Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 May 1894 — DURING A STORM. [ARTICLE]

DURING A STORM.

The Pertlow Predicament nt Paaeeaffere Aboard a Steamship. “Every one has heard of the way In which passengers on some European railroads are locked in the cars,” said Henry L. Luker, of Denver, who has just returned from a European trip and passed through St Louis on bis way home. “The way passengers are treated on some, at least, of the ocean liners seems to me even more unreasonable. In a locked car, with no conductor in range, a passenger appears to be in a bad scrape in case of a collision, but a passenger who is locked in the saloon of a vessel during a storm is worse off stilt While we were crossing the ocean eastward in January we were caught in what I thought the most terrible storm the ocean had ever seen, although my views were not shared apparently by the members of the crew. Still the water was so high that the hatchways were nailed down, no passengers were allowed on deck, and there was a general consultation among us as to what our chances would be if the ship went down to the bottom. It would be too late then open the hatchways and provide us with life belts or boats, and it certainly looked as though we should lust die cooped up like a lot of prisoners Without any redress or assistance being possible. I mentioned the matter to the captain the following day, and he told me that there was no more chance of his boat sinking than of the world, coming to an end. That reassured me a good deal, but on my return trip the captain of the steamer told me that the one I had crossed in before was no safer than it ought to be, and that he would hate to be on it in a genuine hurricane. The latter estimate, although perhaps as prejudiced as the forflier, was far less satisfactory in every respect, and rather weakened my feeling of confl dence in oreqn greyhounds.”