. From the log of the Velsa. had days at sea in the Baltic which were idealand thrilling from one end to the other. To make a final study of the chart in the cabinwhile waiting for breakfast is a thrilling act. Youchoose a name on the chart, and decide: We wiUgo to that name. It is a name. It is not yet atown or a village. It is just what you imagine itto be until you first sight it, when it instantly falsi-fies every fancy. The course is settled. The shipis on that course. The landmarks will sufiice foran hour or two, but the sea-marks must be de-ciphered on the chart, which is an Engli
. From the log of the Velsa. had days at sea in the Baltic which were idealand thrilling from one end to the other. To make a final study of the chart in the cabinwhile waiting for breakfast is a thrilling act. Youchoose a name on the chart, and decide: We wiUgo to that name. It is a name. It is not yet atown or a village. It is just what you imagine itto be until you first sight it, when it instantly falsi-fies every fancy. The course is settled. The shipis on that course. The landmarks will sufiice foran hour or two, but the sea-marks must be de-ciphered on the chart, which is an English chart,and hence inferior in fullness and clearness toeither French or Dutch charts. Strange, this, fora nation preeminently maritime 1 To compensate,the English SaiUng Directions—for example,the Pilots Guide to the Baltic—are so admirablywritten that it is a pleasure to read them. Lucid,succinct, elegant, they might serve as models to anovehst. And they are anonymous. To pick up the first buoy is thrilling. We are 146. ^-^^^^^s^^^^^: CONSULTING THE CHART A DAYS SAIL all equally ignorant of these waters; the skipperhimself has not previously sailed them, and we areall, save the cook, engulfed below amid swayingsaucepans, on the lookout for that buoy. It oughtto be visible at a certain hour, but it is not. Theskipper points with his hand and says the buoymust be about there, but it is not. He looksthrough my glasses, and I look through his; noresult. Then the deck-hand, without glasses, criesgrinning that he has located her. After a quarterof an hour I can see the thing myself. That abuoy? It is naught but a pole with a shghtly swol-len head. Absurd to caU it a buoy! Nevertheless,we are relieved, and in a superior manner we re-concile ourselves to the Baltic idiosyncrasy of em-ploying broom-handles for buoys. The reason forthis dangerous idiosyncrasy neither the skipper noranybody else could divine. Presently we have thebroom close abeam, a bobbing stick aU alone in theimm
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublishernewyo, bookyear1914
