Two German square-riggers still sail regularly between and . Here are some high points from the diary of a professional man of letters who made the trip to recapture in words and movies a lost perilous atmosphere.

By Sail around

By HEINRICH HAUSER

THE LAST SQUARE-RIGGER Translated from Tier Querschnitt, Berlin Modernist Monthly

*THE FLYING P LINE' is what boat and started our journey to the sailors call the fleet of sailing Talcahuano on the coast of Chile, vessels operated by F. Laeisz and about 15,000 nautical miles away. Company in Hamburg. These are the Here I must emphasize one point: ships that broke all records for speed the extraordinary role that the un- from Hamburg around Cape Horn and lucky number thirteen played on this all their names begin with a P— journey. It was the captain's thir- Parma, Padua, , and Pamir. teenth trip. On the thirteenth of Only two of these vessels, however, are January we ran into such a terrific still seeing active service, the Parma storm in the English Channel that the and the Pamir. The rest have become Pamir lost her anchor, her anchor instruction boats. winch, and all but two of her sails. The Pamir weighed anchor, as they One man was hit over the head with a say in novels, on New Year's Eve, but marline spike and had to be taken part of her crew had not appeared and later to a hospital with concussion of it took the harbor police until four in the brain. We put into in the morning to bring them all on distress. board. Our company was then counted On the thirteenth of February one over and numbered thirty-three men of our able seamen, a young fellow of in all. At Lightship Number Three on eighteen, fell from the topgallant the River Elbe we dropped our tug- yard, a distance of some one hundred

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and twenty feet. He landed on a steel Pamir put me in this splendid position. flight of semicircular steps and was In the course of this period I made a dead an hour later. His skull, arms, moving picture, a moving picture of and legs had broken. This happened the last sailing vessel. I shall not at- crossing the Equator. On March tempt to describe how wonderful this thirteenth, another sailor, a friend of life was under the enormous, high- mine, fell from the forestay. He struck towering sails. It is a secret, a secret an iron bollard that broke his jaw and that only a few men are worthy to right arm. The captain and I worked understand. over him by candlelight for three hours. We fastened his teeth together with wire where the jaw had been SAILORS who grew to manhood broken and sewed up the cuts on his on great sailing vessels cannot put up neck and chin with ordinary needles, with the life on steamships. A steamer for we had no others. The jaw bone is brutal and stupid, unresponsive to was dislocated. When we tried to set the wind, weather, and sea. Steamers it, bringing the strength of two men have no souls. Men on sailing vessels, to bear, the young fellow cried out, who are at home for perhaps a week 'Harder, harder!' for he realized that after a journey of seven or eight he had to be willing to bear any pain. months, inevitably seem strange and His broken arm healed satisfactorily wonderful people to the average mem- but his broken j aw had to be operated ber of the middle class. The observa- on in . This happened off tion of wind and sea on which their Cape Horn. very lives depend develops keen On the thirteenth of April a sailor nerves. The great solitude of the sea fell from the slippery metal stay of the and the absence of women make the mizzenmast, a distance of seventy- men more sensitive with one another, five feet, landing on two tight ropes. and create an exchange of thoughts The elasticity of these ropes saved his and experiences that elsewhere only life and only twisted a few tendons in comes out in the society of women. his arm, but after his accident he was There are no machines on sailing quiet and serious. All these mishaps vessels. All work must be done by occurred in quiet weather on a smooth hand with the simplest tools, such as sea. We also had a case of scarlet fever blocks and pulleys, windlasses and that worried us greatly for fear of in- levers. Things have not changed since fection. Having no doctor aboard, we Nelson's time, and, since circum- wrote down the symptoms and asked stances form a man, these men for advice by wireless. An hour later scarcely differ from Nelson's contem- the ship's doctor on the steamer, poraries. One soon becomes supersti- Minna Horn, diagnosed the case and tious, even if one has small inclination recommended treatment. in that direction. A list to port means I shipped on the Pamir to find a a quick journey. Whistling dispels the place that was guaranteed against wind. Sacrifices must be paid to the newspapers, telephones, and bill col- sea. In our struggle around Cape lectors. During the one hundred and Horn, which lasted nineteen days, twelve days our voyage lasted the the captain threw his live dog over-

