CHAPTER III 



ICELAND 1889 



Perhaps there are few things that can imbue 

 the soul of the enthusiastic traveller with a more 

 wholesome sense of disappointment than to be 

 told on arrival at the seaport from which he has 

 contemplated taking his departure that there 

 is a good chance of his ship being detained for an 

 indefinite period. Such was the unwelcome news 

 which greeted us — my sister Mary, my brother Geoff 

 and myself, with some others — at Messrs. Slimon's 

 office at Leith on our arrival there. We wanted 

 to go to Iceland, but the owners were much afraid 

 it would be impossible to get a ship's crew together, 

 owing to the strike then prevailing all over Scotland, 

 especially at Leith and Glasgow ; and as we neared 

 the quay, groups of men were to be seen lounging 

 about everywhere, bent on stopping any sailor who 

 might think of embarking on an outgoing vessel. 

 However, during the afternoon we managed to get 

 on board the Majestic, and things began to take 

 a more hopeful turn, for the Captain had succeeded 

 in getting two sailors from a ship that had just come 

 into the Firth, and thought that, with the addition 

 of a few landsmen and his engineer, he would be 

 able to manage the voyage all right, provided we 

 would entrust ourselves to his care. To this we 



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