She began very early in the morning to pitch and toss
about in a most unusual manner, and I have to record that, while I was
at the end of the bowsprit reefing the jib, she ducked me under water
three times for a Christmas box. I got wet and did not like it a bit:
never in any other sea was I put under more than once in the same
short space of time, say three minutes. A large English steamer
passing ran up the signal, "Wishing you a Merry Christmas." I think
the captain was a humorist; his own ship was throwing her propeller
out of water.
Two days later, the _Spray_, having recovered the distance lost in the
gale, passed Cape Agulhas in company with the steamship _Scotsman_,
now with a fair wind. The keeper of the light on Agulhas exchanged
signals with the _Spray_ as she passed, and afterward wrote me at New
York congratulations on the completion of the voyage. He seemed to
think the incident of two ships of so widely different types passing
his cape together worthy of a place on canvas, and he went about
having the picture made. So I gathered from his letter. At lonely
stations like this hearts grow responsive and sympathetic, and even
poetic. This feeling was shown toward the _Spray_ along many a rugged
coast, and reading many a kind signal thrown out to her gave one a
grateful feeling for all the world.
One more gale of wind came down upon the _Spray_ from the west after
she passed Cape Agulhas, but that one she dodged by getting into
Simons Bay.
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