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A FLIGHT TO ST. KILDA
most of the time the
sun shone brightly, and the sea was nearly as smooth as
in the fjords of Norway. For the Hebrides islands act
as a breakwater against the Atlantic storms; and
the mainland of Scotland ought to pay a tribute of
respect to them for standing the brunt that it may go
free.
The chief drawback to
sailing in these small steamers, in my opinion, is the
poor character of the sleeping accommodation. There
were eight berths in our cabin, arranged in two storeys
round a very small room (I wonder what a Dean of Guild
Court would say to it as an over-crowded
lodging-house?) I slept in a lower berth, and it
was impossible either to get into it or get out of it
with any sense of dignity, or even self-respect! They
should put over the Cabin door – “All ye who enter here
leave Pride behind.” You had to crawl into your berth
head foremost, and in getting out you had to grope your
way feet foremost, and then whummle out as best
you could. But none of us could laugh at the others, as
we were all in the same predicament. I am not very
thin-skinned in these matters, but I commonly contrived
to get into my bunk and get out of it when there was
nobody there but myself.
Our passenger group was a very pleasant
one. There were about forty men and twenty women, which
makes, generally speaking, a good blend on an occasion
like this. A few of the women may have been married, but
most were not, which was another point in our favour,
for married people don't harmonise so easily as the
single. We had the usual open-air games to while away
the time, and we had several concerts on deck in the
evening, when the men did most of the singing. I confess
I had to sing several times myself; and another of the
ministers, when pressed to do something in the same way,
offered to sing "There is a happy land " as the only
musical piece he was quite certain of. But we excused
him, as we had all heard it before. We had quite a
number of ministers travelling with us (over
half-a-dozen, I think); and the captain is reported to
have said, when he saw so many, that he was afraid there
would be a storm, as a Jonah would probably be found
among them. But it was not so.
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