A BUSHMAN AFLOAT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8446, 22 May 1907, Page 7

A BUSHMAN AFLOAT.

DORRINGTON. ,v4Authorof "Along the Castlereagh," i of the Gully,'' etc.) by special arrangement -cCppyright reserved.) VII. vWe noroased the Equator at 4 wO'clockion Monday, March 25th. The dayuWaa,warm, but not so unbearable |fe%3ydney> or Brisbane during midsummer. Consideration must be ,io the fact that a mailboat lUUßhiflg.;along at 15 knots an hour creates ;.a , refreshing air current. .Hereabouts .the dawn skies are full .of weird übeauty. The sun peering over the sky-line flings scarf on .scarf .of vwine-red light across the ; naked East. The north west mon.soott roers into the big throated windsails, .flooding, the lower decks with .cool air. The vertical sun when weiled by. clouds casts a blinding salt\^hite.radiance over the face of the \ .i&ean. '"' JPast .midnight two officers awoke ,the captain, who .appeared suddenly on ihe bridge scanning the distant Jiorizon. Since eleven o'clock the barometer had,fallen considerably, .and. the sound of the bos'n's whistle iflnd.the .hurrying <of feet along the .deck warned us that something .special in.the vway of typhoons was JbQundingiacross.the far West. A .-strip, of ,inlsy cloud about the size «fii>ahawl fluttered on the horizon. AiartQff ihummingi noise reached us m .though innumerable harp strings were being rent asunder. The black doud-sh&wLqpened fanwise revealing is huge xwind toirn body. "'iHewen ,hdlp 'the cargo tramp that runs into it to-nighti!" said an old mfc standing near the bridge. The .sea paw sWhite under the enfolding body .of the dloud as though Whipped into .mountainous waves by the fury 8 .of its onslaught. Incidentally our ©hi© turned henheels to the onrushing imass &£ ;oloud and water, her increased funned .«moke showing that pressui« was hciing 'brought to carry ua bejoiad the trade .of llhe old man typhoon. The atomming note of the storm changed fiwiifilrty to a deep booming souaad that seemed, to slide under our keel with the force of an avalanche. The water ifaully j snarled as it flew over the araat Tiie i fury of the wind-driven waves as iincredible. They appear to attack a ship from all points, as though; guided by an unseen brain. The j wrenchings and groanings of a big 1 ship as she plunges and rolls into j the mountainous hollows are almost ■ human. Imagine a sea sweeping j away a counlo of lifeboats fixed se-

curely in the davits forty feet above the surface of the water. Mile on mile we skirted the down-rushing typhoon, which seemed to confine its operations within a special area. Far away in the west the sky was clear and full of stars. Yet the near east was a cauldron of storm-whipped : nlouds and seething water. ■ s ; »' "We's only caught the edge of it!" , shouted a voice in my ear. "It doesn't pay to run away frdm ordinary storms, but this affair would bend out patent ceilings and deck fittings if .we pushed through it. Indian typhoons are better left alone." And so it proved, even though we had only danced a polka on the skirts \ of the storm. Two hundred gallons of fresh milk had been burst asunder in the ice-room. A row of sharp meat-hooks pressing suddenly against the big tins had' sliced them asunder, allowing the milk to run over the floor. About a hundredweight of crockery came to grief before the

pantryman could stow it safely away. To prevent loss by carelessness on the part of these servants, many of the Australasian shipping companies have inaugurated a Missing Silver Fund. At the end of every trip the chief steward goes over the table cutlery and plate carefully, and each nvssing article has to be made good from the fund. As much as ten shillings per head is deducted from the stewards' salary to replace lost articles. The chief explained thw matter briefly to a party of saloon passengers, one morning. "Before the Missing Silver Fund was started," he eaid, "our losses through carelessness were very severe. Last year , a pantryman left a locker of entree dishes and tureens near tho port rail while he,,., adjourned 'to a cabin to light a' cigarette. The vessel rolled suddenly and £l5O of plate went overboard. "I had occasion to watch a young Australian steward one morning," went on the chief. "He was engaged in sweeping but the first saloon smoking-room. It was his duty to rinse'the cuspidores, very expensive articles, costing us from one pound to thirty shillings each. He picked up one casually, looked round the empty smoke-room sharply, and pitched it through the port hole. 'One—less to clean,' he said, and went on sweeping. Yes, we've got a check on that kind of thing now. Tho stewards watch each other, and every spoon and fork and entree dish is guarded pretty closely." Within three hours we had left the typhoon area in our wake, ,and the grey dawn showed us the black funnels of a P. and 0. liner bound from Colombo to Fremantle, her Baldon lights gleaming with star-like brilliance across the naked flea levels. (To be continued.)