Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
of 22. The schooner's voyage was west about by way of the Guinea
coast, Rio, Magellan's Strait, Valparaiso, Tahiti, Hawail, Japan, Singa-
pore, Colombo, the Suez Canal (in which Disraeli had just secured
a controlling British interest) and Lisbon. She accomplished 15,000
miles under sail and 12,800 miles propelled by her auxiliary engines.
Brassey took down the removable funnel and used canvas whenever
possible because, 'it is pleasant to be free from the thud of engines,
the smell of oil, and the horrors of the inevitable coaling', but, as
an expert on ships and shipbuilding, he valued the convenience of
steam power and he seldom hung about waiting for a breeze. For this
reason, and also because he encountered little in the way of really
bad weather, he completed the journey in 324 days.
On the second day out the voyage came close to a tragic, prema-
ture end.
Sunbeam
was crossing the unpredictable Bay of Biscay and
making ten knots under canvas before a northeasterly. The Brasseys
were hugely enjoying their new adventure:
. . . the sea came popping in and out at the most unexpected
places; much to the delight of the children, who, with bare feet and
legs, and armed with mops and sponges, waged mimic war against the
intruder and each other, singing and dancing to their heart's content .
. . After our five o'clock dinner . . . we were all sitting or standing about
the stern of the vessel, admiring the magnificent dark blue billows fol-
lowing us, with their curling white crests, mountains high . . . Tom
was looking at the stern compass with Allnutt [their thirteen-year-
old son). Mr Bingham and Mr Freer were smoking, half-way between
the quarter-deck and the after companion, where Captain Brown, Dr
Potter, Muriel, and I, were standing. Captain Lecky [Brown and Lecky
were naval friends of Brassey's], seated on a large coil of rope, placed
on the box of the rudder, was spinning Mabelle a yarn. A new hand was
steering, and just at the moment when an unusually big wave overtook
us, he unfortunately allowed the vessel to broach-to a little. In a second
