dimensions, and tonnage. He could identify the house flags and funnels
of all the principal liners; he could follow a ship through
all her vicissitudes and change of ownership. When he found himself
in a seaport town his first business was to visit the water front
and take knowledge of the vessels that lay in the stream or by the docks.
One voyage he made to England was in a cargo ship. With his passion for work
he took on the duties of surgeon, and amazed the skipper with a revelation
of the new technique in operations which he himself had been accustomed
to perform by the light of experience alone.

On the present and more luxurious voyage, he remarks that the decks
were roomy, the ship seven years old, and capable of fifteen knots an hour,
the passengers pleasant, and including a large number of French.
All now know only too well the nature of the business which sent
those ardent spirits flocking home to their native land.

Forty-eight hours were lost in fog. The weather was too thick
for making the Straits, and the `Scotian' proceeded by Cape Race
on her way to Havre. Under date of August 5-6 the first reference
to the war appears: "All is excitement; the ship runs without lights.
Surely the German kaiser has his head in the noose at last:
it will be a terrible war, and the finish of one or the other.
I am afraid my holiday trip is knocked galley west; but we shall see."
The voyage continues. A "hundred miles from Moville we turned back,
and headed South for Queenstown; thence to the Channel; put in at Portland;
a squadron of battleships; arrived here this morning."

The problem presented itself to him as to many another.
The decision was made. To go back to America was to go back from the war.
Here are the words: "It seems quite impossible to return,