Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-12-26

you went up in that horrid thing?'
Yes, l foolishly accepted, believing that we
caught by an easterly wind when got up seven
hundred feet and carried miles and miles from the
city Finally we got out of sight of the earth and
drifted that way all night"
oh how terrible!'' gasped the Bostonian.
We landed next morning" continued the skipper
deJsctedly somewhere in Connecticut. and and l. got
There, | knew something frightful must have
happened" said the woman trustingly. or you
would have come to my lawn party!'
The Domestic Side
A THOUGH they rovers, spending week
"A at home every month"; steamship Captains
men of strong domestic inclination Offhand they
will tell you that sailor should never marry, and
in the same breath add that there nothing so cheer
full in life as the comfort of the week at home with
their families.
Captain Russ of the Batavia says that the con-
tnua parting from those he loves is not easy for the
skipper and is something to which he has never be-
accustomed. 1T is like soldier going to war,
says Russ for the sailor does not know whether he
is coming back or whether his family will be well and
when sailed from Hamburg my wife was at the ship
to say goodby She held in her only child
year,old boy. She was in fine health and spirits
then; but never saw her again. When l returned
to Hamburg she was buried
Captain Krech's Fate
A SADDER parting perhaps, from the same port
when Captain Krech, stricken with fatal
Illness babe his family goodby and despite their
pleading took the Graf Waldersee out her run to
New York. 1t about three years ago, when
patch of bad weather hung over the English Chan
mel. Krech advised to stay at home; but he
scoffed at the suggestion. Its only headache he
said and will soon pass away. He stayed on the
bridge throughout the night, brought the Wadersee
safely into southampton, and then from sheer ex-
haustion forced to go to bed The ships doctor
told him plainly that he had pneumonia; but the
portly old mariner protested that he would be the
bridge again within twenty-four hours. How he
kept his word is dramatic story.
On the second night out of the English port the
chief officer who through Krechs illness forced
into command, startled to see the stricken mas
ter, clad only in pajamas pacing up and down the
bridge. The skipper in his deirium gave incoherent
orders, insisting that he in command and that
his passengers needed him for their safety. 1t took
the combined strength of six stalwart sailors to take
the back to his bed which he died the next
morning.
The Graf Waldersee passed by twenty east
bound steamers that memorable westward pas
sage and hours after death had relieved him of COM
mand jocular wireless greetings from Captains
passing liners addressed to Ny dear Krech,
silently laid on the masters desk. Several skip
pers on the eastbound track, who knew Krech in
timately, sent messages congratulating him his
ffty-ffth birthday just celebrated in Hamburg and
wishing him fifty years of health and happiness
To all these messages went out the brief wireless
reply, Captain Krech is dead. Relay to
steamship Amerika westbound."
Four days before the Graf Wa1dersee
rived in New York the Amerika, which had r