p. 19 | KNEW HIS DUTY

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jan 15, 1880

KNEW HIS DUTY.

OWNERS of ships, (especially when they are mere landsmen), are as unwise to interfere with the sailing-orders of their skillful seamen as the President would be to interfere with the command of one of his generals on a battle-field. It is, however, not every officer placed in such embarrassment who knows how to put the case so skillfully as did the captain of the steamer Commonwealth, as told by the New York correspondent of the Boston Journal:—

I was on board a Sound steamboat in a snow-storm one night before Thanksgiving. The president of the company, the treasurer, and two directors were on board. All at once there was a rattling of the chains, and it was evident the anchor was down. The officers rushed up to the captain’s office and exclaimed—

"What does this mean, Capt. Williams?"

"It means that I have anchored the boat."

"But to-morrow is Thanksgiving. We must get home anyhow. The old Commonwealth has weathered worse gales than this."

The captain sat down at the table and wrote a positive order from the president, treasurer and directors, to raise the anchor and proceed against his own judgment.

"Sign that order, gentlemen, and I will proceed."

Of course not one of them would sign it.

"That's the way it is," said Williams. "Not a man of you would take the responsibility. You want me to violate my own judgment, and if anything happened, you would turn on me and say, 'You are a sailor and we are not.'" And the old boat did not budge until morning.—Youth's Companion.