The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-11-16
HORRORS OF LONELINESS.
Crossing the Atlantic without a Soul
to Speak To.

to Speak To.
In his narrative of his solitary voyage
around the world in the sloop Spray Cap
tain Joshua Slocum describes his at
tempts to overcome the sense of loneli-
ness that bcset him on the way from
Boston to Gibraltar.
On the evening Of July the Spray,
after having steered all day over a lumpy
sea, took it into her head to go without
the helmsmans aid had been steering
southeast by south; but. the wind haul
ing forward bit, she dropped into a
smooth lane, heading southeast and max.
ing about eight knots. her very best work
crowded OH 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 lifting about night,
was afforded look at the sun just as it
was touching the sea. Then I turned
my face eastward and there. apparently
ut the very end of the howsprit, was the
smiling full moon rising out of the sea.
Neptune himself coming over the bows
could not have startled me more. Good
evening, sir" ! cried. "I'm glad to SEQ
you" Many long talk since then I
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 number of days, the wind
increasing to gale. The waves rose
high, but had good ship. Still, in the
dismal fog I felt myself drifting Into
loneliness, an insect on 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 n feeling of awe
crept over me. My memory worked with
startling power. The ominous. the insig-
niiicant, the great. the small, the wonder
full, the commonplace, all appeared be.
fore my mental vision in magical success.
sion. Pages of my history were recalled
which had been SO long forgotten that
they seemed to belong to previous ex-
istence. heard all the voices of tho
past laughing, crying, telling what had
heard them tell In many corners of the
earth.
The loneliness of my state wore off
when the gale was high and l found
much work to do. When the fine wealth
er returned. then came the sense OF soil.
tudc, which l could not shake off.
used my voice often at first giving some
order about the affairs of ship, for l
had been told that otherwise | should
lose my speech. At the meridian ati-
tude of the sun called aloud. Eight
BELLS" after the custom of ship at sea.
Again from my cabin cried to an mag
mary man at the helm, "How does she
head, there" and again. "Is she on her
course?' But, getting no reply. | was
reminded the more palpably of my con-
dltion. My voice sounded hollow on the
empty mir, and dropped the practice.
However, 1t was not long before the
thought came to me that when | was a
lad l used to sing. Why not try that
now where it would disturb no one? My
musical talent had never bred envy in
others, but out on the Atlantic, to real
ize what it meant, you should have heard
me sing. You should have seen the por.
poises leap when pitched my voice for
the waves and the sea and all that was
in it. Old turtles, with large eyes, poked
their heads up out of the sea as | sang
Johnny POKER" and "We'll Pay Darby
Doyl For His Boots" and the like. But
the porpoises were. on the whole, vastly
more nppreciative than the turtles. They
jumped deal higher. One day when l
was humming a favorite chant, think
It was "Babylon's a-Fallin," a porpoise
jumped higher than the bowsprit. Had
the Spray been going little faster she
would have scooped him in. The sen
birds sailed around rather shy.--Century.