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

thousand-dollar man ashore. He has his man
servant and luxurious living quarters aboard
ship. His food is identical with that of the
passenger occupying the regal suite. and his
pay is clear profit; but. after all, they will tell
you it is a question whether the effort is worth
the goal. Several Captains with faculty for
cultivating wealthy travellers have been enabled
to invest OPPORTUNITY in stocks through their
advice and have retired with snug fortunes.
The world and ship owners look with favor
only on Captains who do not lose their ships
Able but unfortunate men, like the heroic
Sealby of the lost Republic; Dunning of the
Slavonia,. who to please his passengers with a
peep at the Azores wrecked his steamer on the
rocks of Flores Island; Brunswig of the Prin-
zessin Victoria Louise, who sent bullet crash
ing into his brain when he felt the reef off
Jamaica crunching under his keel, these are
soon forgotten when fortune frowns upon them.
They seldom if ever get another liner and at
the zenith of their careers are suddenly thrown
out into the world, untitled for other work.
Brunswig knew this when he killed himself.
Sealby stayed on the Republics bridge until
she sank under him and he could not swim. 1t
was by mere accident that he was rescued. He
was brave to the last; but the company and
the British Board of Trade that controls the
mariners license have not given him another
steamer. Now, at fifty, he is studying law at
the University of Michigan.
Captain Dunning is reported to have isolated
himself on the Azores, there to find some occu-
patton near what is left of his wrecked Slavonia
Some Captains, if they know you we'll, will
admit that they have been forced sometimes to
take chances and have come out all right.
Those who have come out wrong are chronicled
in the grim list of wrecks and disasters.
This Captain Took Chance
IF one could get below the surface of maritime
history. there might be found other instances
like this one related by an old Scottish ships
doctor now retired from service
1t was off the Banks of Newfoundland one
night some twenty years ago when the steamer
on which the Scot was surgeon ran into thick
fog. She was an iron craft of about nine thou
sand TONS and was commanded by a deter
mined old Scot The surgeon whom we shall
call Campbell was sitting in his room reading,
when suddenly the Captains boy appeared at
the door and informed him that the Old Man
wanted him at once on the bridge DR.. Camp
bell, then sixty-five. hurried forward and was
greeted in half whisper by the skipper.
is thot you, Campbell?"
wi we noo?"
Matching mon, naething" whispered the
skipper. But bide awee on the bridge till
gang below and haze a draw on ma pipe. We
look SO much like me, Campbell, they'll ne'er
know I'm below. Put yer hand on this lever an
keep yer eye peeled an should We see anything
thot looks like ship or the lights O. shore, pull
her back as far as she'll go and throw yer wheel
hard aport."
The old surgeon knew medicine; but he was
entirely at sea on the bridge. As he peered into
the thick night he said there seemed to glare
before him the lights of the navies of the world
and the entire Newfoundland coast. The
master was gone only four minutes; but it
seemed lifetime to Campbell. Presently he
came back, putting contentedly on clay pipe
That commander took chance, and luck
was with him.