Zigzag Journeys in Europe Part 8

The Steerage.--Pilot Boats.--Tommy meets Rough Weather.--His Letter and Postscript.--Queer Pa.s.sengers.--Games and Story-telling.--Story of Joan of Arc.--Signalling at Sea.--Land!

An ocean steamer! Though a speck upon the waters, what a world it seems! What symmetry, what strength, what a triumph of human skill!

What a cheerful sense of security one feels as one looks upon the oak and the iron, and hears the wind whistle through the motionless forest of cordage! There society in all its grades is seen, and human nature in all its phases.

The cool upper deck of the steamer was more inviting to our tourists than the hot streets and hotels of New York, and early in the afternoon they met on the North River Pier, and went on board of their ocean home. First, they examined the elegant saloons, then their snug state-rooms, and at last the steerage apartment, where George and Leander were to have their quarters.

The steerage was not a wholly uninviting apartment. It was a plain cabin, amids.h.i.+ps, well lighted and ventilated, and very clean. A stanch-looking pair of stairs led down to it. On each side were bunks in little rooms; those on the right hand for women, and on the left for men. These were lighted and aired by port-holes. Each pa.s.senger provided his own bedding and eating utensils.

"I like this," said Tommy Toby to the steward. "Are the pa.s.sengers here more likely to be sick than in the first cabin?"

"No," said the steward. "This is the steadiest part of the s.h.i.+p."

"Then what is the difference between the cabin and the steerage?"

"Well, the difference is in the folks, and the furniture, and the way you eat your victuals."

The steerage pa.s.sengers were allowed the freedom of the decks, but not of the grand saloons. Master Lewis and the boys seated themselves in a group on the upper deck, when they had well visited the different parts of the s.h.i.+p.

Early in the evening, the immense s.h.i.+p moved slowly and steadily away from the sultry wharves into the calm sea and cool air. The great city with its gleaming spires seemed sinking in the sea, and the hills of Neversink to be burying themselves in the shadows.

Pilot boats several times crossed the track of the steamer, with their numbers conspicuously painted on their sails.

"Why does a captain, who navigates a s.h.i.+p across the ocean," asked Frank of Master Lewis, "need the a.s.sistance of pilots and pilot-boats when he is in sight of land?"

"It is because the harbor is more dangerous than the open ocean, and pilots make these dangers the study of their lives.

"See yonder pilot-boat skimming with the grace of a sea-bird along the sea. It has the stanchness of a s.h.i.+p built for the longest voyages. It is doubtless made of the best oak, is sheathed with the best copper, and may have cost twenty thousand dollars."

"The life of a pilot must be an adventurous one," said Frank, "and there must be also much pleasure in it."

"It requires special education and hard training to become a pilot. It is expected that the candidate for the position shall have been an apprentice four years, during which he shall have performed all the duties of a common sailor, even to the was.h.i.+ng of the decks and the tarring of the rigging. This is his college life. If he is an apt student, he then obtains a certificate of qualification from a board of commissioners by whom he has been rigidly examined.

"The pilot-boats themselves are exposed to great dangers in foggy weather. A calm comes on, and they cannot move. In this situation, they are liable to be struck by one of the great iron vessels or ocean steamers. During the last twenty-five years, some thirty pilot-boats have been lost on this coast."

[Ill.u.s.tration: PILOT-BOAT.]

The night was beautiful, calm, cool, starry. In the morning, the sun rose red from the sea. Land had disappeared. The boys all met on the deck, in fine health and spirits.

Towards evening, the sea grew rough, and there were premonitions of sea-sickness among the pa.s.sengers. Tommy Toby, in an amusing letter which he wrote to his parents, gave a stereoscopic pen-picture of the condition of our travellers at this period of the voyage. He afterwards added a characteristic postscript. We give Tommy's letter and postscript entire:--

My Dear Parents:

If I can only get safely back to Boston, I will never start on a voyage again.

I knew it would be so. I have been seasick.

The first night and day we had very pleasant weather and a light sea.

On the evening of the second day, I was on deck with the boys.

All at once the boat gave a great lurch. Then another.

Then another.

"We are getting into rough water," said Master Lewis.

Wyllys Wynn, who is a poet, was repeating some beautiful rhymes, when suddenly he grew white in the face, and said, "And so it goes on for several lines." He meant the poetry. Then he began to wander to and fro in search of the cabin and his state-room.

Frank Gray began to tell a story, but stopped short, and said, "The rest of it is like unto _that_!" He meant the rest of the story. Then he went to the cabin, "making very crooked steerage," one of the deck-hands said.

Ernest Wynn followed him, in the same strange gait.

"The Zigzag Club," said the deck-hand. He was a very sarcastic man.

The s.h.i.+p gave another dreadful lurch, and I began to feel very strange.

I went to my state-room. I felt worse on the way.

The s.h.i.+p seemed to have lost all her steadiness.

I cannot describe the night that followed. The s.h.i.+p creaked, and seemed just about to roll over after every lurch. Sometimes she went up. I was so dizzy, it seemed to me that she went up almost to the moon. Then she came down. She always came down. It seemed to me she must be going down to the bottom of the sea.

In the morning, the steward came.

"It 'as been a 'eavy blow, ruther."

"A heavy blow!" said I. "Did you ever know any thing like it in your life? Do you think we shall ever see land again?"

"Nothin' alarmin'," said the steward.

A dreadful day followed. I did not leave my room. I wished I had never left home. I felt like the Frenchman who said, "I would kees ze land, if I could only see any land to kees."

The next day I was better, only there was a light feeling in my head.

I went up on deck. The sun was s.h.i.+ning. The wind blew, but the air was very refres.h.i.+ng.

This is the fourth day out. I have been able to eat to-day. I am feeling very hungry.

I find that all the boys have been obliged to keep their rooms, except George Howe, who is in the steerage.

How fearful I am we shall have another night like _that_! How glad I shall be to see land again! The land is the place, after all. I wish I were sure we would have good weather, when we return.

Your thoughtful son,

Thomas Toby.

P. S. Three days after. I am well now. I never felt so bright and happy in my life. The steward says that people are seldom sick twice during the same voyage. An ocean trip is just the thing, after all.

There were a few rather odd characters among the pa.s.sengers: among them a portly, self-satisfied Englishman, returning from a tour of the States, with an increased respect for fine old English society; a glib-tongued Frenchman, who was delighted with "Ze States,--deelighted!"