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED BY SAIL AROUND CAPE HORN board. Another man cast off a shirt. occur. Salt water penetrates the These sacrifices must be thrown into wounds and causes blisters and in- the water on the windward side to flammations. Each day of bad weather propitiate the sea. Refuse is always I had to cut into at least two or three thrown to leeward and if one threw festering hands, feet, or fingers. some sacrificial offering over the lee- Life on shipboard is hard except in ward side the sea might look upon it as the trade winds, which blow steadily refuse and be offended. from one direction. On steamships The courses sailing vessels pursue there are three watches, on sailing lie far from the coast, far from all vessels only two. This means a steamship lines. One is thrown back twelve-hour day. But in almost all utterly on one's self and can expect no manceuvres the whole crew has to outside assistance. One man had a participate, cook and cabin boy in- stomach ache and had to have fresh cluded, and generally these manoeu- eggs. We had hens on board that were vres last a long time. During the storm not laying. We gave the hens chopped- in the Channel one watch remained on up rats to eat. Then the carpenter duty for forty-three hours and another made wooden eggs and painted them for forty-eight. During the ice storm white and this caused the hens to lay. off Cape Horn the sails froze stiff as It is hard to keep healthy without steel. Ice covered the deck and great fresh food, and potatoes always rot in masses of snow kept falling from the the tropics. There is a limited menu on rigging. Fingers began to bleed and shipboard and it includes salt meat, the whole scene was one that no bacon, salt cabbage, preserved cu- landsman can possibly imagine. It was cumbers, dried fish, rice, and curry. like war. This sharp, salty food harms the Yet it was beautiful. It was real life, blood. Then there is the lack of water. strong, simple, and uncompromising, Each man has about two and a half and it was enlivened by a marvelous quarts of water a day for drinking and comradeship. And if it lies behind us washing purposes. Stiff, tarred ropes as we pack up our equipment and go and rusty cables must be handled ashore, at least we can still sing the old constantly and injuries frequently seafaring chanteys.

FROM THE AUTHOR'S DIARY Translated from the Frankfurter Zeitung, Frankfurt Liberal Daily

BECAUSE we are never content tain, for instance, would like to be a with the life we lead, I wanted to find millionaire so that he could build a out if each man on board would change fleet of big sailing vessels. The first his career if he had unlimited means at officer would be happy with a little his disposal. The most interesting house on the Blankensee and a job point of this experiment was that as pilot on the River Elbe. The second nobody seemed to want to alter his helmsman had served a long time as a occupation fundamentally. The cap- tugboat captain in Sumatra. He knows

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED [i 321 THE LIVING AGE October of a salt lake in the mountains there But the finest record I have contains and would like to live on it. no music. It is the recorded announce- The wireless operator would like to ment of Lindbergh's arrival in Amer- change his life a little. He would like ica. The record seems to be charged to have a first-class operator's license with electricity. I know of nothing and then continue to follow the sea. more exciting than the way the voice All the freedom that he wishes would of the announcer trembles as the ship be to get paid off whenever he struck arrives and he says he sees Lindbergh an agreeable port, remain there a few on the gangway. The roar of automo- weeks, and then continue. He made bile horns, the shouting of the mob and this kind of journey along the coast its applause, the mad handclapping, of Spain, visiting Valencia and Bar- the shrill voices of the women, and the celona and then continuing to Genoa thunderous music all contribute to the and Venice, finally ending up at effect. Trieste on the Dalmatian coast. Most of the sailors want a ship of their own, generally a sailing vessel, a handsome R MARCH 6 schooner with a motor that would T navigate the North Sea and the Baltic HIS morning we are moving not and earn them good money. The old more than two knots an hour and the sailmaker would rather be an artist breeze is light. But it soon blows and live in peace on shore, painting harder and we speed along at ten pictures of sailing vessels and sunsets knots an hour. The whole morning is just as he now does in his scanty spare devoted to changing the sails. The time. Only the carpenter would like light-weather sails we have been to follow an entirely different pro- carrying are replaced with a set for fession. He used to be in charge of a heavy weather, a preparation for station in German Southwest Africa Cape Horn. The new sails include a and would like to go back there. mizzen staysail of enormous size, I have a phonograph on board and sewed in accordance with the captain's about a dozen records which I only instructions. play on Sunday because if I played A wild night falls. It is so dark that them often we should soon get tired of one can see only the broad mass of them. The gramophone gives me a spray that the bow of the Pamir means of showing how utterly dif- keeps tossing to one side. Our sails ferent the tempo of our life here is from belly in the wind and the phosphores- the tempo on shore. I was particularly cent spray looks like smoke pouring struck by the fact that all the records from the funnel of a fast locomotive. seemed to run much too fast, and I We are going twelve knots an hour. found that the machine was set to its The air is strangely still, for we are present speed in Berlin. Here, how- flying before the wind. On such a ever, life runs more slowly. night as this I feel death close by my side. This is not an anxious feeling I especially like Caruso's voice. If but a clear recognition of the fact that one plays his records with a soft a wind blows us through life just as needle one can hear him catching his this wind is impelling us across the breath through the sound of the music. water.

