Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1884-06-26
EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENCE.
Letter from DR.. Latham.

| a. once. The AuStral is pronounced, by those
who are capable Of judging, to be very fine
| ship. There is on board gentleman from New
York who has crossed the Atlantic one hundred
times and he asserts that the Astratl is one of the
best vessels on the ocean. The Austral has his
tory thrillingly interesting. She was built IN
Glasgow, Scotland, for the Australian service,
but for number of years she has been run in
connection with the City of Rome between Liv-
erpool and New York. The City of Rome is the
larger and faster ship. In fact the city Of Rome
Isl one of the fastest ships on the Atlantic. The
capacity of the AstraL is stated to be 3,27O tons
burden and 514 passengers. She is driven by
two powerful engines. One of these engines has
a cylinder sixty-two inches in diameter;th CYL
inder of the other is eghty-six inches in dame
ter. The stroke of the piston is five feet. The
boilers are four in number, each being seventeen
| (I7) feet long, and sixteen and one-half feet In
diameter. The length of the Austral is 475 feet,
her width 4S feet. In the construction of the
| AustraL wood and iron were discarded and use
made of steel wherever possible. If the question
were asked, "Ofwhat material is the Ahstrat con-
srructed ?'' it would not be very extravagant to
reply, steel. The Aastral having been built for
warm country, is we'll ventilated. @
The thrilling part of the history Of the Austral
il that in November, 1882, she went down and
remained at the bottom Of the sea for several
months. This catastrophe took place at Sidney,
New South Wales. It was due to no defect in
the ship, but to negligence or bad management.
1t was about four oclock in the morning. The
hands on board were shifting the coal, the bal
ance of the ship was destroyed and she began to
| fill with water. In twenty minutes after she be-
gun to sink she was gone. AL the employees on
the ship, except those engaged in shifting the
coal, were asleep, but they were quickly awak-
ened and only four were drowned. After lying
for three months under water the Amstral was
raised, repaired and sent to sea again. The Voy-
age during Saturday was perfectly delightful.
| Everybody was on deck gazing at the sights to
| lie seen along the coast and islands. The land
faded from view during the afternoon and moth
| irg was to be seen but water. The sight was
grand beyond description Strange thoughts
rushed into my mind and strange feeling
of intense loneliness filled my BOSOM The deck
was covered with men, women and children, all
as gay and lively as birds after an April shower.
Still I felt that I was cut off from the whole
world. 1 thought of what Horace said about the
recklessness of the man who first dared to cross
the ocean in frail bark, and thought of the
grand description of the lla contained in the one
| hundred and seventh Psalm.
The individual who has never seen the ocean
is as much astonished when hetirst sees it as the
individual who has spent his days IN level
country, is, when he first ascends mountain
range. Everything is different from what he
imagined it to be. The water, the waves, and
the sky all look strange and are constantly
changing their appearance. The water OF the
ocean is generally, by poets, described as dark
blue color. This is scarcely correct: TO me
they appear to be an inky black. The waves
resemble black rocks over which water has run
for ages and worn into furrows. When the
| wind is brisk the waves are covered with foam
which gives to the broad expanse of water the
appearance of vast plane covered with small
catches of unmelted snow. / suppose that the
| greater number of persons, like myself, imagine
the to look like large pond, or rather that
a large pond resembles in appearance the ocean,
| S,,o io, nf fho fonf A 1ory
| the appearance Of the ocean than large hill has
| the appearance of the Allegheny range. They
lave some things in common, but the ocean
las so many things that the pond has not. Inc
| mind refuses to regard them as having COM
mon origin.
| On Sabbath morning the ocean began to show
manifest signs Of life. When got out of my
berth and began to dress felt peculiar up and
Gown motion, alternated by swinging from
side to side motion in the ship, which had not
felt before. Breakfast came off at eight. felt
neither sick nor well. I was not hungry; but
| having determined to be brave to the last went
to the breakfast table and eat without any par
ticular relish very large quantity of roast beef,
mutton chops, oat meal, two eggs and bread IN
a proportional quantity. This done made for
the deck as quickly as possible. Everybody
seemed to be doing the same thing. The mlrthful
conversation of Saturday no longer existed on
deck among the passengers. Every one was
very serious. A stranger might have been LED,
by our quiet department., to conclude that we all
hoped that our reverence for the Sabbath still
existed, but it is certain that the quiet and order
ly conduct of most Of us could not be traced to
our reverence for the Sabbath day.
About ten o oclock the passengers, with heads
inclined forward and handkerchiefs pressed
tightly on their mouths, were seen sadly and
slowly making their way for their berths. de-
termined to be brave to the last. My stomach,
however, soon got the better Of me, or rather the
sea got the better of my stomach. To tell the
fact strange as it may appear, my stomach SEEM
cd to be making powerful effort to repeat ON as
large scale as possible the various motions OF
the sea- Mysense told me that this was impossl-
ble and I so reasoned with my stomach, but it
was deaf to my entreaties, and the result was,
that in its vain efforts to initiate the sea, 1t emp
tied its contents on the floor of the deck This
disliked very much, but had the satisfaction OF
conscience void of offence in this matter. ltWas
matter of no smaller comfort to me that the
stomachs of by far the greater number OF the
passengers on board were as rebelllous as NINE.
About the time that the vomiting began, the
Captain, Alfred Charlton, announced church
down in the dining-room. On board there are
two theological professors, DR.. Hodge, Of Prince
ton, and DR.. Young, Of Allegheny. 1ts turned
out that both these venerable men were too indls-
posed either to preach or hear preaching. Cap
tain Charlton, I was told read the Episcopal SER
vice for the day for the benefit Of those who were
able to attend. Again was told he had but few
hearers.
Sabbath, June lst, was spent by most of the
and violent vomiting. From nearly every berth
could be heard the heart-rending groans of the
sick. AS for myself vomited so long as there
was a single thing in my stomach, and then L
tried to vomit what was not there. This was
the worst feature of the whole thing. At some
hour in the day, prostrated by sickness, l fell
into some state; it may have been sleep or IL may
have been swoon, and did not arouse to con-
sciousness until about dark. The steward came
to my room and asked me if I would havesome-
thing to eat. This aroused the remaining ener-
gies ofmy stomach and again the quotations be-
gan Ivomited myself to Sleep Monday morn
ing I was awakened by the occupant OF the
adjoining berth calculating in the most dolorous
accents so, Lord, five hundred dollars for the
shore!' I was obliged to laugh. During the
clay lay quietly and comparatively comfortably
in my room. Every time, however, I raised my
head my stomach indicated its foolish incllna-
ton to initiate the peculiar motions Of the sea.
was told that the wind was high and the sea
very rough on Sabbath. OF this fact was IN
happy ignorance. The storm within me was so
great that the outside world was dead calm. A
lady informed me that on Sabbath night there
was a regular old fashioned cyclone, but her
husband kept it concealed from her. am In
clined to think the cyclone was in her stomach
and not on the sea. / since learned from the
Captain that there actually was gale on Sab
hurry, but with great caution. First, drew on
my pants, then lay down and patted my rebenous
stomach to rest; this accomplished put on my
shoes, and again lay down and quleted my stom-
ach this done slipped on my vest and lay
down again to still the raging in my stomach
this effected for the third time rose win inc
determination to conquer. My oVercoat was
quickly slipped on and off set for the decK.
reeled and staggered as if were good drunk
When I reached the deck my stomach was
nearly up to my mouth. It must have been the
stomach proper, for every morsel that had Deen
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