To begin with, there were natural jealousies and rivalries. There was also the fact that each had joined the trip for different motives: one or two were more interested in the delights of travel than in creating the kind of disciplined team which Buchman had in mind. Buchman also conducted affairs in a style which the younger men sometimes found baffling. According to Hamilton, for example, they were always delighted when a hostess asked Buchman, 'And where are you going next?' as this enabled them to discover what their itinerary was to be. Then, too, there were the natural preoccupations of able, ambitious young men. Shoemaker was much attracted to the offer from Calvary Church. This was a constant pull. Once he came back from a shopping expedition in Constantinople laden with Bokhara rugs and other ornaments, and his cabin-mate, Hamilton, asked what he had bought them for. 'They'll look good in my rectory,' replied Shoemaker.

Such preoccupations aside, there was another irritant: a dislike of the discipline which Buchman, the initiator of the venture and older than all his companions but Day by twenty years, sought to impose. For example, one of the party arranged to speak at a school. At the last moment, Buchman suggested that two others should go with him. It meant the sacrifice of a carefully-prepared solo speech, and the willingness to become one of a group. Buchman felt that they needed training to work as a team: self-will, pride, the prima donna element would have to be cured if their future work was to have any lasting effect. But young men of high calibre and considerable self-esteem did not see it that way. 'We were far from being a united team,' Hamilton commented. 'Sherry Day was the most loyal. The rest of us were raw, self-willed, undisciplined and egotistical. Our selfishness grated on each other....' At the time, however, they were more apt to blame Buchman than themselves.

'The climax came later on board the ship between Suez and Colombo,' writes Hamilton. 'Frank was resting in his cabin for two or three days, and one day he said to Sam, "Sam, just list my laundry, will you, and give it to the steward?" Sam came up on deck very angry. He met me and told me of this request of Frank's, and said that he had absolutely refused to do it. He said, "I would rather preach five sermons than do what he asked me. I have surrendered my life to Jesus Christ, not to Frank Buchman."’

Shoemaker's reactions to the disciplines of the journey were not unexpected. He was a handsome, confident and charismatic young man. Shortly before this trip he had been invited to take part in a major evangelical campaign alongside Sherwood Eddy. Buchman had replied to Shoemaker's request for advice on this proposition: 'The warning no's have come in my quiet time with alarming constancy and I would not be faithful if I kept silent.. . You have been riding roughshod over experiences which have forged Sherry and I into an intelligent, workable team...You need a year's discipline in a team, such as a year's trip around the world would give you. You need the drab, not the dramatic.... I can only say this, - that if you are led to go and your convictions differ with mine after you have checked with everyone ... go, and God abundantly bless you. With assurances of the finest spirit of affection and mutual confidence, whatever may be your choice.'8

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