Voyage of the Lady Jocelyn.

Feilding Star, Volume IV, Issue 27, 7 August 1883, Page 3

Voyage of the Lady Jocelyn.

OX A JfASSEUGEB FKOJT IVIAKIJTO I write this while we are becalmed in the English Channel and we are only a , 'few miles above Dartmouth. Pour ot our fellow- passengers went ashore yestcidav in a channel pilot's boat. He^d r winds and calms have been our u?n:i! fare since losing ther.N.E. trades. We • bad very strong southerly winds to the Horn, and a few days befoie we reached "there 1 we had an accident w! ich might have been serious^ s I was sitting in the main hatch-house, , with , Sarah in mj arms, and Willy playing about w ith some boys named Tenner, from Kailcourj. when'ajiuge wave came over the weaiher side, smashed the -hatch-house to pieces "' -over our. heads and washed it and us against the 'lee bulwarks. Four ]>aneK of the bulw arks were knocked out and about four feet of the rail. J T,he rest 'of • the ratf held firm, or in all probability we should have been swept into the rag-* ing sea. Sarah and I escaped without 't even a scratch : Willie had a slight cut over his right eye: 'one of the other bo} s had'his, ankle severely bruised, the chief engineer's dog wag washed ovei lv>ard md himself had a narrow escape, as he 1 ad just stepped out on the deck n hen th<» sea struck us. How he saved himseif wins a miracle, But every one of us hud a '' thorough' drenching; tons of water poured down the main hatchwny, but - 'fortunately for us our cabin was on the ' r weath'er side, consequently it was dry ' . while those on the lee side had the watei in>> their, bunks. "Misfortunes never come alone," says the old proverb. .NVxt day, when the weather was even more boisterous than hitherto, wp were al< rmed ' ' by'a'cry'of fire. This. I must own, stared h ''m'e more tHan thVaccid<'nl of the previous . 'day, for had the fire gained the mastery, .^ai t'carfiil alternative would have been I ourpt'torpo boat could have lived m the . jf , storm that was then raging. Happily it was soon got under and very grateful we jfelt_tojlim who.rules the elements. It seems that au'Open lighth'ad been carelessly hung, against a partition in the .roo'ip of the refrigerator. The Ja said partition is double, the inner space '° being fi|l'ed wi(h shavings,' paper and • '"other j combustible but, non-conducting -' materjalj^Th&lamp had burned through .^ithe^lihing t boaTds and ignited the com- . bustibles-r iO inside.' The ' pumps weie , n> manned and the danger soon averted. 'jtfter' rounding the Horn the weather moderated have had no real stormy weaiher since. The Lady Jocelyn is a very^ com for table old ship to sail in, ''But I regret to" say that I cannot speak . in high terms of the victuals Quantity 'was all that could be desired ; the qualify "- iru^detestable. Steerage passengers had frozen meat r 'once a week, saloon passengers .daily. The refrigerator has ."w-orled* splendidly,' even in the tropics. • Ice" was a daily delicacy there, and a frozen apple 'while crossing the equator , is- the greatest delicacy imaginable. »We divine, service twice^ every Sabbath, ''•no 'siclcness, 'and no deaths , except a »j cook's' assistaht'who 'was mysteriously missed one dull morning, and is supposed to have committed'suicide by drowning. fl He(had been in^the,, colony, a great num- ' ber of years, had been })pth prosperous and unfortunate,^ and had no better pros. pect in life than to land in London with T ,only ( 3s in,his pocket. - Out S E. trades ' were very light,' and we crawled over*the equator at the rate of two miles an hour. We also lost a Ibt'of time off the Azores!, Iwing baffled with easterly winds. Nine }days\of fair wind then brought us' to the mouth of the English Channel, and there leftf' M us'; When'' becalmed there we counted h no lessi than thirty-four ships and_three steamers in our immediate neighborhood.! We sighted no land after leaving Wellington until last Sunday, when we saw Bishop's Eock Lighthouse, about -seven miles south of the Scilly Islands. HBu't we did see albatrosses, wholes, porpoises, sharks, flying , fishes, dolphins,' . beriitdes,- -^grampuses,' 'sword fishes, turtles, a waterspout, and ahost of other things/which helped to break Othe dull monotony of the voyage. Some of the fish we caught.' Ship's were 'common' even ere we reached the Horn. Alto-^ gether,,we have had a,raUier long 'but not unpleasant voyage, which might have been improved by better, victuals. ,Our ibest day's fun' was 276 miles ; our worst was 11 miles backward. '