∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
[page 3, column 2, continued:]
STOWAGE IN SHIPS. — A proper stowage of a ship 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 consequence 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 casks [[hogsheads]]. — From a Narrative by Arthur Gordon Pym.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Notes:
This item has lifted a portion of Poe's Pym, from chapter VI, as if it is valid advice on packing cargo in a ship. It implements minor changes from Poe's text. The identical filler item was reprinted in a large number of British newspapers about the same time.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
[S:0 - GTUK, 1838] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Bookshelf - Excerpt from A. G. Pym (Anonymous, 1838)