HE KEPT HIS SEAT | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 25, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 46.

HE KEPT HIS SEAT.

DURING one of the naval engagements of the late war, a sailor by the name of John Davis performed an act of bravery that has rarely been equaled. While the battle was at its height a shell entered the Valley City, of which ship Davis was gunner's mate, and exploded on the berth deck, setting it on fire.

Captain Chaplin, the commander of the vessel, jumped down into the magazine, and, while directing his men to extinguish the flames, passed up with his own hands the loose cylinders of powder. The fireworks on board became ignited. Rockets whizzed, and blue lights blazed up in the very midst of the ammunition. The shell-room caught fire, and it seemed as if the Valley City must be blown to pieces.

John Davis, appreciating the danger and desirous of doing all in his power to avert it, jumped up on an open barrel of gunpowder, and sat down on the head, covering it with his person as well as he could, to protect it from the showering sparks.

Captain Chaplin, seeing him quietly seated, while everybody else was at work, ordered him, in peremptory tones, to "get down and help put out the fire."

The young gunner's mate stayed where he was, and replied calmly:—

"Don't you see, sir, I can't; for if I do, the sparks will fall into the powder. If I get down, captain, we shall all go up."

Notwithstanding the terrible danger, Captain Chaplin could not repress a smile, and Davis' heroic action was rewarded after the battle by immediate promotion.—Youth's Companion.