FLORIDA AND THE WEST INDIES ii 



radiating wires and buzzing cones, formed an 

 unbroken link witli either shore of the Atlantic, 

 bringing these closer, as it were, than those of Kent 

 and Artois from the standpoint of fishing vessels 

 fogbound between them. Each morning at break- 

 fast time we could purchase for five cents (sjd.) an 

 epitome of the news of two hemispheres flashed 

 overnight from Poldhu, in Cornwall, and even two 

 thousand miles from our goal, and a thousand from 

 home, there was no escape from the Lord of Words, 

 and we got the precis of a Potsdam praise of the 

 Algeciras Conference. The Bulletin also gave 

 such meteorological excerpts from the log as might 

 serve to reassure those who were absent from table, 

 comforting them with the information that they had 

 succumbed to the bidding; of " hig^h-confused beam 



o o 



seas," and other unrehearsed marine effects of the 

 same order. The realisation that we were no 

 longer cut off from the world came most for- 

 cibly to those who received private messages 

 from passing vessels. It was with strange feel- 

 ings that, one night on the threshold of morning, 

 I was handed a Marconigram from a ship that 

 passed in the night, the Kronprinz Wilhelm^ sent by 

 some friends on board who wished me tight lines 

 with the tarpon. 



The most interesting afternoon that week for me 

 was one devoted to a tour of the engine-room and 

 cold storage in the company of Mr M'Farlane, 

 Chief Engineer. Mr M'Farlane is a Scotsman. 

 Climbing backwards down what seemed to be miles 

 of ladders, I was personally conducted through the 

 Chief's profound kingdom and staggered over traps 

 of bright ironwork, my ears ringing with the 



