Show I Half Speed I IBy T By fly JOHN BLAKE I 1 once boarded a steamship to cross the Atlantic ocean from France to America on a ship which usually made the trip in ten days The second day out In the Bay of ot Biscay two of ot the ships ship's four boilers went out of commission That afternoon it began to blow as aa it can blow blowIn In the Bay of Biscay when It goes about it earnestly By midnight the gale had reached sixty miles an hour blowing right into our teeth and sending green greenwater greenwater greenwater water over the bow with every comber With two boilers we were supposed to make halt half speed which was eight ml miles es an hour In the mornIng morning morning morn morn- ing wa we found we ha had 1 traveled eight miles in eight hours on our course One course one mile an hour The gale continued for tor three days then abated and presently came up again although with less violence The ten days das which it should have required to cross to New York stretched out to twenty one It lt was not a pleasant Journey not journey not the swift and safe passage which our friends wished us when they said good good goodbye bye Jo o us In Brest D During the voyage I became acquainted with the chief engineer Boilers are a good deal like men mep he told m mOne meone me one afternoon as the waves boomed against the deadlight that lit his cabin shutting out the view of ot the waves that raced beside us i They will wUl break down if it yoU ou dont don't get time to repair them and when they break down there is I trouble Half speed Is what were we're supposed to be making making mak mak- ing but that half hatt speed was calculated in pleasant weather I guess We lVe arent aren't making a quarter speed now and we arent aren't trying to If I 1 drive these boIlers boilers boil boIl- ers era hard the good ones will quit and leave us a d dere derelict re- re That's the way with men when they slow up They keep on trying to make at least halt half the time they did when they were ajl aU sound and right with the result that they ln and break down as asI this old hooker will not do if it I can help it it I Nor did we break down chiefly because he was wasa wasI a very good engineer and watched the boilers r elo closely ly to prevent any undue strain losing much of ot othIs his sleep on the voyage to do itI it ft his observations and have I always remember I recalled them many times since since- when I have s son seen n men broken down by too much strain trying t to keep l up at something like the old pace and getting consta constantly constantly con con- sta weaker and more more useless with the effort There are times when most roost of ot us must slow jow slowdown down down because few human ma machines hInes are built t to td st stand na all the load we put on them But when we do slow down it is better to be bo content with half hair speed for tor a a. while than try to tomake tomake make male schedule time by overworking and overs overstraining over over- s straining f If It there were as many broken down ships on the theseas theseas theseas seas as there are broken down human beings floating floating floating float float- ing about the world navigation would be a hazard- hazard out business But ships are cared for by experts who knew what they can cando do and what to expect of ot them We Ye are driven by ourselves and there are few tew pi pius ofus pf of us who have have even taken the trouble to learn o our r particular kind of navigation Copyright CoNright right 1925 by the Bell Syndicate Inc |