RED SEA HEAT.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2664, 20 November 1909, Page 6

RED SEA HEAT.

four die in one day

“The worst voyage Ive ever lad was the comment of Mr. R .H- D f / k ’> of. Wellington, who journeyed as Lu as. Australia in the new Orient luki O.dxilev. Mr. Dickie states that the. vts*-; se 'l_a huge liner—-. broke down no or than five times during the vo -VM5&f One of the break-downs occurred: thA' day . after they left Port Said and as. a result, the vessel could urn y. steam eight or nine knot® through the blinding heat that closed in on the &‘np from either ilde. “You can’t imagine what it was, ht<—I wouldn’t go through it again for a pension. On the second day out trom Port Said four people died, and It fainted from the effects of the suffocating heat. 1 don’t remember what the temperature was on deck, but it reached'Al9 degrees in my cabin. God help %ie Engineers—-the heat must have been itfrrrible down .where they were working,...replacing a cylinder or something of the. kind.” . .. ' 1 Did they bury the bodies at sea? - ’ “Yes; but -all the passengers knew of it Was the stoppage of the engines for a:.few minutes. The old idea of assembling the. sliip’s company and -passengers, arid going right through the'burial service is "all done away with on the’big liners.- The, burial usually takes,place a coupler ..of- hours-. after death—the body is launched over the bows out of *Mpf..the passenger-decks, a short .being read by* the captain or one of'ptflmtoffioers.- «The solemn service nvas found .to afFect some- people seriously at sea, and it was very unsettling to all on board, so a change has ■ feen ■'bfought about-:' _ A “I’ll never forget the heat in the* Red „Sea—lots of people refused to leave the decks at night, and mothers sat up all •night on the boat-deck fanning their .babies to keep the breath of life in them, while they themselves weye gasping for breath.”