Few things are as frightening as a fire aboard a ship. Not only do the flames and smoke pose a danger to life, but if the fire goes on long enough, the entire ship will go down, and then a drowning death is a very real risk.
Therefore, throughout history, ships have had different equipment and routines to be able to quickly handle such a crisis. Today, there are alarms, sensors, evacuation plans and advanced extinguishing equipment. Norwegian law specifies what kind of equipment is required on Norwegian passenger ships, and the shipping companies document their routines. Conditions were necessarily a little simpler in the past.
In the collection of the Hurtigruten Museum, we find a custom-built bench in beautiful wood. It is simple and functional in design, and for good reason.
This is a fire bucket stand.
The stand is designed to be screwed on to the floor of the ship, and has openings for placing six buckets in the rack. If a fire broke out, you ran to the bucket stand, grabbed a bucket and eventually formed a chain of people who filled the buckets with seawater and threw the water on the flames. In this way, it was hoped to save both ship and crew from certain death.