When we asked for food or light, and made weak
appeals on the ground of faintness, the one steward who seemed to
dawdle about for the sole purpose of making himself disagreeable,
always replied, "You can't get anything, the stewards are on duty."
We were not accustomed to recognize that stewards had any other duty
than that of feeding the passengers, but under the circumstances we
meekly acquiesced. We were allowed to know that a part of the
foreguards had been carried way, and that iron stanchions four
inches thick had been gnarled and twisted like candy sticks, and the
constant falling of the saloon casing of the mainmast, showed
something wrong there. A heavy clang, heard at intervals by day and
night, aroused some suspicions as to more serious damage, and these
were afterwards confirmed. As the wind fell the sea rose, and for
some hours realized every description I have read of the majesty and
magnitude of the rollers of the South Pacific.
The day after the hurricane something went wrong with the engines,
and we were stationary for an hour. We all felt thankful that this
derangement which would have jeopardised or sacrificed sixty lives,
was then only a slight detention on a summer sea.
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