33["Knew No Hymns", The Northern Times (Carnarvon, WA), Saturday 01 June 1912, p4]

Tale of the Bullarra.

An Eastern States newspaper publishes the following item which is to be taken with a pinch of salt:--

There are some tough characters on the ships trading on the great north-west coast of Australia. And some of the toughest of them pounded into Fremantle a few days ago in the steamer Bullarra, which got a terrible buffeting itn the big storm that sank the Koombana.

Most of the Bullarra's crew are surprised at being alive to talk about the things that befel them in the course of the hurricane.

"We thought we were gonners pretty well nearly every minute, for a long while," said one of the men to-day. "But"--and he spoke with cheerful unconcern--"we sang no hymns. We did have some sing-song when she looked like going down, but it was not hymns, no d... fear. It was more cheerful. I forget what it was now, but it went all right.

One of the other men did not forget anything of the terrible experiences of the hurricane. Immense seas towered over the ship, constantly threatening to engulf her. Any one of them would have smashed the vessel and sent her to the bottom--had it come down on her. It seemed for a long time altogether impossible that any ship could survive through such fierce and terrific buffeting. And most of the crew made up their minds that their time had come, and set about preparing for the end, each according to his own individual ideas of what was proper, or expedient.

In the thickest of the hurricane, when a sudden and calamitous end to the desparate struggle of the ship for life seemed inevitable, some called for a hymn. But it appears that none of them knew any hymns--none of those who had any opportunity for singing, at any rate. Then, in the midst of the terrible anxiety, a fireman struck up, "I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now?" And to the accompaniment of the roaring of the hurricane, the crew joined in most lustily, and howled the chorus in the vigor of men seeking distraction from desparate peril. And as they sang they grew cheerful.

"But I never want to hear that tune any more," said the man who told me about it. And he looked as though he meant it.