OCEAN COURTSHIPS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 336, 24 June 1911, Page 10

OCEAN COURTSHIPS.

"It is on the cards that some of the girls who are going to Canada in quest of husbands will find them before they get there," said an official of a weliknown line of steamships. "They may discover their affinities among their fellow passengers of the officers of the boat. ''Most of the big companies forbid their officers to hold intercourse with passengers, and particularly lady passengers; but I know three officers 'who first made the acquaintance of their present wives as passengers. There was, too, a case in one of the best-known services a few years ago of a surgeon marrying a ricii American lady whom he met for the first time on hig ship. \ "As for passengers falling in lovewell, considering the opportunities, it is not surprising. We had a young lady who was going somewhere in America. When the boat reached New York the immigration officers would not allow her to land, as she was unaccompanied, it then turned out that on the way across she and another second-class passenger—a respectable mechanic—had come to an understanding. 80 the difficulty was overcome by their going to the city hall, obtaining a marriage iiuense, returning to the ship with the parson, and gettin" married in the library. ° "In the old days, when voyages were much longer than they are now, it was a common thing for a bride-elect who was journeying to her promised husband m America or the colonies to find a new love at sea and discard the old one J his jilting docs not take so frequently nowadays, but it is not so rare as you stay-at-homes may think. "A few years ago, I remember, a girl wae sent for to join her affianced in Canada. She landed at Quebec all ri.rht but left the train at Montreal and vanished. It was discovered that she left the tram there because her luggage was m the office in her own name. ° Well there was a big hunt for her, and her fiance—who. I should say, had sent her, while she was still in England, enough to pay her passage ana meet other expenses—was naturally much distressed. At last the mystery was solved. She claimed her luggage in the name of Mrs. . Xow, the name was that of a man "•ho had been among her fellow-passen-