Aboard the ''Bear^^ 209 



Those noises are worthy of study to one who 

 wishes to describe the horrible. The propeller is 

 two-bladed, and they are not far from my berth. 

 These United States vessels all have the captain's 

 quarters at the stern, close over the wheel. Those 

 blades, when lifted out by the pitching of the ship, 

 struck the water with a singularly energetic swish 

 and smash, a loud and tearing sound. Then there 

 was a gurgling and strangling and coughing of 

 water in pipes. Then there was a truly infernal 

 tambourine somewhere, that responded to each blow 

 with a crash, followed by a long trill, just like a 

 tambourine which one could imagine that the devil 

 invented, not for the enjoyment of the music, but 

 for the torture which it would inflict on every one 

 else. I made search for that tambourine next day, 

 and found it. It was a sheet of zinc fastened upon 

 a wooden frame four feet square, and which the 

 *'boy" had put out of the way by setting it behind 

 the steam-heating pipes. I also drove the plug in 

 the wash-basin and stopped that gurgling and chok- 

 ing. The wheel is now keeping below the surface 

 where it belongs, and is attending to its business in 

 a respectable manner. 



That horribly noisy, seasick, tempestuous, and 

 despairing night, I was led, as a last resort, to put 

 some Christian Science into practice, against the 

 whole situation. I had fallen into an uneasy sleep 

 and imagined that I was trying to ride a sorrel 

 horse. That horse would go like the mischief a 



