In fact my knowledge of a ship and its belongings was nearly equal to that of the young lady who was about to make her first trip across the ocean with her father.  Seeing the sailors about to weigh anchor she inquired why they were working so hard.  Her father replied, “They are weighing the anchor, my dear.”  “How absurd!  If the Captain wants to know the weight of the anchor why doesn’t he have it weighed beforehand and not wait until we get ready to start and then keep us waiting for the men to weigh it?”

However, it is the unexpected that always happens, and one day I married a young sea captain from a seaport town.  He was soon to sail for Australia, and to me such a trip was literally going to the ends of the earth.  I feel sure that my parents never expected me to return.  What preparations we made for that voyage!  What pickles, preserves, cakes, and everything that would keep, were packed for me and sent aboard our ship which was lying in New York harbor!

Our cabins were beautifully fitted up with every convenience and comfort that we could have on shore.  The saloon, or after-cabin, was finished in bird’s-eye maple and satin wood veneering.  Wilton carpets and furnishings of raw silk made a homelike and attractive room.  Our stateroom, with large double bed, and our own private bath opening from the stateroom, left us nothing to wish for in the line of comfort.  The second cabin, or dining quarters for the Captain and First Officer, was finished like the after-cabin, while forward of the two was the mess room for the Second and petty officers.

At last the day came on which we were to sail, and, realizing that I was not a born sailor, I made up my mind that I must make myself over into one, though the making over process proved to be nearly the death of me.  For the first ten days I can recall but little outside of a promiscuous tumbling about of movable objects and, though urged strongly to go on deck I refused to do so, caring little whether I lived or died.  However, one day I was literally taken up, carried on deck, and placed in a steamer chair, and from that time I recovered rapidly.

So many people have asked me if the time at sea did not hang heavily on my hands.  What did I do?  Was I not lonesome, homesick, and innumerable other like questions to which I have honestly replied that I was not lonesome or homesick.  We purchased books by the hundred before sailing, and with a piano and flute, passed many pleasant hours.  So much fancy work was always on hand that I have cared but little for it since.  Whenever the weather permitted I walked two or three miles up and down the quarter deck, so many times up and back making a mile.  Occasionally we took with us as passenger some young man whom we knew very well and who wished to take such a voyage.  At one time a brother of mine, also one of the Captain’s were our companions; two other times, young men from our own state proved to be excellent company, and to this day we enjoy nothing more than talking over our odd experiences in the different countries to which we traveled.  Though I was the only lady on board I did not feel the lack of companionship of other women.  A queer life it was!  No one to come and no one to go, with nothing but the sky and water to be seen.