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Rh he called to his lieutenant, "get a lighter alongside here and wet down the cotton I hoist out. Couple up two lines. Get the cotton spray."

In handling such cotton fires, it is the way of the expert to extinguish the worst of the flames in the hold and then to hook out the smoldering bales, hoist them to the open air, lower them to the deck of a lighter and play the hose on them there until they are drenched. To that end, Keighley divided his crew into two squads, one of which he ordered to remain on the Hudson, with Lieutenant Moore, to receive the smoking bales as they came from the Sachsen, and the other he ordered to ascend the high side of the Sachsen, on their scaling ladders with two lines of hose, to attack the flames in the freighter's hold. But in picking the men for these separate Rh