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Updated: June 29, 2025
But supper had not been served, and one of the watches might be piped down at any moment. This would bring one of the mates aft to the cabin. Driven by the thought, I rapped softly on her door, and she came forth instantly, fully dressed. "You are ready?" "Yes." "You 'll need a waterproof of some kind it's raining outside. Wait a moment; there will be a coat in some of these staterooms."
Jim and Dud had retired to their staterooms, with unpleasant memories of Minnie Foster's chocolates, and the firm conviction that they never wanted to see a candy box again. Brother Bart was ministering to a very white-faced "laddie," and thanking Heaven he was in the state of grace and prepared for the worst. "The Lord's will be done, but I don't think any of us will live to see the morning.
Perhaps it is unfair to these young ladies to repeat what they said about Stephen in the privacy of their staterooms, gentle Anne remonstrating that they should not gossip, and listening eagerly the while, and laughing at Miss Puss, whose mimicry of Stephen's severe ways brought tears to her eyes. Mr. Clarence Colfax was likewise on the boat, and passing Stephen on the guards, bowed distantly.
But she was a sturdy craft and came up from under it, rode the succeeding three seas and was comparatively free of water when she shipped the next one. The crest of it came in along the little promenade deck, carrying away the companion that led to the bridge, staving in the doors and windows of all the staterooms on the port side and carrying away the rails and stanchions.
Before dawn, we fled to our staterooms, but by sunrise we were glad to dress and escape from their suffocating heat and go on deck again. Black coffee and hard-tack were sent up, and this sustained us until the nine-o'clock breakfast, which was elaborate, but not good.
As ships go now she was a small craft indeed. Her gross tonnage was 1,154 and her horse power 750. She carried only first-class passengers and these only to the limit of one hundred. There was not much in the way of accommodation as the quarters were cramped, the staterooms small and the sanitation and ventilation defective.
The galley, with the cook in it, was torn from its lashings and slung overboard as if it had been a hencoop. The companion doors were stove in as if by a battering ram, and the cabin was flooded in an instant with two feet of water, slopping and lapping among the baggage, and stealing under the doors of the staterooms.
To make sure, Christobal closed a water-tight bulkhead door which cut off the principal staterooms from the saloon. Then he and his two helpers carried out a painful but necessary task. It was his duty to certify whether or not life was extinct. There were very few exceptions. The three men lifted the bodies and threw them overboard.
Afterwards he smoked at the cabin-door, looking at his children with an air of civic virtue, till they got caught one after another and put to bed in various staterooms. Lastly, we would drink some beer in the cabin, which was furnished with a wooden table on cross legs, and with black straight-backed chairs more like a farm kitchen than a ship's cuddy.
I turned in at the bottom of an empty berth in one of the staterooms and waited for the after guard to turn to. The mate came aboard about three in the morning, and as there was much to do, he stuck his head into a bucket of water and tried to get clear of the effects of the bad liquor he had taken. The "doctor" followed a little later, and fell asleep on the cabin floor.
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