Cupid on the Liner.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 6 November 1914, Page 2

Cupid on the Liner.

TELLING PIOW AN OCEAN VOY-

AGE BRINGS ENGAGEMENTS

Cupid is nowhere in a more frolicsome mood than on board ship, and he plays his pranks impartially in saloon and steerage alike. There is never a long voyage without at least one romance in which he figures. A .Manchester man who settled in Canada prospered so well that he was soon able to send to England enough money for the passage of his bride. On the^ day she should have arrived he went up to the station to meet her—vainly. He then made inquiries, and ultimately discovered that she lauded safely at Quebec, but left the train at Montreal, placing her luggage- in the ollice there in her own name and subsequently claiming it as Mrs. ! As the name she gave on the second occasion was that of a man who had been among her fellow-pas-sengers, her old lover did not make further investigations. There was a singular parallel to this incident about twelve months ago. An engineer who had been in Australia two or three years went to Sydney to meet his bride-to-be, whose passage-money he hod sent to England. And he did meet her—with a man whom she liked better ! The two had fallen in love with each other during the voyage, and she had thrown over her betrothed. Equally curious was a love romance on an Orient liner. Among the emigrants were an Irishman and a young widow, both bound for Australia. Becoming acquainted in the early part of the voyage, they plighted their troth under the shadows of Pompeii, and soon afterwards asked an archdeacon who was on board to marry them. The good man Maw no objection, and proclaimed the banns in the

presence of the interested passengers. But the captain promptly intervened, and consequently the two could not get married till' they reached Melbourne.

The skipper of a Uunarder once displayed more tenderness. Among the emigrants were a couple who had eloped. As it was probable that, unless they married raean- ; while, they would be detained at New York under the American Immigration Act, the captain approached a clergyman who was on board, and induced him to promise to make the pair man and wife. The ceremony took place in the saloon, the captain acting as bestman and the surgeon giving the bride away ; and afterwards, at the command of the genial autocrat of the ship, a fine breakfast was spread in honour of the event. Another Cunarder was the scene of a still more singular romance. Three English girls crossed the Atlantic together to meet their future husbands, all from the Old Country. Because they were unaccompanied, the immigration authorities would not -pern-iit them to land. So a clergyman and the trio of .grooms were brought on board, and then three romantic weddings followed. Curious, again, was a happening on an outward-bound Australian ; liner. Within five days two emigrants—a married man and a married woman —died, and were buried at sea. Naturally, the widower and the widow! sympathised with each other, and eventually became engaged. One of the strongest love romances connected with emigration began on the Atlantic a quarter of a century ago. A young mechanic from Yorkshire met for the first time on the boat which was bearing him to the West a girl belonging to his own county, and soon after they landed in America they were married. Five or six years ago they came to England for a holiday, and while they were on their way back the wife died. Since then the widower has made an annual trip to England about the anniversary of her death, and when the boat reaches the latitude and longitude where the partner of his joys and sorrows was buried, ; he scatters a quantity of flowers on j the waves.—"Answers." j