66 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1894. 



foot deep on the floor and everything that could get adrift Avas having 

 its own way. 



The storm lasted for twelve hours, but the sea had worked itself into 

 such a commotion that it was three days before we could safely walk 

 across the cabin floor. One of the children became weary of such 

 close quarters, and ventured into the cabin, when he was violently 

 thrown across the room, striking the sharp edge of a black walnut sofa, 

 receiving a severe bruise. His impatience was checked, and he allowed 

 himself to be amused in the stateroom until the waves had spent their 

 fury. When we reached port we saw a ship with a large hole stove in 

 her bow, which the crew had repaired sufficiently to allow of her reach- 

 ing port. A barque had gone to the bottom, a few of the crew escap- 

 ing. A large steamer had been sunk. In one of these dreadful 

 encounters with the ocean you realize your helplessness. The highest 

 ingenuity of man is as nothing. At times, his masterpiece of ocean 

 craft is crushed by the waves and vanishes like a child's toy. Not 

 long ago, one of our finest ocean steamers was boarded by a wave, 

 damaging her so that she was obliged to return to port for repairs. 



It is said that the depths of the ocean are free from the violent com- 

 motions which agitate the surface, otherwise the life of the innumer- 

 able inhabitants of the great deep would be most tumultuous. 



One of the most trying things, when you are dependent upon sails, 

 is a calm. To lie for days 



" As idle as a painted ship 

 Upon a painted ocean," 



with the sun pouring down so fierce as to boil the pitch out of the 

 decks ; with the idle sails filled with no cooling breeze. In vain you 

 walk the decks searching for a shady place. I think most seamen pre- 

 fer a gale. The trade-winds are a delightful change, when you have 

 been tormented with a lengthy calm. Then you become fascinated 

 with the ocean, and sing of 



" A life on the ocean wave, 

 A home on the rolling deep." 



One of the most frightful things at sea is a fire. Once the cook after 

 trying out porpoise oil, threw the scraps into the stove, which made such 

 a blaze that a barrel which he had placed over the chimney to the galley 

 caught fire, and when discovered was all ablaze. The cotton sails 

 towered to the top of the mast directly over it. The second mate 

 jumped upon the galley and, while the children and I held our breath, 

 grasped the burning barrel and threw it overboard. With a cargo of 



