Page:Life of John Boyle O'Reilly.djvu/137

Rh The right bower anchor should be as heavy as a large stone, and should always be kept warm.

The chimney of the cook's galley should be eight times as long as the spanker boom. In clipper ships this length may be doubled. Mizzen top-gallant yard should be a little larger than a log of wood, and heavy in proportion.

On board the Sapphire O'Reilly fell in with another passenger, an English gentleman named Bailey, who, on learning his story, took a warm interest in the exile, and aided him in securing passage for America, after arriving at Liverpool, on October 13. Mr. Soule, for so O'Reilly was known to the crew, went into a safe retreat at that port. Capt. Seiders and his mate, John Bursley, with the assistance of a generous English family, provided him with a secure hiding-place until he could obtain passage on an American ship, homeward bound.

The opportunity was found in the ship Bombay, of Bath, Maine. Captain Jordan made a place for him as third mate of the Bombay. He would have opened his heart and purse to any fugitive from tyranny. He was not disposed to shut either against a victim of English injustice; for he was one of the many American shipmasters who had been robbed and ruined by the Anglo-Confederate privateer Alabama. Never did exile meet with warmer welcome to freedom than O'Reilly received from the great-hearted seamen sailing under the flag of the United States. On the evening of the second day after sailing from Liverpool, Captain Jordan called O'Reilly on deck, and told him they were near the coast of Ireland, and would see it before the sun went down. The sun was very low, and a heavy bank of cloud had risen up from the horizon, and underneath it the sun's rays fell down upon the sea.

"Where is the nearest part of Ireland?" he asked of the pilot.

"There it is, sir; under the sun."

Recalling this incident, in a lecture delivered at Music Hall, Boston, in January, 1870, O'Reilly said:

"They were sad words; Ireland was there, under the