Page:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (Volume One).djvu/382

 keep his promise to visit me in Washington and I have never seen him again.

The other picture still present to my mind was more serious in its involuntary ludicrousness. While we were driven about on the North Sea by violent gales the sky was constantly covered with dense clouds, so that no regular observation could be had to determine where we were. The captain indeed endeavored to ascertain our whereabouts as well as he could by the so-called dead reckoning; but after we had been so going on for several days he declared to us quite frankly that he had only a very vague idea of our latitude and longitude. Now we saw him frequently in the cabin sitting on the little sofa behind the table with his head bent thoughtfully over his chart, and as the matter was important to us, too, we tried to help him in his calculations. Kinkel, after he had overcome the seasickness, and myself spent almost the whole day on deck in spite of the storm, and as we had observed the drifting of the vessel from its true course we formed an opinion on that matter, to which the captain listened with great apparent respect; and when during the night he sat under the lamp over his chart, Kinkel and I stuck our heads out of our berths, holding fast to some object so that we could not fall out, and looking at the chart in this position, discussed with the captain the question of latitude and longitude, of the force of the wind, of the current, of the water, and so on. Finally we would agree upon some point at which the ship ought to be at that time, and that point was then solemnly marked with a pencil on the chart. Then the “navigation council,” as we called it, adjourned. The captain mounted again to the deck and Kinkel and I crept back into our berths to sleep.

On the tenth day of our voyage the sky cleared at last,