4 Crossing the Line 



bringeth them into their desired haven." If his mariners offered any special 

 foim of prayer as thanks for a safe landing, we hear nothing about it. 



The ship bearing Paul on his way to Rome tried to escape the Syrtis only 

 to run aground on Malta. The record in Acts sets tlie story down quite as 

 something to be taken for granted if not expected. Paul cheers the crew as he 

 tells them that an angel had revealed to him that the ship would be cast 

 ashore with no hves lost; he urges them to take a bite to eat even in the midst 

 of the storm. Of hfe ashore, however, we hear nothing more than that Paul 

 shook a viper off his hand and later healed the father of Publius. It is all a 

 plain statement of fact, the standard "who, what, when, why," with httle need 

 of rewriting for tomorrovi^'s newspaper. Take the dangers of the sea in your 

 stride; no complainings, but no form of prayer for thanks. 



Professor Samuel Eliot Morison — also Rear Admiral and naval historian — 

 is as much at home on tlie sea as in his study or his classroom, is certainly much 

 closer to the "feel" of the seaman than the landsman may hope to be, and cer- 

 tainly knows the sailor's viewpoint as well as he knows how to sail his boat 

 or his ship. In his fascinating Admiral of the Ocean Sea he reminds us that 

 "seamen were the most reHgious of all workers." He tells us of the daily hfe at 

 sea in Columbus's time, how "at sunset the Blessed Virgin was saluted with 

 her ancient canticle, Salve Regina"; also how "in the second dogwatch, just 

 after sunset and before the first night watch is set, all hands are called to eve- 

 ning prayers. The ceremony begins by a gromet [cabin boy] trimming the bin- 

 nacle lamp: and as he brings it aft along the deck he sings out . . . 'Amen and 

 God give us a good night and good saihng; may the ship make a good passage, 

 sir captain and master and good company.' 



"The gromets then lead the ship's company in what was technically called 

 la doctrina cristiana. All hands say the Pater Noster, Ave Maria and Credo, 

 and sing the Salve Regina. This beautiful hymn, one of the oldest Benedictine 

 chants, was a fitting close to tlie day. The music of it has come down to us, so 

 that we can in some measure re-create that ancient hymn of praise to the 

 Queen of Heaven that floated over xmcharted waters every evening, as the 

 caravels shpped along." * 



Columbus did not cross the equator after 1492. He may have hit south lati- 

 tude on earher voyages along the coast of Africa, but we have no proof one 

 way or the other. If, however, the Genoese Colimibus, on a Spanish ship, led 

 thus his Spanish crew, is it a vdld guess to feel he then followed estabhshed 



* Quoted with permission of Professor Morison from Admiral of the Ocean Sea, p. 233 of vol. 1. 



