The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1920-04-30
chapter F0ur

As ! said | was in al almost semi
conscious condition. laid there with
the others who 1 suppose felt the. same
way. but only Dutch followed my ex.
ample about water how it affected
him | don't know. / was a great sleep
er IN those days. and put in the time
very well. We could plainly hear the
men at work shoveling coal and cIang
OF the furnace doors outside, and /
cheered up when heard the pulse OF
the engine and the swish Of the water
for | knew the big ship was undeI
way it was the great fear Of being
discovered soon and getting haaded
over to a small boat that alone wor-
ried US now. or we would have vol'ln.
tarily come out, but as it was we lay
perfectly still nothing at all happened
until the following Sunday morning,
when a fireman came between the
boilers, bearing flaming torch, in his
hand, as was laying on the outside
of the party, which was the most ex-
posed position, he walked within a
few inches of me. / looked right up
into his face expecting him to say
something but he went about his bust
ness adjusting some valves back of
the boilers and soon passed out the
way he came, apparently unobserv.
ing us. 1t was several hours after
wards that fireman looked under
and yelled Hayi therei What the
is up,-this brought other members of
the watch on the run. who began to
holler come QUIT fellows now that you
are found, come out, so we all began
pulling ourselves together and crawl
ed out. When we got into the fire
room, the men on duty began to laugh
and joke with us. asked one of the
crew the name of the vessel. He
laughed and said, quit your joking
lad you don't mean to tell me you
didn't know the name OF this ship
but I'll tell you its the Victorian Of
the Clelland Line, bound for Biston. I
then asked if we were out of sight OF
land and / certainly felt relieved when
he told-ane that they had been for the
past eight hours. They did not seem
to mind our presence at all, but rather
welcomed us. They bid rs wait where
we were as they had sent word to the
Boatswain of their discovery who
would soon be down for us. To dis
cribe my feelings was so sore and
stiff could hardly stand, my head
ached terribly, but the Boatswain. a
salty old gent, soon put in an appear.
ance and babe us follow him on deck
to be brought before the Captain.
Now the first climb out OF the stoke
hole was a sheer climb of about ten
feet on ladders much ike those on q
box car Baltimore our. leader was
the first to start / had noticed that
he looked very pale and drawn for he
no more than grasped the first rung
Of the ladder than he toppled over
and crumpled up like wet rag. The
men jumped around to revive him,
dashed cold water on his face and he
came gradually to, after some talk
when decided that he should try again.
He made it this time with the aid of
two husky firemen on either side,
then the little Englishman went up
nimbly enough. followed by Dutch.
hung back so long that the Boatswain
told me to be lively: / obeyed but at
every rung, thought my senses would
leave me and that I'd topple over too,
but | made it alright. After the first
climb, the ladders were not perpendi.
cular. but set more on an angle not
unlike a step ladder and the going
was not so hard. When we reached
the deck on account Of the fresh air, /
was considerably revived and the
Boatswain took us to the Captains
cabin which was beautifully fitted up
and situated Immediately about the
wheelhouse The Captain was /.
bearded young man of about thirty
five years and was sitting near desk.
He did not look at all like the proverb-
al old sea dog but much like Saliva
ton Army Captain. The Boatswain
nr0cnndcd ne In and announcnd. Hero
are the four stowaways found between
the boilers of the main stokehole sir.
A worried expression came over the
Captains face as he asked the Boat
swain who searched there who answer
ed something that could not clearly
understand He then interrogated
each of US briefly as to our business
in wanting to get to the United States
so bad. but individually made no com
ment until he got up and stamped