Consequently, Mr. Skinner, realizing that
the passengers their agent had booked for the Quickstep, by reason of
the cut-rates prevailing on lumber steamers, would not wait on the
dock until the Quickstep should arrive, instructed the captain to lay
over in San Francisco all night and put to sea at nine o'clock
Wednesday morning. In the meantime he said he would send a clerk down
to the dock to notify the waiting passengers of the unavoidable change
in schedule.
Promptly at eight o'clock Wednesday morning the Quickstep got away
from the dock. The minute she was fairly out the Golden Gate,
however, she poked her nose into a stiff nor'west gale; and as she was
bound north and was empty, this gale, catching her on the port
counter, caused her to roll and pitch excessively, and cut her
customary speed of ten miles an hour down to five. Every passenger
aboard was soon desperately seasick, and off Point Reyes so violently
did the Quickstep pitch that even some members of the crew became
nauseated, among them Matt Peasley. He had never been seasick before
and he was ashamed of himself now, notwithstanding the fact that he
knew even the hardiest old seadogs are not proof against mal-de-mer
under certain extraordinary conditions. Captain Kjellin, coming up on
the bridge during Matt's watch, found the latter doing the most
unseamanlike thing imaginable.
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