The Oskaloosa herald., 1910-01-13
new NEWS OF YESTERDAY
Presentiment that Saved the
Noted Steamship Umbria.
Capt. outton Had a "Huneh" Some
thing Was Wrong and Found the
Compass Was Deraneed by a
Thread. T
BY E. J. EDWARDS.

At the time, in the late eighties,
that the steamship Umbria was the
queen of the Atlantic ocean, she was
commanded by Capt. Thomas Dutton,
an old friend of mine, who is now liv.
ing near Liverpool, having retired
upon a comfortable pension. A day
or two after he had once more at.
tracted international attention to his
ship by causing her to break her own
record, sought out the captain to
extend my congratulations and In the
course OF the conversation that fol.
lowed he told me of the presentiment
that had saved the Umbria from dis.
aster some months previously. He
enjoined me not to make use of the
story at that time and / have kept II
to myself until now.
I'VE sailed from Liverpool at the
hour fixed" said the captain, carry.
ing practically the capacity of the
ship for first and third class passen.
gers; the Umbria had never had a
larger steerage passenger list The
weather was fine when we sailed, al.
though the barometer indicated that
1t might thicken up before we were
long under way.
1T did, in fact, begin to thicken,
and there came on fog. And then,
suddenly, and for no apparent reason,
the impression came over me that
there was something wrong about the
ship. Try as I would, could not rid
myself of the idea, not even when |
told myself that the fog-hated OF
every steamship captain-had got on
my nerves and was making my brain
act contrarily.
AT last, / was so completely domi-
mated by the idea that l sent for the
engineer and asked him II his engines
were working all right His reply
was that they were behaving splendid
ly. And everywhere / turned after
that, while inspecting the ship from
stem to stern, 1 found everything as
it should be.
still, / could not quiet that idea
gnawing away In the back of my
brain. Instead, it became more and
more insistent, and finally, and to be
on the safe side-because of the fog,
told myself ordered the vessel to
be slowed down. And no sooner this
had been done than there flashed into
my mind the thought that the some
thing wrong on the ship was to be
found in the chief compass.
This instrument, of course, had
been properly tested and boxed be-
fore we left Liverpool, and the
chances were all against anything
being wrong with it. But giving rein
to my feeling, / infinitely examined It,
and while l learned that it did not
agree exactly with the other COM
passes. yet I could find nothing to
prove to me that there was anything
wrong with it. Neither could the
other officers whom l had examine
the compass.
But that idea in the back of my
brain wouldn't let me alone, and
again and again I examined the com.
pass. In my desperation, had one
of the officers bring me a powerful
magnifying glass. Carefully, used it
on every part of the compass-I could
find nothing out of the way.
81 was getting ready to turn away.
satisfied at last thu there was moth
ing wrong on the ship after all, when.
almost involuntarily, I took another
look at the compass through the glass.
And what, then. do you think I saw?
A little fiber Of silk thread Of gossa.
mer-like thickness. and not quite as
long as the middle joint Of my little
finger-the something that was wrong
on the ship-a wee bit of silk (Which
is a good conductor of electricity
playing havoc with our chief compass.
"At once the thread was removed.
Instantly the compass behaved prop
erly-and you can imagine how thank.
full felt when later on made the
additional discovery that II we had
continued to steer for an hour or two
longer by the erring compass, the
Umbria would doubtless have been
impaled on the rocks Of the coast OF
Wales.
ITO this day can't explain how II
happened that I was seized with the
strong impression that something was
wrong on the ship. and was com.
PEELED to follow that intuitive feeling
until discovered the little silk
thread. invisible to the naked eye and
barely to be seen with the glass. Nor
can I explain how the thread got into
the compass, though my surmise has
always been that II must have strayed
In in some strange manner after we
left Liperpool."
Copyright. 1909 by E. ]. Edwards)