Perth Amboy evening news., 1905-10-25
EVENING SHORT STORY.
BY A
STORM AT SEA.

6lIO DoAh III ~
began on a tramp ship, and worked
up to his place on the bridge oil q
coast liner. "We who go down to
the sea in ships. indeed, see1tAe works
of the Lord and His wonders.
lone of the wonders is 10 &AeA mar
who has been a tough customer on
dry land turn white abept-the gills
when he is aboard ship when the
ship is swatted by a heavy sea- It's
the best place in the world to peform
such a man.
.'Some years age, whea I was a
Cape rounder, just befdAe We putfout'
from New York a fine looking man
and his son, the latter about Is,
should say, came aboard while we
we're putting in the last of the cargo
at a Brooklyn pier. TIL father had
a letter to me from the chaplain OF a
seaman's mission.
HE told me while his boy was look
ing over the ship that the boy was a
natural born spert and high rollcr
and that the schools he had attended
and the church influences he had had
had been of no avail. He. said that
the chaplain of the mission, who was
an old friend. of his, had suggested
that the boy ought to go to sea.
THE father placed a purse in my
keeping, and told me to use my Judg'
ment in handing out the contents. h
fathers love for his son was that OF a
strong man. He said not to spare
any expense on the lad if he got sick
and he added with a sort of shaky voice:
".If he dies on your hands, | want
him to have the best funeral that a man
can have at sea-.
"The boy did not know why he was be-
ing shipped. He thought it was a lark
1t wouldn't "a done to let him know the
truth. His father stood on the pier I'M
til the ship had gone to her haven I'M
der the hill. as one poet says.
.sThe first week we were out the sea
was smooth enough to dance on. In
that time the kid actually taught my
crew, tough as it was, a lot of new tricks.
They Just thought he was a bit smarter
and more outrageous than anything
they had met up with, on land or at sea.
. 1.-The ninth day out We had a squall
that shook the ship some. 1t kept on,
J las l knew it would. until the ship gothic
! shudders. A sort Of sleet storm fol-
s lowed that made the masts look like
I ~icicles. and the sheets stood out in the
) night until they looked like ghosts lin
ing up for a quadrille.
ut was fun for the landsman's kid for
: awhile. SEven when some of my crew
looked frightened, that kid stood, or
rather he frolicked about. with a sort of
Casabianea bravado that made me look
at him in wonder.
FINALLY. the ship ratified in her icy
shrouds1ike some chained monster that
tries to shake off its chains. The hurri-
cane had us.
! ut was about as hard a blow as ! had
ever seen off the southern coast. | lost
sight of the land sinner. in my duties.
until | accidentally stumbled over him.
He was damned up against the chart
Is house. He looked to me as il he had
been done for.
Busy as l was, | picked him up and
J" carried him in my rms to my room. |
ID just threw him in and left him. Nobody
slept on hat ship that night. The next
day the sea had thrashed itself out, and
we knew the worst was over.
Then | went to see the sick un, and
| tiptoed, cause | expected to find him
y ready for burial. But he wasn't. He was
i on his knees. his face hid in his hands.
81 stood aside for a few minutes, out
of respect for what he was doing. | had
a boy that was brought up that way. |
stood it as long as | could. and then /
went and kneeled down by him. and put
my arm around him.
When he didn't stir | raised up his
head. The ship fever had struck him,
and he didn't know me. But | was salts
i, fed that he knew what he was doing
when he kneeled down.
: Il put him in a bunk. didn't do much
the balance of that voyage but tend
> that kid. HI wasted and gained, and
gained and wasted. AS we neared the
y end of the long voyage he got SO he could
y walk out. When we sailed into Bahia
| took him ashore.
HE insisted on staying there until
our return voyage, and | left him in good
+? hands. When we got back | found him
in good shape, but quite tame. When |
dohCu Hln L uC WOuiQ SOihS DdNh WIN
me he said he would if | would let him
Q come as he wanted to.
or Il asked him how he wanted TO ship.
He said he didn't know what we called it
on shipboard, but he would like the job
of preaching to the sailors. had no
chaplain-never had. My crew thought
a chaplain was a hoodoo. But | told him
a he could try it. And he did.
y 'All the way up the Coast, when my
crew was not on duty they)were huddled
is about that boy listening to things they
. eve heard before. so far as I knew.
In fact. | had to call him down occa-
~sior-.lly for keeping the crew from their
work.
~ When we got to New York the chap
lain of the seamen's ~missionlwas Oh the
: pier. | was right busy that day, and
IS they went.off together. fBi af