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Speaker 1: A Christmas dinner in the Bay of Biscay. It was

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last Christmas Day. The table cloth was laid in the

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saloon of a mail steamboat, and the place was the

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Bay of Biscay. We left Southampton at noon on the

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twenty fourth of December eighteen seventy three, and we were

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on our way to the Brazils, touching at Coruna, Carril

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and Lisbon twelve hours before embarkation. I had no more

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idea of spending Christmas Day in the Bay of Biscay

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than of sending up my plate for roast b at

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the North Pole. In fact, my bachelor friends without domestic

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ties were invited and had accepted the invitation, and with

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them and my wife and little ones I intended to

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dine and spend the evening of the twenty fifth in

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strict accordance with tradition a national taste. The reality was

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very different. We want you, mister p to go to

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Lisbon and Madeira and to do there whatever is required

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to ensure the speedy transmission of our correspondence from the

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Gold Coast. The mail steamer leaves Southampton to morrow at twelve.

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These were my sudden and unchallengeable instructions. And thus it

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was that I found myself sitting down to dinner in

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the midst of the Bay of Biscay at five o'clock

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on the twenty fifth day of last December. We were

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a melancholy party. It was not the roughness of the

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sea or the motion of the ship. There was not

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a bit of a swell on. As smooth as landsman's

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heart could desire, were the waters of that dreaded four

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hundred miles of open ocean between Ushant and Aughty Gold.

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Our boat was as steady as a castle. There was

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no cause of discomfort on board. Indeed, we should have

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been thankful for a little hardship. Our grievance, I think,

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was the delusive decoration of the saloon with holly, the

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menu of roast turkey, plum pudding and mince pies, the

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hollow mockeries of an old English Christmas dinner at home,

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so well intended by Steward and cook. These things taunted

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us of the unlucky destiny which sent us into the

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middle of the lonely seas to spend our Christmas night.

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They set us picturing the dear family circles from which

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we had run away we took our places one and

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all without speaking a word. The captain at the head

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of the table wore the pensive air of a family man.

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Two exploiters bound for the Brazils had been toughened by

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hard experience that they were touched in a tender part

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at this moment of sitting down to Christmas dinner in

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the midst of strangers on the desolate seas. Two engineers

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from Yorkshire, who had been cheerfulness itself till now, were

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suddenly mute as fishes. Presently, when the fish which we

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had just managed to taste was taken away and the

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turkey was being handed round, a Brazilian bound stranger made

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a desperate attempt to force a conversation. Thinking of the children,

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I suppose, said he to the captain. Haven't got any,

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replied the captain with pensive gravity. Never was a failure

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more signal. The well meaning inquirer gave it up, and

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again silence reigned supreme. There was nothing to fix the

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attention upon but the slight creaking of the ship and

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the swaying of the glass rack over the table. The

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turkey would not go down, for every one of us

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had a lump in the throat, less digestible than anything

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the steward could give us. When the few words which

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had been uttered had passed almost out of recollection, and

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we were all mentally hundreds of miles away, the captain added,

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in the same serious and semi tragical air, I've got

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some little nephews and nieces, though by way of explaining

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that he understood the tone of mind of his guests

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and was not altogether outside the range of sympathy. It

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was just when the plum pudding made its appearance, and

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when our young children should have been clapping their little

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hands round our tables, that an awful discovery was made.

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There were just thirteen of us at dinner. Darker grew

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and deeper the silence and the gloom, but the subject

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was in a manner congenial. Here was dismal ground on

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which we could all meet. The Captain began to tell

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stories of what had occurred within his own experience, and

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what his father before him had told of the events

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associated with the sitting down of that unlucky number at table,

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more especially on a great day like this in the calendar.

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Such was the impression I honestly avow of those stories

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of on my mind that when some months afterwards I

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saw on the London newspaper placards wreck of a Royal

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mail steamer, I found myself saying, Ah, that must be

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our unlucky boat. I am glad to say my prevision

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was wrong, but the lost vessel was one belonging to

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the same house. My own poor little contribution to the

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melancholy batch of superstitious recollections was derived from an occasion

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when a dozen of us were dining at an hotel

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at Bath, and a thirteenth unexpectedly arrived, a gentleman known

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and much esteemed by the twelve. Here comes the victim,

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was the remark made as the thirteenth man sat down,

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And within three months that thirteenth man was dead. Now

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I had never heard that the last arrival was necessarily

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the victim, and I was endeavoring to remove any particularly

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pointed application of the narrative by the well worn argument

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that out of a general company of thirteen middle aged men,

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it was not so very unlikely that one might die

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in the course of twelve months, irrespective of the magic

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potency of fatal numbers. But somehow my philosophy did not

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mend the matter. After all, the idea was not absolutely

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exhilarating that the chances might be in favor of at

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least one of this small party dying before Christmas Day

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eighteen seventy four. Pondering woefully on this point, I glanced

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surreptitiously towards the seat which had been occupied by the

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guest who had been the thirteenth to sit down to

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this saloon dinner, and the place was vacant. The circumstances

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of the hour had been nearly enough for every one

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of us. The story of the thirteenth finished the Christmas

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dinner of eighteen seventy three. For him, he lived three

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days longer, to my certain knowledge, and I trust he

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is good for a far happier dinner on the twenty

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fifth of this present month. But it must be admitted

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that the odds on that mournful day were against him.

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Dinner was over, but we could not say we had dined.

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The pudding had been tasted for the sake of the children,

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but we were glad when it was all over. The

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passengers one by one slunk away, almost unobserved, to their berths.

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No one made the attempt even to appear cheerful. I

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believe I could have worked myself into a something resembling

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placid enjoyment of a cigar on deck with the genial

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Irish doctor. But just then, as he told me, we

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were steaming very near the spot where the London went down.

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This was too much for one Christmas day, and I

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gave it up and went off like the rest to

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my cabin to mix up in dreams the thirteenth arrival

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at dinner, the children, and the wreck of the London.

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It is astonishing how cheerful we all were. Next morning

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we had got over Christmas Day and had run through

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the bay and were plowing along joyfully at the rate

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of twelve knots off the coast of Spain. Not one

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of us on board, I think, would have exchanged places

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on that Boxing day with those dyspeptic friends at home,

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whose two cheerful spirits had so haunted us the day before.

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We were braced up and renewed for the business full

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of interest and novelty that lay before most of us.

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But if the fates will let me eat my Christmas

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dinner at home in this current December, I expect some

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sort of recompense in double merriment for that melancholy dinner

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hour in the Bay of Biscay on the twenty fifth

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of December eighteen seventy three. End of a Christmas dinner

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in the Bay of Biscay,