Show mo t log book of the skipper who sailed miles mile M K S PACIFIC OCEAN JAPAN BOUND UT of san francisco head headed ed 0 OUT for the orient weather of the best I 1 proceed in confor ip ty with rny my invariable cus custom tont to i wangle a human interest chapter front from the captain of this ship NN not ot so easy I 1 pe penetrating net rating to the forward cabin was simple enough but tapping the well springs of ills memory was w is something else again what did I 1 wish to know ile he Wit touched clied it button tea for two opposite me sat a chunk of a man smiling inscrutably bly val waiting ting to be placed upon tile the spot lot the gray in ills his closely cropped hair was a guarantee of his experience one stirring story from sour alc before the mast or on the bridge will satisfy I 1 sald said lifting my eggshell egg shell teacup in 16 salute iris IHs smile collapsed nothing has occurred ile he sald said nothing that Is worth retelling you shall see at twenty I 1 became a cadet on oil the government ship calel marti ran the gauntlet 0 of o official promotion became captain of the matsuyama maru nippon calsha line april 28 1018 1918 and have sailed balled under the N Y K E ever since with one jear of world war service the torpedo adventure commander S ova glanced ino info the depths of his teacup pushed a boz bot or of cigars toward me and lapsed into sl f lence no adventures tit at sea no wrecks no mutinies no typhoons no romance nothing out of your recollections to offer me I 1 asked nothing so far but there Is yet time the future may have something to offer who can say possibly there Is a detail or two that you have forgotten ills eyeballs seemed suddenly to invert themselves as though striving to look backward bac backward iward the expression of inscrutability deepened no there Is nothing yes there was an incident that now comes back to me just a moment I 1 will look at the log of my life and give you the date the seadog reached into a drawer of ills his desk and brought forth a small leather covered book thought 1 I this begins to look more like the real thing here it Is he continued june 15 1907 1007 ax p m off plymouth during the war heavy seas running from the maln main deck astern scanning the water I 1 saw a dark outline slipping toward the star starboard buard quarter perhaps a hundred bards distant seventy five yards fifty yards twenty five yards like a shadow I 1 leaned oer the rail certain that the time had come lifted in the tide fell away rose again from the trough while the torpedo and such it was hesitated for a brief instant and then lunged onward the way of a ship at set sea Is indeed a mystery gathering herself like ilke some living thin thing slie site plowed abbad curtas just as the torpedo fired from an invisible submarine at close quarters slipped by ten feet astern and disappeared just that we berthed in safe water before before midnight commanded 27 ships there must be something else in the he crisp leaves of this vollme I 1 salt said ion wondering dering why it contained column after column of ai abad figures interspersed with not notations 1 eions in japanese recording the number ber of miles sailed names of the ships under my command ant and a few statistical notes lie he volunteered how many pilles miles and how low ahan many y ships Coin commander mander 1 up to january 1 1936 the grand total reached 1 1 nautical miles on twenty seen vessels none of which was lost while under my command the first million miles were completed 1140 p m march 2 off island on a voyage to suez vii vi i colombo approximately olli officers cers an and I 1 alen n cn schied an on ships that chave I 1 have had tile lie honor to captain burld during all of that period of time not a I 1 single man mail had to be put in irons the furthest point north reached benched duran during f my travels is hamburg germany and the I 1 furthest tl r south Is adelaide australia the maximum mileage for h any ny one sear 5 ear was CO ITO have you your voyaging ever observed a phenomenon nt at sea that could not ile be scientifically accounted for are thare any insoluble mysteries hinted at in the logbook have jou developed any superstitions in your life as a sa sailor llor none there Is a reason for everything thin that may arise in human affairs it if there are arc sea serpents in the deep it has not been my privilege to behold them superstitions with an expansive gesture lie he tossed the ille whole theory into space harried of course again this realist this methodical man who has haj logged lili his sea life with such meticulous arc care turned tile pages of the record presently ills his almond eyes sparkling the mask of inscrutability swept from his face to make way for actual mirth lie placed un tin index finger on a single line 11 yes es married kobe japan may 28 8 1014 one child a daughter also married 1933 1935 no gran grandchildren deb ildren as yet copyright servi service cu |