The germ theory again.

Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The germ theory again. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    then experienced some of the peril of Atlantic voyaging under exceptional circumstances. Fogs and head winds compelled him to put into Shake Harbour, where he had his compass corrected. Starting again on the 25th, he experienced toler- ably fair weather until the 7th of July, when a heavy gale set in from the south-west. The combings of the hatchway were started, and the water, finding entrance, damaged some of his provisions. The gale subsiding, he was favoured with fine weather and fair wind until the 16th; and a strong breeze in the right direction coming on, he made good progress till the 2d of August. When about three hundred miles from the Irish coast, the wind increased to a hurricane ; he hove to, but in unshipping his mast for this purpose, the boat got broadside on a large wave and was upset. Johnson clambered on the upturned bottom, where he remained for about twenty minutes. By dexterous management he succeeded in righting the boat, got in, and pumped it dry; everything, however, was wetted by the upset, and he lost his square-sail and kerosene lamp. Wending his way as winds permitted, he reached within a hundred miles of the Irish coast by the 7th, spoke a ship, and obtained some bread and fresh water—both of which had become very scanty with him. On the following day he got sound- ings, but fog prevented him from seeing land. On the 10th he sighted Milford, near the south-west extremity of Wales. He landed at Abercastle in Pembrokeshire on the 11th, after being fifty-seven days at sea ; starting again, he put into Holyhead, and finally arrived at Liverpool on the 21st. The little Centennial, which measured only twenty feet in length over all, had run about seventy miles a day on an average. Johnson maintained his general health excellently well, though suffering from want of sleep. The little boat that has recently crossed the Atlantic differed from Johnson’s in this among other particulars, that it had a crew of two persons, one of whom was a woman. Certainly this woman will have something to talk about for the rest of her life : seeing that we may safely assign to her a position such as her sex has never before occupied —that of having managed half the navigation of a little ocean-craft for some three thousand miles. The New Bedford, so designated after the town of the same name in Massachusetts (the state from which Johnson also hailed), is only twenty feet long, with a burden of a little over a ton and a half; built of cedar, and rigged as (in sailor-phrase) a ‘ leg-of-mutton schooner ; ’ with two masts and one anchor. Anything less ocean-like we can hardly conceive. Captain Thomas Crapo, the owner of this little affair, is an active man in the prime of life ; and his better-half proves herself worthy to be the helpmate of such a man. On the 28th of May in the present year, Captain and Mrs Crapo embarked in their tiny ocean-boat, provided with such provisions and stores as they could stow away under the deck. The steersman (or steers- wornan) sat in a sunken recess near the stern, with head and bust above the level of the deck ; the other took any standing-place that he could get for managing the sails, rope, anchor, &c. The boat had no chronometer ; and the progress had to be measured as best it could by dead-reckoning. The boat, soon after leaving New Bedford, was forced by stress of weather to seek a few days’ shelter at Chatham, a small port in the same state Hoisting sail again on the 2d of June, the boat set off with a fair wind ; and all went well for three days. An adverse wind then sprang up, a foo overspread the sky, and for ten days' the voyage continued under these unfavourable circumstances. Whilst near the shoal known as the Great Banks, a keg was seen floating ; this was secured, and the iron hoops utilised (with the aid of canvas) in making a drogue—one which was included anion * : the outfit of the boat being found too light for its |l purpose. The boat, after lying to for three or 1 four days in a gale of wind, started again, and sailed on till the 21st of June, when another gale necessitated another stoppage. The New Bedford sighted the steamer Batavia, which offered to take the lonely pair of navigators on board: an offer I kindly appreciated, but courteously declined. After I this meeting, a succession of gales was encoun- 1 tered, and the rudder broke ; a spare oar was made | to act as a substitute. The sea ran so very higli I that even when lying down to rest, husband and j wife had to lie on wet clothes, everything on board I being sloppy and half saturated. At one portion | of this trying period Captain Crapo had to steer for seventy hours uninterruptedly, his wife being incapacitated from rendering the aid which was | her wont ; and on another occasion he had to pay eighteen hours’ close attention to the drogue. The voyage terminated on the 21st of July, after;a duration of fifty-four days. The average sleep lof the captain did not exceed four hours a day ; and lie had no sleep at all during the last seventy hours of the run. He had intended to make Falmouth j his port of arrival, but was glad to make for Penzance instead. The surname of Crapo, we were informed by the captain, is not uncommon at New Bedford. The goodwife is Swedish by descent, Scotch by birth. American by marriage—a citizen of the world. In examining the boat closely (which we hare done), it becomes more than ever a marvel how it | could have formed the home of a married couple i for seven weeks. Descending through a small hatchway, the feet rest on the floor of (let us say) the state-cabin, an apartment three feet high; consequently the head and body project above the hatchway. By spreading blankets and rugs, and crouching down by degrees, a would-be sleeper can lie down under the deck, or two sleepers close f to the two sides of the boat. The wife of course acted as stewardess, cook, parlour-maid, scullery-, maid, &c., leaving her husband to manage most of) the navigation. The sperm-oil lamp for the com- pass-binnacle ; the kerosene or petroleum lamp for the cooking-stove ; the receptacles for biscui: I and preserved meats and vegetables; the butler- pantry for a few bottles of spirits ; the vessels fo: containing water—all were packed into a mar vellously small space. The drogue (already men- tioned) is a kind of floating anchor which, dragge after the vessel by means of a long rope, helps fcJ steady it in certain states of the wind. Five lmndre pounds weight of stores and six hundred of iro: ballast, kept the boat sufficiently low in the water Such were the interior arrangements of one < those strange small vessels which adventurous! attempt to cross the Atlantic. Printed and Published by W. & K. Chambers, 47 Pate: noster Low, London, and 339 High Street, Bdinbuboh. All Rights Reserved,
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