A few years ago I had with me as chief mate a man who had left his home when quite a boy to come to China. After arrival in Shanghai, he got a position as quartermaster, and worked his way up to chief mate.
After about eighteen years' absence from his home, an older brother of his came to Shanghai in command of a sailing-ship, and the two brothers met. The captain and I were introduced to each other, and I invited him to spend all the time he could with his young brother on board the steamer. Later the captain asked me to use my influence to get his brother to go home with him to see his mother, who was a very old lady, and always yearning to see her child "Sam."
After some trouble, I persuaded him, as a matter of duty, to go home, and obtained for him a year's leave of absence. He left Shanghai in his brother's ship, and went to Iloilo, where the vessel loaded and sailed for America. When the vessel was well on her way towards the Cape of Good Hope, they had one very calm day, and a short distance from them was another vessel showing the American flag. The two brothers agreed to have a boat lowered and to pull over to the stranger for a short visit. This was done, and to their great surprise, when they got on board, they found that the captain was their own older brother.
The two captains had been employed in different ports and on different voyages, and had not met each other in fifteen years, and the oldest and the youngest had never met before.
A Little Railway Experience.
By way of a change, I will tell you of a little railway experience I once had. During the Civil War in America, I had occasion to go from New York to Boston on important business, and I was there some days. When my business was ended I decided on leaving Boston by the midnight train.
Each hotel had its coach to convey guests to the depot or railway station. I took my seat in the coach, and was joined by a gentleman also going to New York. We each got our railway tickets, and sat side by side in the same carriage, or "car," and after some little time we got into conversation, and when my companion found that I was a "seafaring man," no one could have been more astonished than he was.
He looked at me and said, "My dear sir, you look to be an intelligent sort of man, and you tell me that you go to sea."
I said, "Yes, and why not?"