Although the voyage was so long, I believe the venture turned out to be a good one financially.  Gold was at a very high premium, — about two dollars and eighty cents at this time, — and our cotton sold for one dollar and fifty cents per pound.  The “Neimen” went into dock, and people came in hundreds to see the strange sight.  She was covered with shells like a rook.  Some of these shells were sent out to China, and Messrs. Russell & Co. (the owners) had them mounted in silver as inkstands.

28th June, 1898.

[*] To land and store cargo should never be done by a shipmaster without authority from the owners.

A Voyage of Misfortune.

After the last voyage which I gave you an account of I accepted an offer made me by my late employers, and became superintendent of a business under their management in New York.  Unfortunately, at the close of the war, this business was temporarily suspended and my contract was annulled.  I then tried two or three different things on my own account, and finally settled as agent for a paper-mill; and all things were going on fairly well until in an unguarded moment I read an advertisement in the New York Herald.  It ran as follows:  “A gentleman with experience requires a partner with capital, in a safe business, with no risks.”  The bait took, and I had an interview with “the gentleman,” and saw the persons to whom he referred me, and we joined, with the result that in less than seven months we had changed places.  I had the experience and he had the capital, as well as the stock, and had vanished to where the woodbine twineth.  His friends told me that this was his usual way of doing business.  This was pretty cool.  In a short time the same gentleman was seeking another victim in Chicago.  My advice to sailors is to “stick to the ship.”

Well, sir, the next thing I thought of was to get a ship before the landsharks took all I had from me; and, with the assistance of Mr. Paul Forbes, I was soon in command of the ship “Royal Saxon,” owned jointly by R. W. Cameron, of New York, and R. Towns, of Sydney.  We sailed from New York for Melbourne, and arrived there safely, though in running down our easting about 42° south latitude we had continuous fogs.

Now, sir, to the point.  The above firm despatched from New York each alternate week one vessel for Melbourne and one for Sydney.  The week before I left, the ship “Eastward Ho,” Captain Byrne, was despatched for Sydney, and apparently all went well until she got into latitude 37° or 38° south, and a little to the eastward of the Cape of Good Hope, when suddenly one night, when running before a strong gale, she came crushing into ice.  The shock was so severe that her fore and main topmasts and mizzen-topgallant masts went by the board, and the foremast-head sprung.  The hull was considerably shattered, and the main covering-board split up from forward as far aft as the main gangway.