The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1884-01-16
The Building Of the Ship.


held in the Congregational church of Wei
lington, and attended by delegates from
all parts of the State, Mrs, Logan, a native
of York, Medina county, educated a
Oberlin, and recently returned from years
of residence asa missionary in Micronesia
outlined some of her experiences there, in
a simple narrative, which made one of the
most interesting hours Of that memorable
meeting.
Life on a coral island in the tropics
three thousand miles from any other sea
port, and len thousand miles from home
must furnish many features more novel tc
the geographical student, than pleasant OF
comfortable to experience.
The narrator told us something of the
isolation of living where mail was received
but once year, and the ship which
brought this, furnished the only fresh sup
plies Of merchandise and marketing from
the Continents. No ship or sail, but this
one, ever touched their shores. Cereals
are not grown on that thin and arid soil
and the climate is unfavorable to the
preservation Of flour and meal, and OF
perishable food considered staple and
necessary to those raised in temperate lati
tudes. These things must be brought and
kept in air.tight cans, to guard against
moth and mold, and fermentation, and are
of course used in very limited quantities.
"The Morning STAR" which was their
annual source Of supply, was two months
overdue. Mr. Logan lay very i'll with
fever. The day before, the last spoonful
of musty meal had been made into Cruel,
from which the invalid turned with loath-
ing. Fish and fruit products OF the
island he could not eat. 1t seemed as if
this small speck of land in that wide
waste Of the Pacific had been forgotten by
the rest of the world, and being scarcely
above the level of the sea, that some
higher tide or larger wave, might sweep
over and blot II out from its own loneli.
ness.
When at last after thirteen months, the
long-watched.for sail was espied far out,
and came nearer and nearer, the Joy of the
sympathetic islanders knew no bounds,
and what II brought Of hope TO the sick
husband and the watching wife, who can
described Without medical aid, without
the comforts of civilization or the tonic
Of more stimulating atmosphere, the
sick man could not hope for restoration,
and they embarked in the ship for New
Zealand, their only choice Of routes any.
where, even if obliged to come to America
and home.
That sail vessel-"the ox.team of the
ocean. LAY becalmed in the tropics for
ninety days. All that time the Invalid,
watched by the tender wife, lay under a
thatch on deck, as helplessly at stand
still, as the ship that found no breeze Tor
its sails. By reason of the delay, the
vessel on which they had hoped TO embark
for Honolulu, left Auckland before they
arrived, and there was a tedious waiting
again in New Zealand. But at last they
came to the Sandwich Islands, and from
thence TO San Francisco. In Southern
California, the invalid found favorable
climate in which TO accumulate vigor for
the further journey home, and was finally
permitted to reach his friends in Ohio
alive.
This is the story in outline which many
OF us heard from the lips OF the wife and
mother, who had lived through il all, and
much more of thrilling character than
we have space TO tell This lady did not
complain or repine over what they had
suffered, but enthusiastic and encouraged
by the changes wrought among the in.
habitants Of the island through the intro
duction of Christianity, she was as inter-
ested and sanguine as one Of worldly
mind would be, who is developing a mine
promising rich pecuniary results.
"E. IL" the graphic and graceful writer,
well known TO the readers of the Cincin-
natl CommercialJG Gazette, saw the well
come accorded Mr.. and Mrs. Logan in
CINCINNATI. and though not Of their
denomination, her sympathies went out TO
them; she entertained them in her home;
and in that journal of Dec. 23d, is
Christmas story entitled "A Morning Star"
which any one familiar with the history
Of the Logan family, will recognize as
recording their experience.
Well, the weariness of all that waiting
on the island waiting for breeze In mid.
ocean, detained by a becalmed ship at
Auckland, and waiting the slow move
ments.of the sail, all the tedious way TO
finding relief for her husband, $50 beat
itself in upon the heart and brain" of that
pitiful anxious wife, that for ''all who wait
for the dplavpd Olaam nf tho Sun of
Righteousness" all who may teach or
preach In those remote isles she felt and
suffered with. The outcome Of IL was. that
when called from the privacy of her little
family TO answer the questions Of mission.
ary societies, she could not help pleading
for some swifter transit for the Gospel
than that furnished by the sail, and for a
steamer TO take the place of "The Morn.
ing Star"
The converted captain of that ship,
hearing at Honolulu what she was doing,
for the first time, left the sailing of his |
ship TO other hands, and coming TO Boston,
said: IL can tell what you cannot, Of the |
cost and kind Of machinery needed for |
that water, of the delays, dangers, proba-
bilities, etc, and know the need Of new
vessel as others do not" Speaking three
evenings in week in the East, and work |
ing in every way to help the project, he |
wrote: ut seems as II have prayed |
every beam and timber into that ship, II is
30 on my heart"
Meanwhile, with the wife's help, the
husband has, besides recruiting his
translated the Bible and hymn
book into the language of the Pacific