May 1 Friday – The Clemens party was at sea aboard the Arundel Castle bound for South Africa. In his May 2 entry in FE, Sam related this night’s story:

Last night [May 1], the burly chief engineer, middle-age, was standing telling a spirited seafaring tale, and had reached the most exciting place, where a man overboard was washing swiftly astern on the great seas, and uplifting despairing cries, everybody racing aft in a frenzy of excitement and fading hope, when the band, which had been silent a moment, began impressively its closing piece, the English national anthem. As simply as if he was unconscious of what he was doing, he stopped his story, uncovered, laid his laced cap against his breast, and slightly bent his grizzled head. The few bars finished, he put on his cap and took up his tale again as naturally as if that interjection of music had been a part of it. There was something touching and fine about it, and it was moving to reflect that he was one of a myriad, scattered over every part of the globe, who by turn was doing as he was doing every hour of the twenty-four — those awake doing it while the others slept — those impressive bars forever floating up out of the various climes, never silent and never lacking reverent listeners [ch LXIV 632].

Two copies of Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc were deposited with the U.S. Copyright Office; the earliest copies of the first edition were published in early May, 1896 [Hirst, “A Note on the Text” Afterword materials p.21, 1996 Oxford ed.]