a south sea common consent we assembled in the deck house which had windows looking in all directions and sat there for five hours very few words were spoken and very little fear was felt we understood by that if our crazy engines failed at any moment to keep the ship s head to the sea her destruction would not occupy an hour it was all palpable there was nothing which the most experienced seaman could explain to the merest we hoped for the best and there was no use in speaking about the worst nor indeed was speech possible unless a human voice could have the in this deck house the and were hardly audible or rather were overpowered by a sound which in thirteen months experience of the sea in all i have never heard and hope never to hear again unless in a ship one loud awful shriek mingled with a prolonged hiss no gathering strength no languid fainting into momentary but one protracted gigantic scream and this was not the whistle of wind through but the actual sound of air travelling with tremendous with it minute of water nor was the sea running mountains high for the kept it down indeed during those fierce hours no sea was visible for the whole surface was caught up and carried furiously into the air like snow drift on the there was profound quiet on deck the little life wliich existed being concentrated near tlie bow where the captain was either lashed to the or in shelter in the pilot house never a soul appeared on deck the force letter i of the being such that for four hours any man would have been carried off his feet through the swift strange evening our hopes rested on the engine and amidst the uproar and din and drifting spray and of pitiless seas there was a sublime repose in the spectacle of the huge walking beams alternately rising and falling slowly calmly regularly as if the were on a holiday trip within the golden gate at eight in the evening we could hear each other speak and a little later through the great masses of hissing drift we discerned black water at nine captain appeared smoking a cigar with and told us that the had nearly the compass and had been the most severe he had known for seventeen years this grand old man nearly the oldest captain in the pacific won our respect and confidence from the first and his quiet and handling of this old ship is beyond all praise when the strain of apprehension was we became aware that we had not had anything to eat since breakfast a clean sweep having been made not only of the lunch but of all the glass in the above it but all to the were insufficient to procure even and at eleven we retired to bed amidst a confusion of awful sounds and were deprived of lights as well as food when we asked for food or light and made weak appeals on the ground of the one steward who seemed to about for the sole purpose of making himself disagreeable always replied you can t get anything the are on duty the we were not accustomed to recognize that had any other duty than that of feeding the passengers but under the circumstances we meekly we were allowed to know that a part of the had been carried way and that iron four inches had been and twisted like sticks and e constant falling of the saloon of the main t showed something wrong there a heavy beard at intervals by day and night aroused some suspicions as to more serious damage and these were afterwards confirmed as the wind fell the sea rose and for some hours realized every description i have read of the and magnitude of the of the south i the day after the something went wi with q engines and we were stationary for an hour we all thankful that this which would have or sacrificed sixty lives was then only a on a summer sea ive days out fi om we entered the a temperature of � in the water and � in the but as the light head airs blew the intense heat of om smoke aft we often endured a e of ho there were quiet heavy tropical showers and a g misty and the islands with their rainbow tinted coral forests their fi of p and groves of and trees those s of the bright south seas resolved themselves into dark through a mist but the showers and the were confined to that letter i region and for the last fortnight an tropical sun has blazed upon our crawling ship the are giving way at the rate of from ten to twenty daily the in the shaft is extending and so partially the old ship her feet of length along the captain is continually in the engine room and we know when things are looking more than usual by his coming up puffing his cigar with unusual strength of determination it has been so far a very pleasant voyage the moral mental and social qualities f my fellow passengers are of a high order and since the we have been rather like a family circle than a miscellaneous accidental group for some time om days went by in reading aloud working draughts and conversation with two hours at in the afternoon for exercise but four days ago the only son of mrs who is the only lady on board besides myself a blood vessel on the lungs and lies in a most critical state in the deck house from which he has not been moved requiring most careful nursing incessant and the attention of two persons by day and night mrs d had previously won the regard of and i had learned to look on her as a friend 