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Toward one o'clock in the morning may be ice and snow upsets me the wind begins to whistle still louder greatly. I don't feel the faintest and a storm breaks. The royal, upper desire to write and the words come to topgallant, and lower topgallant sails me slowly and without meaning, and are all taken in. We are shipping water one can only write a diary in a over our decks. It is always a weird personal, frank manner. If I did not sensation to witness the first, short have enough imagination to forget at waves of an oncoming storm and to times where I am I should be thor- feel the hull tremble gently just before oughly weary of this journey which has the ship begins to labor. lasted so long.

MARCH 7 MARCH 20 The storm has abated and as I I never imagined the weather would encounter the second officer in the be so pleasant at Cape Horn. The morning twilight he says to me,' Now wind has shifted during the night and we are going to have to climb the fir a gentle breeze is blowing. A wonderful tree again,' by which he means that autumn sun is shining and warms the we must set more sail. By afternoon a planks of the deck. The water is fresh wind comes in from the south- smooth and the air so fresh and ani- west. This wind tries to drive us from mated that it seems impossible anyone our course along the Argentine coast could be sick here. and we have to make every effort to keep our true direction so that we can save time later at Cape Horn by ^ SATURDAY going through Le Maire Strait. The T zigzag course we follow looks on the HE breeze has shifted to the north chart like the design of a fortification and then increased until now there are on a military map. little white caps. Fog lies low on the Sunset is a brilliant affair. The sun sea and the north wind is warm and sinks into a wicked-looking sky; the the water here very cold. Our fog horn horizon is a poisonous shade of green, is tooting and I feel as if I were about but the zenith is white and a huge to return home and meet Lightship cement wall seems to rise above us, a Number One on the River Elbe in the wall one could not possibly describe as North Sea. We can hear sea gulls cry- being made of air or clouds. Then the ing all about us but cannot see them moon rises, huge and white. The on account of the fog. steersmen greet this apparition as We now have a good chance of they mount the evening watch with getting through Le Maire Strait. This a comical formality, removing their strait is a stretch of water about six- white caps and bowing low. teen miles across between Staten Island and the point of Tierra del Fuego. If one can get through this MARCH 8 The nights are foggy now and it is strait the journey around Cape Horn getting so cold that I have to wear my is considerably shortened because blue sweater again. The thought that then one does not need to go around it will get colder still and that there Staten Island. The old Cape Horn seamen always

