University of Virginia Library

REMARKABLE INSTANCES OF PRESENCE
OF MIND.

THE steamer Ajax encountered a terrible
storm on her down trip from
San Francisco to the Sandwich Islands.
It tore her light spars and rigging all
to shreds and splinters, upset all furniture
that could be upset, and spilled passengers
around and knocked them hither and thither
with a perfect looseness. For forty-eight hours
no table could be set, and every body had to
eat as best they might under the circumstances.
Most of the party went hungry, though, and
attended to their praying. But there was one
set of “seven-up” players who nailed a cardtable
to the floor and stuck to their game
through thick and thin. Captain F—, of a
great banking-house in San Francisco, a man
of great coolness and presence of mind, was of
this party. One night the storm suddenly culminated

in a climax of unparalleled fury; the
vessel went down on her beam ends, and every
thing let go with a crash—passengers, tables,
cards, bottles — every thing came clattering to
the floor in a chaos of disorder and confusion.
In a moment fifty sore distressed and pleading
voices ejaculated, “O Heaven! help us in our
extremity!” and one voice rang out clear and
sharp above the plaintive chorus and said,
“Remember, boys, I played the tray for low!”
It was one of the gentlemen I have mentioned
who spoke. And the remark showed good
presence of mind and an eye to business.

Lewis L—, of a great hotel in San Francisco,
was a passenger. There were some savage
grizzly bears chained in cages on deck. One
night, in the midst of a hurricane, which was
accompanied by rain and thunder and lightning,
Mr. L. came up, on his way to bed. Just
as he stepped into the pitchy darkness of the
deck and reeled to the still more pitchy motion
of the vessel, (bad,) the captain sang out
hoarsely through his speaking-trumpet, “Bear
a hand aft, there!” The words were sadly
marred and jumbled by the roaring wind. Mr.
L— thought the captain said, “The bears are

after you there!” and he “let go all holts”
and went down into his boots. He murmured,
“I knew how it was going to be—I just knew
it from the start—I said all along that those
bears would get loose some time; and now I'll
be the first man that they'll snatch. Captain!
captain!—can't hear me—storm roars so! O
God! what a fate! I have avoided wild beasts
all my life, and now to be eaten by a grizzly
bear in the middle of the ocean, a thousand
miles from land! Captain! O captain!—bless
my soul, there's one of them—I've got to cut
and run!” And he did cut and run, and
smashed through the door of the first state-room
he came to. A gentleman and his wife
were in it. The gentleman exclaimed, “Who's
that?” The refugee gasped out, “O great Scotland!
those bears are loose, and just raising
merry hell all over the ship!” and then sank
down exhausted. The gentleman sprang out
of bed and locked the door, and prepared for a
siege. After a while, no assault being made, a
reconnoissance was made from the window, and
a vivid flash of lightning revealed a clear deck.
Mr. L— then made a dart for his own state-room,
gained it, locked himself in, and felt that
his body's salvation was accomplished, and by
little less than a miracle. The next day the subject
of this memoir, though still very feeble and
nervous, had the hardihood to make a joke
upon his adventure. He said that when he
found himself in so tight a place (as he thought)
he didn't bear it with much fortitude, and when
he found himself safe at last in his state-room,
he regarded it as the bearest escape he had
ever had in his life. He then went to bed, and
did not get up again for nine days. This unquestionably
bad joke cast a gloom over the
whole ship's company, and no effort was sufficient
to restore their wonted cheerfulness until
the vessel reached her port, and other scenes
erased it from their memories.