somewhat dismal as we journeyed, we had no reason to fear that she
would go to the bottom.

Flour resists water in a marvellous way. On one occasion our own
vessel in the North Sea was run into by another. The latter's cutwater
went through her side and deck almost to the combing of the hatch, and
the water began to pour in. By immediately putting the vessel on the
other tack, the rent was largely lifted out of water. A heavy topsail
was hastily thrown over her side, and eventually hauled under the
keel--the inrushing water keeping it there. Then sacks of flour were
rammed into the breach. The ship in this condition, favoured by the
wind which enabled her to continue on that tack, reached home, two
hundred miles distant, with her hand-pumps keeping her comparatively
free, though there was the greatest difficulty to keep her afloat
directly she was towed into the harbour and lay at the wharf.

On another occasion when a Canadian steamer, loaded with provisions,
ran into a cliff two hundred feet high in a fog on the northeast end
of Belle Isle, and became a total wreck, her flour floated all up and
down the Straits. I remember picking up a sack that had certainly been
in the water some weeks; and yet only about a quarter of an inch of
outside layer was even wet.

The opening of the Institute was a great day. Dr. Henry van Dyke had
come all the way from New York to give an address. Sir William
Archibald, chairman of the Royal National Mission to Deep-Sea
Fishermen, had travelled from England to bring a blessing from the
old home country; and the merchants and friends in St. John's did
their best to make it a red-letter day. Sir Edward Morris, the Prime
Minister, and other politicians, the Mayor and civic functionaries
were all good enough to come and add their quota to the launching of
the new ship. There were still pessimistic and croaking individuals,
however, as well as joyful hearts, when a few days later we again ran
North.

We started almost immediately for our Straits trip after reaching St.
Anthony. On our way east from Harrington, our most westerly hospital,
commenced in 1907, a telegram summoning me immediately to St. John's
dropped upon me like a bolt from the blue. Without a moment's delay we
headed yet again South, full of anxiety as to what could be the cause
of this message.

On arrival there we found that trouble had arisen concerning the funds
of the Institute and a prosecution was to follow. It was