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED [i 321 THE LIVING AGE October regarded Le Maire Strait with a becomes saturated with fog and we mixture of hope and fear. A great go down to our cabins to sleep. saving was made in the westward journey if one could get through but there was great danger also. A SUNDAY strong current runs through the strait I that may pile a ship up on the rocks. WAS awaked early this morning by The wind drops in the lee of the land the captain's voice calling out in pleased and the rocks of Staten Island do not tones, 'Get up. We are at Le Maire enjoy a good reputation. Furthermore, Strait.' It is half past seven when I the Cape Horn fog can descend and come on deck and Staten Island lies obscure one's view within the space of to our left. Even on the map this island a few minutes. At the end of the strait looks almost incredible, like a great on the other side one often encounters crab with long claws, many legs, and quite a different wind from the one a jagged tail. I believe that Staten Is- that prevailed when one entered the land has the longest coast line in the strait and westerly storms kick up a world in proportion to its area. Even dangerous sea. the Norway coast cannot compare with it. In reality it looks even more The Pamir is now going at a speed of fantastic than it does on the map. It about seven knots an hour but the seems to be made of ice rather than ship is as level as a rock. If we had put land. The mountains are precipitous a billiard ball on the polished table in and the valleys look as if they had the saloon yesterday it would still be in been cut with a knife, so that the the same place. Never has the ship whole island resembles a tremendous been so motionless or on such an even splinter of granite. Cape San Diego keel as here off Cape Horn. lies in front of us. On the other side, But our chances will dwindle to fourteen miles away, one sees the nothing if the fog doesn't lift and the coast of Tierra del Fuego. It is flat sun shine through. Unless we know except for three round hills called the our position exactly we cannot dare to Three Brothers. sail through the strait. The sea is so calm that the Pamir During the day the visibility im- glides motionless into the strait. The proves but we do not see the sun. The wind has diminished but still comes fog is so heavy it drips from the sails from the north. It is rather foggy but like a heavy rain. I can easily imagine we can see well enough. The silhouette the forests in Tierra del Fuego, the of the island has assumed a shade of 'rain forests' where the twigs are blue like newly cast iron. always dripping, where mist rises About ten o'clock the weather from the dark valleys all the year clears and for some minutes the sun round, where the tree trunks are over- shines through the clouds over grown with lichen, and where one Staten Island. The island looks as if sinks knee-deep into a cushion of moss it were illuminated. I look through which is wet with slime. Nowhere in the big telescope and never have I the world is there such luxurious and gazed on such a scene. The devil varied moss as in the rain forest of himself must live here or else it is the Tierra del Fuego. The whole ship entrance to Hades. Wilder than any

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED J9JO BY SAIL AROUND CAPE HORN nightmare are these bare, precipitous fashioned, primitive way: throwing a rocks, gray as old ice, their surfaces piece of wood overboard, and measur- worn smooth by the eternal winds. ing with a stop watch the time it takes In the hollows snow glistens like bits us to go past it. The wind shifts more of flame. The edges of the rocks are into the west. steep and their rounded summits Staten Island comes to a point at its resemble the broken pieces of a cannon southern end in Cape Bartholomew. ball. Their peaks look as high as the Its mountains grow more round and Alps but are really only about three suddenly the country becomes flat. thousand feet. Through the telescope it looks as if I begin to take moving pictures. It it were only a few hundred yards gives me a proud feeling to point my away and I can see grass growing on lens at this country that has never its round hills. In one place there been photographed in this way before. seems to be a forest with tall, bare tree Rarely does one see Staten Island in trunks such as we see depicted in so clear a light and even more rarely books. I feel a great desire to go walk- does a ship come so close to its shore. ing on that island. Never has the wild life of the sea In the afternoon we come so close to been so openly displayed before me. the coast of Tierra del Fuego that I Great schools of porpoises appear in can take pictures of it. Bell Mountain front of us, swimming across the is the name that mariners have given strait. Huge groups of wild geese to the mountain by which they steer arise and fly across the island's jagged and the cape itself is called 'Good profile, circling about the ship and Success.'' Good luck for Cape Horn'—• then returning to the shore. These the English always have had a keen visits occur regularly every two or sense for good names. About four three minutes the whole time we are in o'clock we have come even with the strait. Albatrosses accompany us Cape Bartholomew and Cape Good and also mollemokes, big black sea Success. On a little hill at the base of gulls that sailors call 'pastors.' Swarms Cape Bartholomew stands a light- ot little sea swallows flit across our house, but there is no residence to be wake. They are black but their backs seen. Apparently this is the light and wings look as if they were covered that was built after the War and that with powdered sugar. functions automatically without at- Sea lions swim out from the island tention. The barometer remains high. close to our vessel. Their bodies are We have a north wind again and the color of light tobacco and their pursue our course of south by west undulating way of swimming is a with all sails set. If this luck holds continuous process of emerging and with us the end of our journey will submerging that they seem to regard soon be in sight. The sun sets, leaving as a form of play. They look at us in behind it a bright yellow strip that astonishment with big, round eyes as lies between the sea and a thick bank if to say, 'What is that?' and then of clouds. We survey the lighthouse on disappear. Cape Bartholomew anxiously. It is a Our journey proceeds slowly. We poor little light compared to the big keep heaving the log in the old- lights on the English Channel yet it

