A SEA ROMANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 5, 7 January 1899, Page 2 (Supplement)

A SEA ROMANCE.

GIRL SHIPS AS A SAILOR. \

There was recently staying at tlieScandinavian Sailors' Temperance. Home, Limehouse, London, the heroine of a romantic series of adventures.

The girl, who is only sixteen years of age, is named Alice Amelia _\LeKinley; and has passed for one complete voyage, and for part of a second,, as a boy, and amember of the ships' crews. She is of American birth, but has lived in England for the past six years. Travellers' tales, even when the traveller is a girl in her teens without; sufficient experience of life to romance at all convincingly, are bound to be scanned closely before being accepted as true after the recent De Rougemont affair; but of Alice _\tcKinley's successful concealment of her sex there can be no doubt. Tha story is ..imply corroborated. The girl's looks aided her in her innocent deception. Her skin is very dark, and her eyes and hair are b'l'ac^. Even in the garments proper to hersex she has the manners and walk of a boy, and it ought to have been easy for her to pass for one when dressed in coat and trousers. Her voice, certainly, is girlish, and her features somewhat feminine; but neither of those matters would occasion much comment, in a boy. The girl,' according to her own story, stood no chance of being found out had she not chosen to give herself away. It -was after she had made, a couple of voyages and (to quote her own words when interviewed) under the following circumstances: —■ T never should have been fount! out, but for my own action. I'll tell yon how it happened. One day, I think it was just before we arrived at Las Palmas, I was at the wheel. The second officer was on the bridge reading. I didn't feel up to much, and somehowsomething. prompted me to speak. T. said, 'Sir, you remember saying on the passage out that I was more like a girl, because I cried. Well, sir, I am a girl.' The second officer put bis book down slowly, and standing up facing me said, 'Is—that —so? You don't look much like a girl. You make a capital boy. .To-night when you are on the look out, I'll come for'ard and tell you whether it will be advisable to make this known to the captain or not.' 'That night the second officer came for'ard and said to me, 'I've thought it over, and I think it will be best to tell the captain at seven bells in the morning.' I was very frightened all the rest of the time, wondering wdiat Captain Eerry would say. Just before eight bells tile captain called me up on the bridge and said, with, a laugh, 'Here, McEinley, What's this you've been trying to stuff the men with? Tbey say you're a girl. Is that so.?' T answered as steadily as I could, that it was true. He said, 'Come into the chart room: I want you; and then- ' . ■: Here the girl's eyes were again employed in. a minute examination of the carpet, and there was a pause that seemed as long as a dog watch. 'Then,' resumed Thomas Amelia, very slowly, 'then I &_=_£ to-go thrpuglithe ignominious process of undressing. In the dreadful shame of thost few moments I would, if the choice had been offered, cheerfully have jumped over the side, but what could I do? Besides, I knew Captain Ferry was a good man, and besides the chart room door was locked. The captain was perfectly respectful, and sent me ' aft, telling me that for the rest of the voyage I was to help the steward, feed the chickens, and polish the brasswork of the cabin door. 'After that I steered no more, which' I very much regretted.' 'Prom that time I had.my meals in the cabin with a berth to myself down aft, 'The day we reached Las Palmas I' was told to go ashore, as tbe captain was waiting. When I got ashore 1 found a buggy, in which I was driven to the British Consul's. When I got into the office both the Consul and the Vice-Consul roared out laughing. This made me very angry, and I got worse when I learned that the decision of the Consul was that I could not go on to America in the Blaenavon for I was longing to see my home again, and everyone in the ship had been, good to me. Having learned from Captain Perry that the Blaenavon had no passengers the Consul turned to me and said, 'Then, McEinley, you sign off.' 'I said, "I won't."' The Consul said, 'I ask you again, McEinley, to sign off;' and when I still refused he said sharply, 'Then I'll simplify matters, whether you sign off or not.' And so it came about that, sorely against my will, I was signed off the Blaenavon, which would have t#ken me on to Port Eads, Mississippi, where I know there is a letter waiting for me, addressed to James Garfield McEinley. 'So it was fixed that I was to be sent tp London; and when Captain Ferry was going he shook me warmly by the hand, saying, 'Be a good girl,' and that was the last I saw of my kind hearted -.kipper. 'Then the Consul took me to a Sailors' institute, where I had dinner, and where the. Spanish maidservants laughed at sight of me, though I don't know why. They brought me a dress, and told me to change, and for the first time in two months I found myself in girls' clothes again.'