A Nurse's Life in War and PeaceLaurence, E. C. (Eleanor Constance)
History
A Nurse's Life in War and Peace
Laurence, E. C. (Eleanor Constance)
Military nursing; Nursing -- Great Britain; South African War, 1899-1902 -- Medical care
Tons of water poured on the main deck and down the companion-ways, and
men were bailing it out near our cabins all night long. I kept feeling
in the dark to see if there was water in our cabin, as it rushed past
the door with a great "swish"; but the step was high, and it did not
come over.
There was no sleep for any one that night; it was all we could do to
keep from being pitched out of our berths.
The men were very funny as they bailed the water out and mopped up.
"Reminds one of washing-day in our backyard--pity my old woman ain't
here," "Sometimes we see a ship, sometimes we ship a sea"--and heaps
more to the same effect. Our steward said he had never had to bail out
so much water before, and he had been six years on the ship. One of the
sails was carried away; and when we got to Santa Cruz the engineers
discovered that part of the rudder had gone.
Two cooks and one of the sailors were knocked down and injured, but I
think not very badly. Two of the boats were washed out of the davits,
and one of the heavy deck-seats (next to the one on which I had spent
the afternoon) was smashed to bits.
Sleep was quite impossible, as it was most difficult to keep in one's
berth, and every now and then there was a great crash as things were
broken in the saloons and galleys. We are still bruised and stiff from
the knocking about.
I have always wanted to see a storm at sea; but I am now quite
satisfied, and I shall never want to see another. It is most unpleasant
to be battened down, and the engines sound to be so fearfully on the
strain and tremble that you feel you must listen for the next beat of
the screw, knowing that if the engines should fail your chance of
weathering the storm would be a very small one indeed.
After that the weather improved, and also became warmer, and the
passengers one by one came crawling up on deck; but most of them looked
as though they had been through a long illness, and could talk about
nothing but their alarm in the storm; and the captain owned he had had a
very anxious time.
We landed at Santa Cruz early one afternoon--a very unsavoury town, with
dirty beggars exhibiting various loathsome diseases and following you
about.
After a little delay we secured a carriage and three horses to drive
across the island to Orotava, twenty-six miles distant--a pretty,
winding road, cool up in the hills, but becoming hot as we descended to
Puerto Orotava. The hotel was full, but we secured rooms in a
dependence; and when we had rested and changed, we found a _carros_
ready to take us across to dinner. A carros is a kind of sledge on broad
runners drawn by two oxen. They are much used in the town, as the roads
are paved with little cobbles, which would pull the wheels about a great
deal.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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