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED [i 321 THE LIVING AGE October gives to all passing ships as great a west. That brings us straight to Diego feeling of security as any light in the Ramirez, that lies in the path of all world. ships rounding Cape Horn to the westward. It has no light. The captain remains on deck all night and is C MONDAY restless and nervous. APE HORN appears before us MARCH 25 soft as lamb's wool. I noticed on The devil take Diego Ramirez. We awakening that we were steering by saw it to-night about three o'clock in an even more favorable wind. Then I the morning between squalls of rain heard between the splashing and to our starboard side, two faint gurgling of the water the sound of the clumps of rock emerging from a rest- captain's voice singing the 'Nether- less sea. The wind still shifts. We lands Hymn of Thanksgiving' and I cannot pass and everyone must lend a knew that all was well. We see Cape hand. I stand at the tiller, quite un- Horn before noon. It lies like a sure of how to steer by the wind clenched fist in the sea about sixteen instead of by the compass. We go for miles away from us, looking very five hours on the other tack and then strange and threatening. Cape Horn come about, firmly believing that we makes a significant impression upon can get past this island, but the wind me. I feel depressed, for the air here is again shifts and at noon Diego heavy and the swell high. Ramirez comes in view directly ahead In sixteen hours the glass has fallen of us, once more in an even more twenty millimetres. A light breeze unfavorable position than last night holds until noon, when it quite dies since it is now on our port side. We away. Cape Horn looks more threaten- again tack but in the afternoon the ing than ever. All of us are somewhat wind comes up from the north north- nervous. The air is very lowering and east and we can steer south by west. the barometer is dropping 'to the The westward journey round Cape cellar,' as the second officer says. Horn can be divided into four stages. Nevertheless, it remains calm. The first stage is Le Maire Strait. Our wireless operator gets in touch That we successfully passed through. with a coasting steamer on the other The second stage is past Diego side of Cape Horn and asks for news Ramirez. That is our present position. of the weather and for its barometer The third and most difficult portion of reading. The steamer flashes back the journey is the westward passage that it has no barometer on board. to the eightieth parallel of longitude. Poor little steamer. Here one has to fight against storms Now that evening has arrived it from the west and against a strong begins to blow from the south south- head current which keeps setting the east. This is not unfavorable, for we ship eastward. The fourth leg of the can lay our course to the southwest. journey involves going from some- At night our good luck is quickly where between the fifty-ninth and snatched away from us. The wind is sixty-second parallel of latitude north- shifting to south southwest and the ward to the fiftieth parallel. highest we can point is west south-

