Daily Kennebec journal., 1913-11-27

ment at Bombay. a ready improvisor
of amusements aboard, 1t vas not IonS
before his unobtrustiNe services were
appreciated by the royal group, and the
duke of Fife made a point ofsshoWing
the young man the civility CT fellow
passengers without any apparent
thought Of the difference in their4so-
cial status; but in the course of tle
general conversation over tea on deck
Mr. Bell showed upon his finger eu-i
rious ring of eastern make, and this 50
far interested the elder of the younS
priucesseS that she allowed herself to
receive the trinllet as gift 1t was
said to have the value of mascot and.
TO have lone its possessor service IN
one extremity or another. But TO pre-
serve The prestige Of the royal house
against accepting presents Mr Bel
was given in return small silver pen
ell case and the incident passed almost
out ef mind.
Delays across tic Kay of Biscay and
Il succession of little squalls had half
prepared the passengers fer trouble,
and the ship passed into bank OF fog
at the gate of the Mediterranean. This
made every one apprehensifc of trou-
bic at Il Iroint whore maritime traffic Is
critically close and troublesome espee-
iallY for 4 liner of the Peninsula ana
Oriental .ype, and not a young boat by
any means. 1t WAS en- hour after MD
night on She 18th when the engines
slowed down and n restless company
of passengers asked with some relief
whether Gibraltar had been reached
before 4ha time 1t was query they
would hardly haze put themselves Il
they had thought things out, consider
ing how late they had sighted every
thing as long as sight served, 1t Was
impossible for the westward current to
have made this leeway good. but the
fog which added delay unto delay had
also served TO obscure al calculation.
and hope tells a flatterins tate Of Noy-
ayers in such discomfort!
After lying awake awhile in this
uneasy kind of speculation most OF
the men rose and asked why the ship
had first stopped altogether and then
reversed her engines. Then they
asked themselves and each other why
insetad of floating. the Delhi had tax
en- settled position. There was no
residence to the wave action, she stuck
like log and answered duly to the
buffets of wave upon wave. Wonder
became dismay, when, after 20 min
utes or so, the ship went over on hef
side with "a kind of shiVer ana even
the least nervous of the inmates in the
cabins afterward confessed that they
had almost looked for downward
rush of water. They proceeded to the
promenade deck and there learned
from a junior steward that the ship
was ashore
Presently the ships staff were
handing out life belts to the passen-
gers as they collected in the saloons,
the second class meeting with the
first, and all engaging in a nervous
conversation which was half whisper
and nearly all of it query. 1t was
the compass which showed that GER
tain light deserted upon a dim coast
line was point on the Moroccan
coast and not the Spanish, and this
made it evident that the Delhi had
run over a dozen miles out of her
course with roaring gale behind hef
all the time. Her bows were deep IN
a sand bank, and the current and the
wind combined had "sleWed' her
round until she pointed to the south
west. with a list seaWards and At
lantic breakers smashing under her
starboard side. Hours passed in this
suspense. The only breaks remem-
bered until the stewards served up
coffee and biscuits in the tin were
when some tactless persons suggested
the dread of the ship turning turtle
and another with better disposition
went to the piano and strummed away
until his performance died away for
want of encouragement, Meanwhile
the wind tore and howled among the
rigging and spars, and almost drowned
the hiss of the rockets as they were
fired for assistance.
One OF these passengers, himself an
invalid and my informant on 1t all,
went To watch a Marconi man hard at
work trying to establish touch in
Gibraltar. and nowhere did the battle
with the noises of the storm seem
quite so distressing as in that little
cabin on the deck. The operator, 4
mere youngster in the service, had the
receivers glued into his ears listening
for the telltale spark of reply, but
found Gibraltar station as deaf as its
rock. Our admiralty sta
tions are not open for commercial
messages" and the electric wave had
to shower itself around in all direc-
tons until more receptive station at
Cadiz caught the fateful message that
the king of England's sister WAS in