Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1899-11-22
ALONE ON THE OCEAN.
HORRORS OF THE WIDE. BLANK
LONELINESS.
Crossing the Atlantic Without Soul
to Speak To-overcome By a Feeling
of Awe-Relief Only to Be Found In
Hard Work.

In his narrative of his solitary voy-
age around the world In the sloop
Spray, Capt. Joshua Siocum describes
his attempts to overcome the sense ol
loneliness that beset him on the way
from Boston to Gibraltar.
On the evening of July the Spray
after having steered all day over
lumpy sea. took it into her head TO go
without the helmsman's aid. | had been
steering southeast by south, but the
wind hauling forward bit she dropped
into a smooth lane, heading southeast,
and making about eight knots, her very
best work. | crowded on sail TO cross
the track of the liners without loss OF
time. and to reach as soon as possible
the friendly gulf stream. The fog mt
ing before night, | was afforded a look
at the sun just as it was touching the
sea. | watched it go down and out or
sight. Then | turned my face east
ward, and there, apparently at the very
end of the bowsprit, was the smiling
full moon rising out Of the sea. Nep-
tune himself coming over the bows
could not have startled me more. Good
evening, SIR" | cried; Pm glad to see
you" Many a long talk since then l
have had with the man In the moon;
he had my confidence on the voyage.
About midnight the fog shut down
again denser than ever before. One
could almost "stand on it." 1t contin-
ued so for a number Of days, the wind
increasing to gale. The waves rose
high. but | had good ship. Still. in
the dismal fog l felt myself drifting
into loneliness, an insect on a straw in
the midst OF the elements. l dashed the
helm, and my vessel held her course,
and while she sailed slept.
During these days feeling of awe
crept over me. My memory worked
with startling power. The ominous, the
insignificant, the great, the small, the
wonderful, the commonplace-all APP
peared before my mental vision In mag
ical succession. Pages Of my history
were recalled which had been 30 long
forgotten that they seemed to belong
to previous existence. heard all the
voices O: the past laughing, crying, tell
ing whsA had heard them tell In many
corners of the earth.
The loneliness Of my state wore off
wheG the gale was high and l found
mucf work to do. When the fine wealth
er returned. then came the sense of sol
itud., which | could not shake off. l
usee my voice often at first giving
some order about the affairs of ship,
fo2 | had been told that otherwise |
should lose my speech. At the merid
ten altitude Of the sun l called aloud,
Eight BELLS" after the custom ON a
ship at sea. Again from my cabin l
cried to an imaginary man at the helm,
How does she head, thereY and
again, rs she on her course?" But get
palpably of my condition. My voice
sounded hollow on the empty air, and
dropped the practice.
However, 1t was not long before the
thought came to me that when | was
lad l used to sing; why not try that
now. W ueTe IL WUuiu ulStuTD no one
My musical talent had never bred envy
in others. but out on the Atlantic, to
realize what 1t meant, you should have
heard me sing. You should have seen
the porpoises leap when l pitched my
voice for the waves and the sea and
all that was in 1t. Old turtles, with
large eyes, poked their heads up out Of
the sea as l sang Johnny Boxer" and
We'll Pay Darby Doyl for His Boots"
and the like. But the porpoises were,
on the whole, vastly more appreciative
than the turtles; they jumped a deal
higher. One day when l was humming
favorite chant, think 1t was Baby
Ions a-Fallin'," porpOise jumped
higher than the bowsprit Had the
Spray been going little faster she
would have scooped him in. The sea
birds sailed around rather shy.-Cen-