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The quickest journey around Cape centre of a depression area. We are in Horn ever made by a sailing vessel the seventy-first parallel of longitude from the fiftieth parallel of latitude and there is every reason to believe to the same point on the other side that we shall soon reach the eightieth. took seven days. The record journey There was a wonderful light this in the other direction, which is morning and the whole sky looked generally easier, is six days and like a big paper lantern. The high twenty-two hours. swell in which we are rolling made the sun play hide and seek behind our masts and sails. I took pictures, keep- MARCH 26 ing my lens constantly pointed at the C misty sun so that the sails seemed to ALM. It seems that we are in the be running past the sun. Then I would centre of a depression area which is focus my machine on the ship and it moving with us toward the southwest. was the sun's turn to move back and The barometer stands very low but forth. This strange, pale light only there must be wind at the edges of this exists at Cape Horn and ought to look area since the swell is running high. extraordinary in a film. Cape Horn is mocking us. We have I was awakened in the night by partially reefed our sails. The men at salt water and splinters of glass flying the wheel stand watch ready to give into my face. My half-broken port- the signal to shorten sail when the hole had smashed in and I had to screw storm breaks, for according to the on its steel lid. Icy cold had pene- barometer a storm must come, though trated the whole ship and had even it has not yet arrived. crept under my woolen blankets. The The Cape Horn sky encloses us like Pamir was lying far over on her port a deep coffin. Big black banks of cloud, side. I heard the wind howling, not incredibly threatening and heavy, wildly as it does in the English Chan- rise above us. Their edges are lined nel but with a steady pressure, always with broad white streaks from which blowing at the same speed except that rays of the half-concealed sun shoot its intensity kept gradually increasing. forth. At the zenith the sky is white Terrific strength lay in that wind. with a thick kind of whiteness, almost When my books and all my other milky and something like whipped effects fell from their places I arose. white of egg. I stood on tiptoe and the boat was The swell grows higher, the ship lying over at such an angle that I creaks and groans, for it is nervous, could almost touch the floor with my too. The night is extraordinarily hands. I then clambered over the oppressive and the stars look dim. We precipitous floor of my cabin and are sailing with our foresails and miz- up the chart-house stairs to the deck. zensails reefed. The wind has come up again and keeps blowing harder. A weird scene greeted me. The moment I emerged I seemed to run MARCH 27 against a wall of hail and spray. The Again, contrary to all rules, the lights of the Pamir were surrounded storm has failed to break. We find our- by red and green clouds of water. selves apparently still in the calm Above me in the rigging a torn sail

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED THE LIVING AGE October flapped and crackled. There was no- fell on the deck and the captain's dog body on deck, for the captain and barked and played with the icicles. steersmen and all the crew could At sunset we were steering southwest be seen aloft clinging to the yards, but at seven o'clock we veered around attempting to shorten sail. The hail to the northwest. The barometer was burned my skin. My breath came still 'in the cellar' and the captain hard. I could not have made my voice prophesied a southwest storm of hurri- heard above this storm and the men cane proportions. We had reached the aloft were quite silent. Presently I seventy-second parallel of longitude returned below deck and began pre- and the fifty-eighth parallel of latitude paring my moving-picture equipment, and had now spent eight days at since it would grow light at six o'clock. Cape Horn. We were steering south southwest, which meant that we were running toward the South Pole and away from FRIDAY our course. The clinometer in the 1 chart house had stopped functioning. NSTEAD of a hurricane a dead It cannot register an angle of more flat calm has fallen overnight. The than thirty degrees. About half past Pamir is rolling so heavily that great six I came on deck again and was at masses of water are breaking over once soaked to the skin by the seas we both sides. Nevertheless, I sleep were shipping. A faint gray light re- soundly and hear in a dream the vealed a devastated deck, tangled rig- bottles in my medicine chest sliding ging and tackle, tattered sails flapping about and the sound of breaking against the masts, and reefed sails white china in the pantry. with snow. Both watches were on SATURDAY deck, looking exhausted and played A quiet morning. Our course is out. Their hands and faces were bluish southwest. The wind is westward and gray with cold and they were dressed the barometer very low. Most of our strangely to protect themselves from sails are reefed for fear of a sudden the cold. Some of them had wrapped storm. About one o'clock a severe blankets around themselves under squall sets in and both watches come their oilskins. One had tied about his on deck. Mainsail, foresail, crossjack, waist a light blue woolen shirt which and upper topsail are taken in. In the hung down over his legs. Another afternoon we veer to the northwest wore an elegant black coat under his again. The ocean is seething and a short yellow oilskin. storm brewing. The sun breaks through I began to take pictures and after the threatening clouds, shedding a I had reeled off twenty-five yards my wonderful light. That is typical of fingers were so stiff that I could not this region: a few minutes before a hold the camera any longer so I rubbed squall begins the sun breaks through my hands together and sprinkled a for a few seconds. little whiskey on them from my flask. Gradually the wind abated and our SUNDAY larger sails were set again. During this The light here is a constant source process avalanches of ice and snow of amazement to me; the finest fire-

