d St. Johns as possible, and that when we
were forced to take to the water I should continue in the same
direction.

The accident occurred directly over 30d and about 52d N. The surface
wind was blowing a tempest from the west. To attempt to ride out such
a storm upon the surface seemed suicidal, for the Coldwater was not
designed for surface navigation except under fair weather conditions.
Submerged, or in the air, she was tractable enough in any sort of
weather when under control; but without her screen generators she was
almost helpless, since she could not fly, and, if submerged, could not
rise to the surface.

All these defects have been remedied in later models; but the knowledge
did not help us any that day aboard the slowly settling Coldwater, with
an angry sea roaring beneath, a tempest raging out of the west, and 30d
only a few knots astern.

To cross thirty or one hundred seventy-five has been, as you know, the
direst calamity that could befall a naval commander. Court-martial and
degradation follow swiftly, unless as is often the case, the
unfortunate man takes his own life before this unjust and heartless
regulation can hold him up to public scorn.

There has been in the past no excuse, no circumstance, that could
palliate the offense.

"He was in command, and he took his ship across thirty!" That was
sufficient. It might not have been in any way his fault, as, in the
case of the Coldwater, it could not possibly have been justly charged
to my account that the gravitation-screen generators were worthless;
but well I knew that should chance have it that we were blown across
thirty today--as we might easily be before the terrific west wind that
we could hear howling below us, the responsibility would fall upon my
shoulders.

In a way, the regulation was a good one, for it certainly accomplished
that for which it was intended. We all fought shy of 30d on the east
and 175d on the west, and, though we had to skirt them pretty close,
nothing but an act of God ever drew one of us across. You all are
familiar with the naval tradition that a good officer could sense
proximity to either line, and for my part, I am firmly convinced of the
truth of this as I am that the compass finds the north without recourse
to tedious processes of reasoning.

Old Admiral Sanchez was wont to maintain that he could smell thirty,
and the men of the first ship in which I sailed claimed that Coburn,
the navigating officer,