To Panama and back

by Henry T. Byford

She finally got away from me and my questions, and went to prepare egg-nogs for the convalescing ladies. She beats the world making egg-nogs—for ladies. Men don’t like them.

Later we held a business meeting of the passengers in the dining-room in order to give substantial expression of our gratitude to the gentlemanly crew of the S. S. Brighton for our rescue from the reefs in the lagoon of Chiriqui on a dark and rainy night; also to the captain who had so successfully stood the trial of his first trip as a commander and had consulted the heavens so diligently for us, predicting stormy weather with unerring accuracy. We feared that the adventure of the reefs might be used by his enemies and the United Fruit Company as an excuse for depriving him of his command of the smallest, most rickety and most sure-to-go-down boat of the line.

We also took up a subscription which netted each man of the crew a dollar for having risked his life for us when the boat struck and stuck on the bottom where it really belonged.

We then drew up the following resolutions in honor of the captain, to be presented by him to the United Fruit Company. We made them strong and striking in order that they might not be put aside unnoticed:

“Whereas, the S. S. Brighton did, between the night of Jan. 10 and the morning of Jan. 11, 1905, come to rest on a reef in Chiriqui Lagoon, and thus imperil the lives of her passengers and the reputation of her captain;

“Whereas, the S. S. Brighton was not made for man but for bananas;

“Whereas, in a time of danger, when the moon and stars failed and darkness prevailed, when the passengers were suffering from the fear of death and the feeling of nausea, the captain was cool and collected and waited in patience until the sun arose and the cock crew and the ship forced its way backward into deep water;

“Whereas, we deliberately and of our own free will, chose the said Brighton, and were, thus responsible for our mistake, and the company of its own free will chose the captain and is thus responsible for his mistakes;

“Whereas, we should not have been caught out at night in the absence of the heavenly bodies, or of the phosphorescence of the waves, or of the fireflies of the beach to indicate to the negro pilot where we were at;

“Therefore, be it resolved that we, the benighted and bereeft passengers of the S. S. Brighton, do hereby express and extend our thanks to the captain and the ship for successfully getting us off the bottom and out of danger;