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED ipjo BY SAIL AROUND CAPE HORN [179] works in the world are nothing com- snow. Only the ship moves and its pared to the sky around Cape Horn. motions are utterly strange. It glides We are still tacking against this about like butter in a frying pan. eternal northwest wind. Twice a day I stand glued to the wall of the chart we come about and on each occasion house. Although I do not move about both watches are on deck. What we at all it requires all my energies gain to windward we lose by reason of merely to remain alive. The ship a head current-—a process that has often tips at an angle of forty-five been going on for ten days now. degrees or more. I do not believe that I am exaggerating when I say this. If MONDAY I try to walk I am propelled like a I awoke to realize that the ship was shot all over the place, from corner to leaning far to starboard and came on corner. The ship roars as if there were deck at six o'clock. Everything was a hundred lions in its masts but the transformed and all the crew wore roar is so loud that it is deafening and happy expressions. We have a south- gives the effect of complete stillness. west wind and are steering northwest It is so natural for the sea to keep with all sails set. breaking over the boat that I do not Evening. The wind has become a even wonder at it any more. The ship storm. The Pamir is sailing splendidly takes mighty bufferings like a defeated and is heading southwest under its boxer and then stands still and quiv- topgallant sails. She is tipping as ers. It suffers like a man in pain. much as if she were a yacht and seas Ropes have been strung at right are breaking over the deck. All the angles across the deck, for if the sea wire rigging is singing in the wind. picks up a man who has no support it beats him to a jelly. There is TUESDAY EVENING nothing but cold food to eat, for I think I know what a hurricane is everything in the kitchen is topsy- now, but I am almost too exhausted to turvy. The stove at first poisoned the write. When it began at about five air with coal gas and then, thank o'clock the sea was so white that the heaven, went out. No stove can burn ship looked as if she were packed in during a hurricane, for a hurricane cotton wool. The next thing that hap- cuts off the air, paradoxical as that pened was quite different from any- may seem. thing I have ever been able to imagine, although I have sailed the seas for THURSDAY six years. Deep silence and strange The hurricane has abated. This stillness. That is the essence of a morning we all thought that our little hurricane. pigs had been drowned in their stall The sea stands still. It is a mountain but they are still alive, though very range with high peaks and deep val- wet and unhappy. All our equipment leys cut out of steel. It looks like a is soaking wet. The crew has no more landscape when the snow is melting. dry berths and no more dry clothes. On the peaks of the mountains lie All their faces look old. The hurricane white glaciers and in the valleys there has driven us back fifty miles to the are thin streaks of foaming torrents of northeast.

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED The flush of an international tennis victory has not blinded all Frenchmen to the fact that sport is only part of life—not the whole of it. A timely essay with a moral for all countries. Sport for Sport's Sake

By EDMOND JALOUX

Translated from Le temps Paris Semi-Official Daily

WNCE MORE THE Davis Cup at track athletics. Formerly that did remains in our hands. It was a great not take place except when a frontier victory, which, naturally enough, has was violated, a treaty broken, or caused infinite rejoicing among our when the dey of Algiers flicked his tennis players, and our satisfaction fan. Thus we find ourselves asking has been all the greater because the whether countries cannot play each competition was so keen and because other politely without involving their Tilden, the American champion, honor and without threatening world showed admirable skill, vigor, and peace. style. But a desire has been expressed But, you say, we have not yet to transform this happy event into a reached that condition. Wait a mo- triumph on the part of the French ment. The condemnation of the French nation. This seems to me a most athlete, Cuvelier, has not been devoid dangerous tendency. To-morrow or of consequences and one of our depu- the next day, America may well re- ties has just demanded that as soon capture the Davis Cup, in which case as our compatriot is acquitted our we shall be obliged to register a de- sport societies shall refuse to enter into feat for France. Furthermore, since relations with German sporting so- each match has a constantly growing cieties. In short, this episode shows tendency to excite all the compet- quite clearly how bicycle riders or ing countries, national honor will be football players tend to become the compromised in every tennis reversal, official representatives of their nation. every lost bicycle race, every failure Shall we witness the day when the

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