An Engineering Student's Notes, Technical, Philosophical and Otherwise

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: see the fun; go below, not I. The first thing noticed was that the steamer did not pitch, although going across the seas. She kept right on a level course, shot through wave after wave, each one flying higher and higher, but there was no thought of them ever reaching the high deck where I was. That was a mistake. There was a tremendous shock as if we had struck a rock, and the next thing I was pinned down on the deck like a postage stamp. It seemed to me there was a ton of water on my back. I was full of salt water inside and out, choked and saturated, and there was old Tarpaulin laughing at me, and repeating his cynical injunction, better go below, sir. I went below then, and was taken in charge by a cabin steward who my uncle, as I afterwards found out, had bargained with to dry me out. It is not quite clear where the best point of view is for one of these channel mail steamers, but that it is on shore somewhere there is no doubt. They are amphibious, pay no attention to seas, go over them, through or under them just as the course determines, leaving a white streak behind. - CHAPTER IV. GANG AWA' TILL NEW YORK THE EFFECT OF TWO TURNS A MINUTE BRITISH LOCOMOTIVES NEW LONDON. Speaking of steamers, I am reminded of a story told by Engineer Jones, the man of beam engines who was previously mentioned in these notes. Mr. Jones was not always a beam engineer, he has seen salt service in various seas, antipodal and otherwise, and carries the usual mess room quantity of anecdotes. One of these relates to an old Scotch engineer of the Collins and Cunard times 40 years or so ago. The engineer, whom we will call McNab, was in the New York and Liverpool service, and had engaged an assistant in Liverpool who on the first night out, at the change of watch went...