Note 220 — Chapter XII
Reading edition
Being called upon by the Solicitor for the Admiralty to examine into the causes of the fire which destroyed the Imogene and Talavera, in Devonport Arsenal, I discovered a bin under the roofing which covered these ships, in which there had been accumulating for a long period all the refuse of the wheelwrights’ and painters’ shop; and it was quite evident that spontaneous combustion had taken place in the mass of oiled oakum, sawdust, anti-attrition, and old sail-cloth, there allowed to accumulate.