Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-05-19
THE PRIVACY o~fAE seA'
LANDSMEN HAVE AN INADEQUATE
IDEA OF ITS VAsTNEss.
A Voyage of Three Months and It's
Impressions Upon the Traveller
The By-GOne Whaler.


+. T. Bullen In the London Spectator.
Whether expressed or implied. there Is
certainly a deep-rooted idea in the minds of
shore jewellers that the vast fenceless
fields of ocean are In these latter days
well. not to say tEickly, populated by ships
that, sail steam whittier you will. you
cannot get away from the white CLINT of
a sailing ship or the black smear along
the clean sky of a steamships smoke.
There Is every excuse for such an attitude
of mind on the part of landward folk. Hav-
ing standard Of comparison against
which to range the vast lonely breadths
of water which make up the universal
highway. and being nightly impressed by
the statistics of shipping owned by mari
time nations. they can hardly be blamed
for surprising that the privacy of the sea
is thing of the past. One voyage in sail
ing ship to the Australasian colonies or to
india. If the opportunities it afforded were
rightly used, would do far more to con-
vince them of the utterly wrong notion pos
SesSing them than any quantity of writing
upon the subject would do. But unhappiy.
few people today have the leisure or the in
c!ination to spend voluntarily three mont rs
upon a sea passage that can be performed
in little more than one. Even those who
by reason of poverty or for their health 5
sake do take such passages, almost inVari-
ably show signs of utter WEAKNESS and
boredom. As day after day passes, and
the beautiful? fabric in which they live
glides gently and leisurely forward, their
amounts TO a disease, This condition of
mind is not favorable. to say the least, to a
calm study of the characteristic features
of ocean itself Few indeed are the mas
scngers and fewer still are the sailors who
will for the delight of the thing spend hour
after hour perched upon some commanding
point in Xid.-ayed sight STRENGTHENING eaze
out upon the face of the sea.
Upon those who do there grows steadily
a sense of the most complete privacy n
solemn aloofncss belonging to the seas The
irfrauucnt vessel gentle though her nro-
gress may be through The calm waters of
the tropics still strikes them as an intruder
rpon this realm of silence and loneliness.
The voices of the crew CRATE harshly upon
the ear as with a sense of dissertation stlcn
as one feels upon hearing loud conversation
In the sacred peace of some huge cathedral
And when q vessel hcayes In sight n tinv
mark against the skyline she but puncttl-
a+es the loneliness a. il were-a ffords n
noint from, which The Owe can faintIv cal
culate the inmensiiy of her surroundings
This sense of solitude induced nv contem
nI,tion Of tho ocean IL eycr.Jinpiy r,orka1
even ON The hest froouente,, routes and The
most crowded %, waters To ente,. into II
fuIiv however # is necessary to sail either
j., - c.,lIa shi,, a n-I,aIar ~ AZ, nId sln,.
e.oire, n,ercbnn+ e.,ilnr that ,ts driftire. o,,.
81 th4. Track of vessels Eyen In ,ha En-
,,ii.b Cbannn1 ore cnnnnt r1,t foo, how Much
r,n,, ,hcra i, l., c,,ffc Of o,,r 1,rorIedr.
~ Tho r,r,r,.rr ~ sbins ~ ,,.s nn1 -.
80 ,,-;.bn,,t cfa-inc oInny u.b,. WAY
III Ell, - ..,,,5 ~ -. -, !
l,i,.bt,-,,. ;, ,bo ,,,,,a,,. I'D +bnra is on
III. r,ti $50 ir6Iad -. g..
-. ho,.,, Ii,'.b ~ ~,
- - - -, 80 -,
-, - l., - - ,,.i,',.,.a. - :.