The captain knows from the way the compass points which way he must go to reach England. He doesn’t follow the way the compass points—that would bring him to the Magnetic pole.

When it’s fine weather at sea the passengers have a fine time too. They play games, they dance, they take photographs, they write letters and postcards, they read books, they eat five meals a day, they lie in long steamer chairs wrapped up in rugs, and look out over the ocean or talk or sleep. Now and then porpoises, that look like big fishes, swim along the side or just ahead of the ship, and jump out of the water and dive in again, as if they were running a race with the ship. Occasionally a mountain of ice may be seen floating in the sea, many many times bigger than the ship, called an iceberg. It has broken away from the frozen part of the ocean far up north and floated down. And then at times a whale like a little island may rise out of the water, spout a fountain into the air, then sink out of sight again.

Sometimes, but not often, the sea is so smooth it is like glass, no wind and no waves except those which the ship itself makes. That’s why the Atlantic Ocean is sometimes called “The Big Pond.” But then again the wind blows, clouds rise, rain pours down, the waves rise up higher and higher until the sea is all moving hills and valleys of water, and the ship pitches up and down and rolls and tosses from side to side. It is necessary to put fences on the dining tables to keep the dishes from sliding off, and of course many people are seasick. The ship slides down one water hill and rises up the next water hill, and, big though it is, seems almost to turn over. But it seldom does turn over or sink unless it runs into an iceberg or another ship and smashes a hole in its side.