Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-09-16

other nights, for that matter His
shoulders bore the burden of response
bility, and they seemed to droop lit
tie under it. One of the apprentices
of the port watch, going down into the
saloon at midnight to call the second
mate, had heard him moving about in
his cabin. So had one of the lads of
! the starboard watch when he went to
summon the mate at am.
All night Capt. Evans had paced the
| floor of his cabin, weighing the pros
poets. Should he hang it out where he
was, waiting during a further success
| sion of weeks, or maybe months, for a
| favorable slant of wind? Or should he
| cut his losses by turning the ships
head to the eastward and making a
fair wind of it, even though this meant
encircling the globe? That was his
problem. A momentous one, surely, for
it involved lacking on thousands of
miles and weeks-nay, nonths-on the
passage.
Mollendo lay to the northward-al-
most due north, to be precise-and
about 2,500 miles away. Once clear of
the Horn, scooting up the coast with the
wind on her beam, and later running
with 1t on her quarter in the steady
southeast trades, the ship would
shorten this distance in great style. A
matter Of three weeks at the outside,
and she would be at her destination.
BY abandoning the attempt to round
the Horn and going the other way, east
about, she would have to run her east
ing down" right across the South At
lantic Ocean to the Cape of Good Hope,
and then athwart the Southern Indian
Ocean to the Leeuwin. A weeks bat
tering in the Great Australian Blight
would be followed by another thousand
miles of stormy ocean from Bass Straits
to New Zealand, and then there would
be that deadly 7,000-mile stretch across
the Pacific from New Zealand to her
destination. A matter Of approximately
1900 miles in all, or 14,500 miles
greater distance than by the usual west
"' What t'S would the ships owners have
to say? That was another matter for
the Denbigh's captain to consider. The
shipping experts in London and Liver
pool would criticize his action, no doubt.
A little more perseverance and patience
was all that was needed, they would
say.
Seated in their comfortable Office
chairs, within easy distance OF their
even more comfortable clubs, and far
from the smell of the briny. they would
explain with zigzag pencil lines on their
scribbling- blocks how 1t might have
been done. But then London and Liver
pool lie far from the pitch of the Horn,
and it Is difficult for those reared in
city atmosphere to appreciate the plight
of the shipmaster, battling with very
different conditions.
All this Capt. Evans had been turn
ing over in his mind as he STROBE about
his cabin that night, balancing himself
to the vessels violent lurches and listen
ing to the ominous roar of wind over
head. Now, standing on deck that
bleak and cherries morning, his mind
was made up. Whatever uncertainty
might have tormented him during the
long hours of his lonely night-vigil,
there was no trace of it when, in a
steady, quiet voice, he told the mate to
muster the hands aft.
In response to the latter's full
throated: Lay aft the watch!" the
focsle door opened suddenly, and the
watch below, fully dressed in oilskins,
lurched out on to the glistening deck
and began to wend their hazardous jour-
ney toward the poop. A sea broke
aboard and scattered them, some jump
ing for the comparative safety Of the
lower rigging: others on top Of the deck
houses. When the water cleared they
crawled down from their perches and
in body made rush for the poop
ladder.
A moment later all hands stood
clustered together opposite the chart