St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1899-11-22

tremendous when the screw strikes
the water again.
On the afternoon of the fourth day
our suspicious of rougher weather
were aroused by seeing the sailors
putting on heavy board shutters to
most of the windows OF the smoking
room and the ladies salon, which are
situated on the promenade deck at
least 40 feet from the level OF the sea.
Those who were in the smoking
room also saw the barometer drop
in less time than it takes you to read
about it and for the next five hours
we were in cyclone and nearly 1000
miles from land. Fortunately for us
we never realized our danger until it
was all over and we had experienced
such rough weather for four days
that we could not appreciate the in
tensity Of this storm. When the cap
tain, who is the admiral of the fleet
and will command the Deutschland
as soon as it is completed, told us it
was next to the hardest storm he
had ever been in, we decided that it
must have been a great storm. The
wind blew dead against us at the
rate of 70 miles an hour and as
storms are rated by the velocity of
the wind this one was rated a num-
Der II storm. The highest is IA and
it is doubtful if any boat could long
weather such storm as that. What
deceived us was the comparative
smallness of the waves, but the fact
of the case was that the wind was so
strong that the tops of the waves
were blown into spray and the ocean
appeared quite fiat as we "scudded"
over the storm-tossed sea.
You would naturally think that a
twin screw steamer of $4,000 tons
burden with it's II boilers to make
steam and its great engines could
ride through such a storm like gull.
Sometimes they can, but in cyclone
the captain has to decide, and some
times pretty quickly, which will last
the longest-the power of the storm
or the machinery of the ship. After
strain on our ships machinery of
four days Capt. Albers did not dare
drive his ship into the teeth of the
storm and he did what is always a
dangerous thing to do, turned the
great boat quarter round and tried
to get out of the track of the storm.
OF course the passengers who were
huddled together in the ladies salon
or the smoking room did not know
what was happening, but when the
boat struck the trough OF the sea it
was literally a devils auction" in
the ship. l was in the ladies' salon
ard fortunately kept my seat, but
two ladies were thrown from their
chairs clear across the room and one
was badly bruised. Then | went
across the passage way into the
large smoking room and saw in the
middle of the floor three mer trying
to extricate themselves from the re
= mains of two easy chairs and q
table. When the boat took that big
dip the strain on the chairs was sc
l great that they were snapped from
their fastenings and the above acct
dent occurred. At any other time i
} would have been laughing matter
I but l recall distinctly that no ON
=. thought of laughing either then O.
e for several hours later. We realized
e that we were in great storm ant
= that if any part of the machiner,
y gave out we might never see lanC
/ again. And the machinery di'
n break, but we never knew it and
:. am glad we didn't. Just in the mid
e die of the storm the IS inch pipe tina
supplied the boilers with stear
n sprang leak. Had this not bee
It discovered in time the pipe woul
d have burst and every engineer an
e possibly the stokers would have bee
,e scalded to death with hot steam
IF Just this happened in the Germa
lie navy a few years ago with terrib
d loss of life. A new connection wa
re made at once and the great ship keI
lie on it's way headed towards the mort
m pole until O'Clock when the storl
Of subsidized. forgot to mention ths
tx when the ship was being turned ST
at rolled so far that the waves actual
IN came over the top rail of the prom
n made deck, a sight which one new
ne wants to see again as a matter
be choice. After the storm subsidized Il
of sea came up and the next day v