The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-04-14
A SERIO-C0MlC WRECK.
CAST AWAY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE
GREAT sUEZ CANAL.

An OficiaI Rescuer Came-WiId Com
motion Among Crew and PRssen-
gers-A Night ON the Arabian
Shore.
Justin Mccarthy in New York Advertiser.
] think a man who has been wrecked
on the Suez Canal is entitled to boast of
an adventure on land and sea. There is
so little of the sea and so much of the
land that one is safe to come to the land
the moment he tries to get out of the
sea.
Sea and land are pretty we'll mixed up
there. But what "a place to be shipwreck-
ed in! 1t almost seems as If one might
jump across the canal from sand-heap
to sand-heap. There, however, is where
the popularity and the beauty of the
adventure come in. Anybody might be
in a wreck on the Atlantic. wreck on
the Atlantic was a very common event
of the past winter. I was once in a steam
er that was very near being wrecked in
o. bad white squall off Cape Matapan, in
the Levant. But that is just the sort of
place where a wreck might naturally be
expected, and there would be no credit
in the adventure. 1t is quite a different
thing to have ones ship driven ashore
in the Suez Canal. and to have to be
rescued in boats while the water is COM
ing in, half a gallon or SO at a time.
We We're a. pleasant company on board
that steamer. / say "We'' were a pleasant
company, meaning our own little group
of fellow travellers, for we concerned
ourselves little about the rest of the pas
sengers. Indeed, the great majority of
these passengers cared little about US,
and few of them could speak or under
stand any more of our language than we
could speak or understand theirs. We sat
on the deck and rejoiced in the beauty
of the night. ThA moon was sailing
through a cloudleSs sky. The air was
chill-it was dead winter time, and mid
night skies are chill in dead winter, even
in Egypt. Suddenly the steamer came
to stop. Now 1 know of few Sensations
more alarming than the sudden stopping
of the action of a steamer when the steam
er has no apparent reason for sopping.
Everybody who has often crossed the
Atlantic may have experienced the sen
sation caused by this sudden stopping
of what / call steamers heart action.
1t IS Of course especially impressive and
ominous If 1t happens about the dead
waste and middle Of the night. In this
instance, however, we OF our little group
did not seem to care much about IL. We
had no faith in the steady purpose of a
Suez canal steamer. and did not know
whether it might not be the harmless, hu-
morous way of such boats to stop half a
dozen times for nothing whatever in mid
stream each trip. Soon, however. we be-
came aware that there was wild commo-
ton among the crew and the passengers,
and that the boat VAS fioundering help
lessly over toward the Arabian side OF the
canal. a Levantine Greek with whom
We had exchanged a few words at Ismalia
came rushing past US. We asked him
what was the matter. He answered in
rapid French, which was quite good
enough for us, that 'un petit clou''-a
attle inall-had fal4em out somewhere.
and that we were driving on our dooml
A little NALL Our first impulse was to
burst into irreverant laughter. To be
shipwrecked because a little nail had fall
en- out somewhere! To be wrecked In
little steamer, on a little canal, and by the
falling out OF little nail! This would
surely be the very pleonasm of lttleness
But we presently reelected that out laugh
ter was Observation-Disclosures, indeed
laughter is usually. unphilosophical The
most stately vessel on the ocean might
possibly be wrecked for the lack Oh vi
little nail in some critical place II a.
want Of the little nail could not be sun
piled soon enough. There we were with