New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-05-12
CHANCES AT EUROPE......No. 1.
Crossing the Atlantic.

vsiipe in New-York when our good steamship
BALTIc cast loose from her dock at noon on the
18th inst, were not particularly calcuased 70 IN
spire and exhiarate the goodly number who were
then bidding sdieu for months At least to home
country and friends. The most sansuine OF the
inexperienced, however, appealed for solace to
the wind, which they, so long as the City COM
pletey sheltered rs on the east, insisted was
blowing from point West OF NOrth'-Ehence
they very logically deduced that the northeast
storm, now some thirty-six TO forty-sight hours
DID, had spent its force, and would soon give place
10 q serene and lucid atmosphere. believe the
Barometer at no time countensnoed this Rugury,
which brief experience suffced most sgnally
TO confute. Before We hal passed Coney Island,
II was abundantly certain that our freshenlng
breeze hailed directly from Labrador and the ice.
bersE beyond, and had no idea Of changing its
quarters By the time we were fSirly outside OF
Sandy Hook we were struggling with as ancom-
Portable and damaging crosssea as had ever
enlarged my slender nautical experiences and In
the course Of the next hour the his resolves the
yaorous dehances Of the scores who had en-
barked in the settled determination that they
pallid faces and heaving bosOms. OF our two
hundred passengers, possibly onehalf were able
70 face The dinner table at P. Nj less than one
| fourth mustered to supper att while q stern
but scanty remnant-perhsps twenty in al-ans'
wered the summons to breakfast next morning.
Twas not in any one of these categories. So
| long as was able, l walked The deck and sought
TO occupy my eyes, my limbs, my BRAIN with
something else than the sea and its perturbations.
| The attempt, however, proved q signal failure
Bv the time we were FIVE miles off the Hook,
was decided case; another hour laid me pros
trste. though refused to leave the deck at six
O'Clock friend, finding me recumbent and hope
less in the smokers room, persuaded and helped
me TO go below. l unbooted and swsyed into
nv berth, which endured me, perfor,e, for the
next tweHty.four hours. l then summoned
strength to crawl on deck, because while re-
msined below, my suferings were barely less
than while walking Above and my recovery
hopeless.
shall not harrow up the souls nor the stom'
achs oflandsmen, as yet reveling in b issul gnor-
ance of its tortures, with any description OF sea-
sickness They will know all in ample season :
or if not so much the better. But n4ked honesty
requires correction Of the prevalent error that
this malady is necessarily transient and easily
overcome. thousands who imagine they have
| been sea-sick River Lake steamboat
or even during a brief sleighride, are annually
! putting to sea with as little necessity or urgency
as suiiices to send them on q jaunt to Niagara or
| the White Mountains. they suppose they may
very probably be qualmish for fe hours, bat
that they fancy vii but highten the general en-
| oyment Of the voyage. Now it is quite true
that any green seseoer may be sick for few
hours only he may even not be sick at all. Bat
the probability ia very far from this, especially
when the voyage is undertas en- in any other than
one OF the four sunniest' blsndest months of the
year. OF every hundred who Cross the Atlantic
| for the first time, am confident that two'thrds
endure more than they had done in all the i've
| years preceding-more than they would do during
two months hard labor as convicts in a State
| Prison. or our two hundred, | .aink fifty did
not see healthy or really happy hour during the
passage while as many more were sufferers for
at least half the time. The other hundred were
mainly Oceans old acqusiRsances and on that
account treated more kindly but many Of these
had Ione trying hours.
Utter indifference to life and all its belongings
is one Of the chnacteriItics OF genuine case Of
se&sickness No. I. | enjoyed some opportunities
for observing this during our voyage. For in
stance One evening l was standing by sick
gentleman who had dragged himself or been
carried on deck and laid down on waterproof
mattress which raised him two or three inches
/
square over the bow Of the ship and rushed aft in
river through either gangway-the two uniting
again beyond the purBerS and doctor Offices just
where the sick man lay. Any live man would
have Jumped to his feet as suddenly as if rat
teInake were whizzing in his blanket but the
sufferer never moved, and the languid GOODNESS o.
eye wherewith be regarded the rushing flood
! which made an island Of him was most expressive.
Happily the wave had nearly spent its force and
was now so rapidly difuIed that bis refuge was
not quite overAowed.
Ofcourse, those who have yoyaged and not
suffered will pronounce my general picture
grossly exaggerated wherein they will be faith.
| ful to their own experience, as l am to mine. l
write for the benefit of the uninitiated, to warn
| them. not against Drawing the ocean when they
must or ought, but against resorting to it for pas
time. Voyaging cannot be enjoyment to most Of
them it must be suffering. The sOnorous rhyme
sters in praise Of "A Life on the Ocean Wave
The Sea- the Sea the Deep Blue Sea- &c.
were probably never out Of sight Of land in gale
in their lives If they were ever half seas over
the liquid which buoyed them up was not brine,
but wine, which is quite another affair And, as
they are continually Turing people out Of sound
ings who might far better have remained on terra
Hrma, ! lift up my voice in warning against shen.
A home on the raging deep, is not a scene Of en-
joyment, even TO the sailor, who suffers only from
hardship and exposure no other lsborers wages
Ia u annrl- anrnad his and lii aaaann Of N