Evening star., 1941-07-19
(Strth OF q SerieS.)
By ROBERT J. CASEY,


wet acre of the North Atlantic over
her quarter and hung there shiver-
ing, with the bottom apparently no
great way off The furniture on
the deck above. a bookcase, few
chairs, a couple of tables and a
heavy divan. piled up with splln-
tering crash. And in the dining
room. as the floor up-ended, all the
dishes and most of the passengers
shot toward the starboard wall. A
port cracked and gallons OF ICY
water swept over homebound
bishop who had no adequate words
for the occasion.
We were somewhere off Iceland
that night. headed from Glasgow
for the hot lands of West Africa.
There were U-boatS about ana the
skipper of this blockade runner was
avoiding death from torpedo by
hunting it in the gale. He said
efterward he'd arrived at the choice
BY Tipping a coin.
The "fddles." the little fences
supposed to keep the crockery from
sliding onto the floor, weren't high
enough to lessen the havoc at the
chief engineers table.
Chief Rescues His Chop.
The chief. who had thoughtfully
hooked his chair to the floor, braced
himself against the shock with a
talent that comes of long experience
and leaned forward to meet the
avalanche. A dozen or more plates
broke through his guard and clat-
tered into his lap. Unmoved, he
started carefully to sort out the
debris in search Of his own pork
chop. Numerous green-faced pas
sengers. clinging desperately to the
edge of the shaking table, looked at
him in Mortified admiration.
We became aware presently that
the engines had quit. They were
DieselS. which couldn't stand rae
ing without load. so they were
hooked up to a governor that
switched them off whenever the
propeller lifted out of the water.
Apparently it was out noW-Well
out. We were down by the head
and the roll-back from the present
list seemed likely never to start.
The bishop whose chair was also
chained down, was still in his place
got the water in his eyes. His
dinner was thrown over a PROSTATE
waiter who so far hadn't made any
better progress than the ship at
restoring a center of gravity. We
laughed at this, some of us did. He
looked so ludicrous there trying to
get up.
Chilled BY Blast OF Air.
A blast of air straight off the
Labrador ice pack came roaring
over us and the room was cold as
death. The ship was a long time
righting herself. Maybe she wasn't
going TO right herself, ever. 1t was
all so funny.
You became aware presently that
the bishop was speaking.
The engines" he coughed. The
engines are stopped!'
He had to repeat this twice before
he got the message to the ear of
the chief engineer, who was still
at his possibly useless salvage op-
erations half way across the room.
What you say?" inquired the
chief.
The engines are stopped" re-
peated the bishop with considerable
alarm.
Somebody will start them again"
said the chief confidently. And he
continued his search for his badly
pied dinner.
Floor Straightens Out.
After while the water quit pour
Ing in through the portfolio and
you realized that the floor was
Strengthening out. Pretty soon it
was flat enough to walk on--f1at
enough so you could get to the
stairs.
You recalled rather airily as you
snaked your way along to the hook
where your life preserver hung, that
battle was in progress somewhere
on the hot sands of North Africa.
You recalled also that you were 60
ing to 1t by way of Iceland. New
foundland, Nigeria and Carlo.
Well, it was an odd way to get to
Cairo and it had been getting Odder
hourly since We slid out into the
fogs at the mouth of the Clyde
Back in London, We hadn't given
much thought to Britain's job of
keeping ships on the way in and
other ships on the way out. Food
Is the sort of thing you take for
granted until you don't get it, and
It's hard when you're contemplating
your own need for tea biscuit to
multiply 1t into a nations need for
few million tons of wheat
The war on the civilian front. 5"
you felt, was stirring fiction for
the pictorial magazine customers
always excepting, of course, the
civilian front on London under the
blitz And the heroics of our mer-
camille marine were just a lot of
sailors doing the kind of job they d
always done. There didn't seem to
be anything particularly daring
about voyage down from Glasgow
TO FreetoWn or Bathurst or Takoradi
or Lagos-not at the time, there
didn't. We began to learn later.
Too Fast for Escort.
We shot across the north end of
the Irish Sea and headed straight
for Canada We weren't going to
stay with any convoy. the captain
said. We were too fast for mer-
chant cruiser escort. We could do
IL knots. CAnother bit of theory0
We we're fast enough to run away
from any submarine. providing we
saw it first.
Yes, there were lots of submarines
in the Atlantic, a lot more than
you'd had any occasion to hear
about in the Savoy lobby in London.
And there were far too many of
them right in this area-far too
many of them.
That was why We were Streaking
toward the northwest. 1t would be
hard for them to follow us up there
hard for them to live in the cold
y -+r,