I did not understand what this meant, but remembered the scripture which
said that "All things work together for good to those that love the Lord."
Had my plans for reaching the fast steamer from Liverpool to New York
carried and had the ship sailed on schedule, I should have been in New York
in ten days, but now I had to make the best of the situation, so I decided
to embark on the S. S. United States of the Scandinavian-American Line from
Oslo which was due in New York just one week later than the other ship, and
if run on schedule generally arrived in New York nine days after leaving
Oslo.
We sailed from Oslo on time, but after being out at sea for a day, we found
to our surprise and dissatisfaction of many of the passengers that instead
of going direct to New York, we had to go to the Azores to pick up some
passengers from another ship of the same line, as a shaft of that ship had
been broken in a storm on the Atlantic Ocean, and the ship had been towed
to some Island. This made a very long round-about voyage.
With the exception of two or three days of storm, the weather was good, but
the waves rolled exceedingly high every day. By this we knew that farther
north in the ocean, a terrible storm was raging.
Finally after fifteen days of rough sailing, we found ourselves just
outside New York in the midst of a heavy fog, such as I had never before
witnessed. The whistles of the fog horns of the ships kept blowing and the
bells ringing as we slowly proceeded in the afternoon, but finally we had
to anchor, as a pilot from the shore entered our ship and forbade us to go
any further. He said the sea was full of anchored ships on account of the
fog, some of which had been there for three days. He said we could not move
until the wind changed and drove the fog away. I felt quite satisfied,
although like many others, I had been very seasick while on the voyage.
Early the next morning I went on the deck. There was so much unrest and
grumbling among the passengers that it was quite unpleasant for me to stay
on the ship any longer. However, the fog seemed to be thicker than ever. It
was so dense a person could hardly see beyond his outstretched arm. I went
to my room, and there while lying across the bed, prayed earnestly to God
to take away the fog. Then I went on deck and looked, but the fog seemed to
be still worse. I went down and prayed the second time, but found on my
return the fog seemed to be thicker than ever. The third time I went and
prayed, and while I was praying a voice said to me, "Change your clothes."
I knew what it meant. The Lord had heard my prayers. I arose and put on my
best suit of clothes (for I expected soon to be in New York). Then I went
to the breakfast table.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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