11/90 He was a good sailor, and loved a voyage. In his first letter to his wife from American soil he describes a storm with the delight of a schoolboy. The wind and waves dead ahead, and the whole power of the engines only just able to move the ship against it. It was the grandest sight I ever witnessed--the splendid Russia, steady as if she were on a railway, holding her straight course without yielding one point to the sea--up the long hill-sides of the waves and down into the troughs--the crests of the sea all round as far as the eye could reach in one wild whirl of foam and spray. It was worth coming into the Atlantic to see--with the sense all the time of perfect security." Froude's visit was in one respect well timed. |