Page:Travel letters from New Zealand, Australia and Africa (1913).djvu/181

 *mon sailor's experience in sailing from San Francisco to Liverpool. For weeks the ship had terrible weather; it seemed that wreck was inevitable almost every hour of the voyage. I am of the opinion that the writer made the voyage much worse than it really was, in order that he might have a tale that would appeal to publishers. I have spent many weeks at sea, on many ships, but have never experienced any of the rough weather this writer tells about. I have experienced much disagreeable weather at sea, but I have never seen a ship in any danger of swamping. The stories of storms at sea remind me of stories of battles. There will be a perfect rain of shot and shell; pandemonium will reign, and, from the book account, it would seem that not a single man could live to tell the tale. But when the casualties are listed, it is found that only two men were slightly wounded. What a terrific affair the Battle of Manila Bay was! Yet not a single man in Admiral Dewey's fleet was struck by shot or shell, although the engagement lasted for hours The man who has a wife and five children, and two nurses, on board, was talking to me today.

"I suppose you have heard," he said, "that a young man may marry, and his expenses will be less than before; in short, that two may live on less than one?"

I replied that I had heard the story.

"Well," he said, "there is nothing in it."

From noon yesterday until noon today, the ship's run was only 312 miles. There was once a famous American sailing-ship, the "Red Jacket," which did a better average than that for ten consecutive days. But it must have had a great run of luck. Sailing