Page 265 - Neglected Arabia Vol 1 (2)

NEGLECTED ARABIA

Missionary News and Letters
Published Quarterly
FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION AMONG THE FRIENDS OF
THE ARABIAN MISSION

From the Garden of Eden to Philadelphia
in a Cargo Ship

Alice Freeman Firman
(\Vc art- indebted to Mrs. Firman ior permission to reprint this graphic account of her
fur) lioincward from Arabia last year alter several months spent there visiting her daughter
\fu. John Van Ess. Arabia is not on the ordinary highways oi travel and this is not the
ini time that travellers 10 or iroin that land have chosen to forego the comiorls of modern
Kllg,-r ves-els and take passage on a "tramp". Tins article forms an interesting contrast
£ tbr »iory of the Van l'eurscms' motor trip across the desert found on page 5.—Ko.)
c 1RCUMSTANCES over which I had no control seemed to make
it necessary fur me—an ancient mariner well over sixiy—to gel
from Basrah, at the head of the Persian Gulf, home to America
unaccompanied. Jt was rather a solemn outlook. The thought
ul the necessary changes in Bombay or Port Said or London was not
featuring. But 1 agree with the old darkey who said if the Lord told
kun lo jump through a stone wall it was his business to jump and the
liirifs business to get him through. I never doubted for a moment but
»iu( some way would be provided. So when an advertisement appeared
w Basrah to the effect that a cargo ship was about to sail'direct to
America and freight could be shipped thereon, “for space and rates
♦4'1'ly•** etc-» I considered myself freight and applied. I found there was
w provision made for passengers and that, unless by some special dis-
^ii>alion of the officers, I could not be accommodated.
probably it was “because oi my importunity” that I was at last
1 *ic|>ted. Or it may have been because I was the daughter of a sea
} U|»iain. Perhaps it was the thought, expressed by the captain, “We’ve
$ jjot mothers at ’ome,” that decided it. Be that as it may, I boarded
\ ^ >hip one April day—the only woman with a crew of thirty-three
men—and started for Philadelphia with forty-five hundred tons
licorice and some miscellaneous freight.
It was a thrilling moment when I found myself settled in a cabin
•nil “2nd Officer” on the door and in the ceiling plainly printed the
aiicinent “Certified to Accommodate One Seaman.” Well, I may not
rtfhfully be called “2nd Officer,” but if I am not a seaman, who is?
After stopping at a Persian port to take in oil—for we used twenty
a day to run our ship—we proceeded by way of the Persian Gulf,
Arabian-Sea, Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea and Suez Canal. I could
follow the children of Israel when we were skirting along the