p. 26 | New York to Liverpool by E. R. Palmer

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 24, 1902

New York to Liverpool

By E. R. Palmer

R. M. S. “OCEANIC,” MID-OCEAN, May 6, 1902.

DEAR FELLOW WORKERS: Our good ship is rapidly plowing her way through the waves, bearing our company of delegates and canvassers, twenty-five in all, away from the home land, at the rate of nearly five hundred miles a day. During these few days of monotonous sailing, we have thought many times of the work in the United States, and, one after another, have called to mind the general agents, State agents, and tract society secretaries whom we have had the pleasure of meeting during the recent union conference meetings. I would enjoy writing a personal letter to you each, but must delay that for the present, and write these few words to you all.

First, I must tell you about our voyage. Kind providence has favored us with as fine weather as I have ever seen at sea. We are also blessed with the privilege of making our journey in one of the best ships that sails the seas. She is seven hundred and four feet long, sixty-eight feet wide, and when loaded to the water line, draws thirty-five feet of water, and her weight, or tonnage, is 17,040 tons. She carries 1,813 passengers, and a crew of nearly 900, of whom there are six officers, 26 engineers and mechanics, 480 stewards, and 120 stokers. I have not been able to ascertain the number of sailors and cooks. The speed of the ship is from twenty to twenty-five miles an hour. She has ninety-six furnaces, which burn four hundred and eighty tons of coal a day. It requires forty men, working constantly, to shovel the coal into these furnaces. Each set of men works eight hours a day, in shifts of four hours each, thus requiring the one hundred and twenty stokers mentioned above. Although no boat has yet been built which is able to ride the ocean waves without pitching and rolling, this fine ship is able to resist the influence of the waves very largely. It was built and furnished at a cost of four and one-half million dollars, and is really a floating palace. She is built in fourteen water-tight sections, so that in case of collision, if a rent were made in her, the damaged section could be closed up water-tight, so that only a portion of the ship would fill. Some one has remarked that there is no safer place in the world to-day than on a first-class ocean steamer like this. Our company has been troubled very little with seasickness. Nearly all have taken their meals quite regularly, and are in good spirits. We are thankful that we have been thus favored.

As we have had the privilege on this journey of becoming personally acquainted with the canvassers whom we have selected for the English field, we have been more and more thankful that the Lord has enabled us to select such earnest, able men as they all seem to be. They are about to enter upon a great work, and we trust that they will have the prayers of their fellow laborers at home. We know they will be greatly missed in the fields from which they have been taken, yet no one will wish them back, for they are going where the needs are many times greater. There is no more cheering omen in our work at the present time than this strong spirit which is being awakened everywhere in behalf of foreign lands. This company of canvassers on their way to England is, we trust, only one contingent of a great army that will, in the future, go from the United States to the great, needy countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa.

The delegates who are on their way to the European Union Conference are not going for a visit of inspection; they are the scouts, or advance guards, who are going to these countries to stand face to face with their needs, and then with broad, intelligent ideas of them, will return home for men and means. We trust that the day is rapidly passing when nine tenths of all the workers will circle around in the home conferences of the United States, and nine tenths of the tithes of the people be regarded as the proper proportion to retain at home, while only one tenth, with a few donations, is divided into little parcels and distributed among the great nations of the earth, some of whom are larger than our own.

I wish to say to you who are engaged in our book and tract society work, that my heart is indeed with you in the effort you are putting forth to re-establish and build up this department. You have a great work to do, and it ought to be done quickly. The Lord needs real generals,—men who will not dally along year after year with this work, and be satisfied with little success. Surely the time has come when it will please God to work through the men who have the courage of their convictions, and who have the strength of faith to work out great things in spreading the gospel truth. Hundreds of men are needed for foreign lands, but they must be trained at home. A strong work at home will mean a strong work abroad. Our State agents, tract society secretaries, and conference executive committees should unite in studying the present situation, and devise plans, upon a strong, broad basis, which will cause a general awakening in every State, and enlist a great army of workers for this blessed service.

E. R. PALMER.