Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1917-09-13
A TRIP AROUND THE WORLD IN
WAR TIME
BY URIAH S. JAMES.


tianiafjord'' which lay at the docks OF
the Norwegian American Line in New
York City, and was due in thirty min
utes to leave for Bergen, Norway.
There are a few formalities which all
Of Uncle Sans subjects must go
through before leaving the country,
and these are in connection with secur-
ing a passport; long list of questions
to be answered, photographs to be
taken, ETC., which in all requires about
ten days. [, of course, was in posses
sion of this valuable document and was
ready to leave any time the Captain
said the word.
At 3:25 the gong on deck sounded
and gave all persons, who did not in
tend making the trip, warning to say
goodbye to their friends and return to
shore. This was surely a sad moment
as people part here who. in great
many cases, never see each other again.
The tears were flowing freely, and after
witnessing few of these little farewell
parties here and there On deck, i was
certainly glad there was no one to say
goodbye to me.
At exactly $3.50 our tug gave one long
whistle, the gang plank went down and
we were off. In an hour and half s
time we had passed the Statue Of
Liberty, dropped our Pilot and were
making for the open sea under full
head of steam.
After walking around on deck for a
while, taking last look at New York,
/ went down to my cabin to unpack the
baggage which I would need for the
voyage. While busying myself in this
way in walked the young man who was
to share the cabin with me. We ex-
changed cards and / learned my new
friend was from Stockholm, Sweden.
After having a little chat we both
agreed that in case one or the other
should happen to come in little late
at night and fall over two or three
chairs getting into bed, or make a little
noise by dropping our shoes on the floor
it would be perfectly alright.
The next thing was to get my name
on the bath list at convenient hour in
the morning, as there are but a limited
number of bath rooms and a great
many people to use them.
There was just one thing left to at
tend to and that was to see the dining
room steward who gives you the num-
ber of the table and the place which
you occupy for the entire trip. no
ticed In particular, that he had seated
two of the most attractive ladies on
board on his right and left. He always
occupies the seat at the end of long
table, known as the Captain S table.
It is considered a mark of respect to
be shown to a seat at the Captain S
table, but anyone who has been across
the pond few times knows you will
have a better time if you have place
aU some of the smaller tables with four
or five persons. at the Captain's s table
you are expected to wait until the Cap
.ain is seated before starting your meal,
and it is not one bit nice to leave before
he has finished.
| was seated with five others at a
small table over on one side of the
dining room, two ladies and three
gentlemen, who all proved to be very
good travelling companions. We got
along very nicely.
The Captain was good fellow and
wanted to see everybody get acquainted
and enjoy themselves, so the second
night out he gave concert and dance
on the promenade deck, which was
very nicely decorated with flags of all
neutral nations. When this affair was
over everybody knew everybody else
and we were all lined up for good
time for the balance of the journey.
The weather so far had been very
good with the exception OF fog which
lasted for a day and a half, off the coast
of Newfoundland; and very few people
on board had been sea sick, or using a
more expressive phrase, very few
people had been feeding the fishes.
On deck every day there were games,
shuttle board, deck golf and tennis,
which helped to pass the time and keep
people from discussing this subject
Wouldn't it be terrible if we should
meet submarine way out here?'
However, on the seventh day out,
about 800 p. m. vessel of some kind
appeared on the horizon. In a very
few minutes crowd had gathered on
the upper deck and there were discus
sions on all sides as to just what kind
of boat it was. Some said it was a
sailboat. others a freighter, but still
Others could not see that it resembled
anything but German Submarine of
the latest type.
(To BE CoNTINUED)