12 Crossing the Line 



As to arrangement of the entries: quotations stand in order of the crossing 

 (not the date of pubhcation); when the right date for the crossing could not 

 be found, the entry is under date of pubhcation. Crossings by sea come first, 

 by far the largest part; after them, crossings on the Missouri river, then by 

 air, over vi^atersheds betM^een water systems, and last in Scandinavian waters. 



Now let us ask a moment for a personal word — nay, two. Working with 

 these tales of life at sea has given plenty of reward, disappointment as well. 

 Rewards show here; disappointment is the memory of how stupidly and 

 callously so many writers have refused to give us one word about when and 

 where they became "shellbacks," what happened, what they did to the next 

 fellows. Those disappointments, however, were then and will be for the long 

 time to come accepted gratefully as I recall the stories they and the rest told of 

 bravery and endurance and self sacrifice; of how men battled with wind 

 and wave, with careless and poor work by ship builders and outfitters, 

 with discoinraging calms in torrid heat, with food and water unfit for humans, 

 aad even too Httle of what was parceled out to them. If you got wet you 

 stayed wet imtil clothing dried, slept in it, worked in it, endured it as you 

 did the vermin so constant and so ever-present. Yes, and how humanly 

 did human nature show up as the deadly routine added to the physical strain 

 on muscles, the no less wracking annoyance of those same faces, those same 

 habits, those same gestures, those same stories, those same shipmates, watch 

 after watch, week after week, month after month, below deck, on deck, no 

 escaping it all. Can we wonder that nerves broke now and then, with fights 

 among the crew, even with ofiicers and men! Some puUed through, some 

 found rehef and went overboard sewed in sailcloth or canvas. 



One more personal word. Bringing these notes together has cheered and 

 amused me for many a year, adding plenty of information as well as edifica- 

 tion. It must have had a beginning and a reason, somewhere, somehow, some- 

 time, but that first thought about it is too far back in memory to take any Idnd 

 of shape. It began probably in some "reference question" put to the Library 

 in person or by letter. I did my best to find the answer, failed, promised to 

 bear it in mind and report results. I did bear it in mind. I did have some 

 results to show. Would that they could be given to the man that first voiced 

 the question. 



Another cheering and happy memory long, if not forever, to stay with me 

 is the way fellow workers in the Library helped in my pleas for checking 

 quotations, the way they noted stories I had overlooked; so too how those 

 kind friends were matched by outsiders, folk with no more connection with 

 such ajEEairs than that they saw a harmless, if annoying, hobby rider trotting 



