The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1920-05-07
Experience Of an ocaIa Boy
Chapter Five

/
told us to keep together all the while.
not to take any liberties about the
snip, TO just do as he said and that all
would go well for the rest of the voy-
age. He ordered us to come with him
that he would show, US where to sleep
and carried us forward to the sail
room where the canvas carried in case
Of emergency was stored. Well / no
more than stretched out on some old
sails which was very comfortable in
comparison to being under the boiler,
than was sound asleep and did not
awake nutil the arrival of his majesty
the Boatswain early next morning.
We had breakfast and were taken
below 10 the coal bunkers and put
10 shoveling coal into the chute where
it fell down to the fire room. Things
began to go bit bad soon after that,
the vessel encountered some heavy
weather. When the coal began to get
low in the bunkers, we had to wheel
it to the chute in a big wheelbarrow,
which was no fun to handle when the
ship was pitching around like chip,
we called the crippled little English
man Foxy. he was unable to handle
the buggy, as we called the wheelbar-
row, at all. nor was he able to shovel
much. but he was an energetic little
fellow and bent to his task Of pitching
up big Jumps of coal and heaving them
in the buggy. And then another thing
/ did not like was we were not permit
ted. to go back to the sail room to
sleep. but were furnished with some
old canvas and had to sleep in the
bunkers. The weather turned off ter
ribly cold and that did not help mat-
tiers any.
One Gay we Ell stopped work listen
ing to one of Baltomire's yarns of his
travels apnsequentlylthe coal was not
going down to the boiler room, when
suddenly one of the firemen appeared
in the bunker. but instead of talking
rough as we expected he would. he
was polite about it and only urged us
to keep steady and Incidentally divid-
ed his tobacco with us. After that we
got regular allowance of tobacco to
keep steady, which we were glad TO
do for the reward There weres two
small port holes in the bunker and
that was the only place we could
make any observations The weather
had moderated .perceptably but I
noticed that our vessel was making A
zigzag course trying to avoid the
great ice fields we had encountered
and kept it up all day. 1t was well
in the night when heard that the
ship could no longer keep out of it,
and as sound as slept, was frequent
~ awakened by the grinding and
churning of ice on the sides.
The next day we were well out Of
the ice as we'll. as the course / just
could make out some land to the west
ward which the Boatswain told me
was part of the coast of Labrador
and what do you think of Floridian
being up there the first winter he had
spent out of his state? But we were
now out of the ice and was not worry
my. The next day we passed close
to large iceburg, it had three peaks
and was wonder to all.
Shortly, after this we passed two
masted. schooner with her main top
cell set. | recognized this as a
Giouchester fisherman bound for the
Grand Banks and knew by that the
voyage would soon be over, but on the
whole it had not been so bad as we
were better treated and better fed
than we were on the ship that brought
us over. A few days after that. the
Boatswain came down at noon and
said well men, you have naught more
ado now You're been good boys.
I'm going to let you all knock off for
the rest Of the day to let you wash
your clothes and clean up and make
good appearance as possible for the
American emigration laws are very
strict and this vessel will be in port
early tomorrow We spent the day
in cleaning up but as | had only the
clothes had on. and they almost in
schreads, can't say much in favor of
our appearance.
That night shortly after supper, he
took US hack to the sail room, right
where wanted to be, only this time
locked us up. was soon in the land
Of nod. He did not let us out next
morning either, for after bringing rs
some breakfast locked US up again.
Later on we took aboard the pilot and
lWere soon enjoying the scenerx of the
II nrc acn s,la,. rx,fte. xnn ~ a. the vessel