Not many years ago the "Escambia," a British iron steamer, loaded with
wheat, weighed anchor and started down the bay of San Francisco. The pilot
left her about five miles outside the Golden Gate. Looking back from his
pilot-boat a short time after, he saw the vessel stop, drift into the
trough of the sea, careen to port, both bulwarks going under water, then
suddenly capsize and sink. What was the cause of this sad catastrophe?--A
want of ballast.
She came into port from China, a few weeks previous, with a thousand
emigrants on board. But she had in her hold immense tanks for what is
called water ballast. The captain, wishing to carry all the wheat he could
between decks, neglected to fill those tanks. He thought the cargo would
steady the ship. But it made it top-heavy, and the first rough sea capsized
it.
Here, then, was a vessel, tight and strong, with powerful engines, with a
cargo worth one hundred thousand dollars, floundering as soon as she left
the harbor, taken down with her crew of forty-five men, because the captain
failed to have her properly ballasted. The moment she began to lurch, all
the wheat tumbled over to the lower side, and down into the sea she went.
How this wreck of the "Escambia" repeats the trite lesson that so many have
tried to teach, and that they who need it most are so slow to learn! Young
men starting out in life want to carry as little ballast as possible. They
are enterprising, ambitious. They are anxious to go fast, and take as much
cargo as they can. Old-fashioned principles are regarded as dead weight. It
does not pay to heed them, and they thrown overboard. Good home habits are
abandoned in order to be popular with the gay and worldly. The Bible is not
read, the Sabbath is not kept holy, prayer is neglected, and lo! some day,
when all the sails are spread, a sudden temptation comes that wrecks the
character and life.
We cannot urge too strongly upon the young, in these days of intense
activity, the vital importance of ballast. A conscience seems to be an
encumbrance--an obstacle to prosperity. But it is a safe thing to have on
board. It steadies the soul. It keeps it from careening when the winds
drive it into the trough of the sea. If the "Escambia" had taken less wheat
and more ballast, it might be afloat today. And this is true of many a man
now in prison or in the gutter. The haste to be rich, the impatience of
restraint, alas! how their wrecks lie just outside the world's golden
gates.--_Selected_.