising from a cause altogether distinct from the
danger attendant upon a shifting of cargo. A load of cotton, for example,
tightly screwed while in certain conditions, has been known, through the
expansion of its bulk, to rend a vessel asunder at sea. There can be no doubt,
either, that the same result would ensue in the case of tobacco, while
undergoing its usual course of fermentation, were it not for the interstices
consequent upon the rotundity of the hogsheads.
    It is when a partial cargo is received that danger is chiefly to be
apprehended from shifting, and that precaution should be always taken to guard
against such misfortune. Only those who have encountered a violent gale of wind,
or rather who have experienced the rolling of a vessel in a sudden calm after
the gale, can form an idea of the tremendous force of the plunges, and of the
consequent terrible impetus given to all loose articles
