The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 22, 1896, Page 26

26 TWO OLD-TIME PACKET SHIPS. BY DENIS KEARNRY. THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SONDAY, MARCH 22, 1896. would be sure to have their heads split open and their ribs kicked in, while the rank and file had to go without eating till the captain felt like restoring their rations. The Coiumbia had just such an experi- | ence a year prior to the time of which I | write. “One morning too much_sait waler got into the coppers and spoiled the bread scouse. ‘The watch couldn’t eat it, and so they marched in a body aft to the quarter- deck, taking .along_the kid full of salted scouse. Captain Bryer, who had just come on deck, picked up his spyglass to look at a ship that was hull down to wind- ward, when the man with the kid laid it down at bis feet and asked him to taste it. “Taste that, you — hound, you!” he roared, at the same time striking the sailor on the head with the heavy spyglass, fell- ing him to the deck. Trouble had been brewing on board for a couple of days, for the members of the same watch had pitched a lot of pork over- | board, harness cask and all. and the cap. tain, unable to reach the men who did it, a few of the leaders, who wanted his life saved that he might navigate the ship, as they didn’t know anything about the quali- ties of the other officers. The Columbia was bound to the west- ward when Captain Bryer, her comman- der, was killed and thrown to the sharks. She had over 600 passengers on board, nearly all of whom were below at the time. Only a few of them witnessed the row and many did not know of it until after their arrival in New York. My first recollection of this famous old craft dates back to the year that Iran away from home to go to sea. It was in the winter of 1857 and we had jus: warpea the brigantine Active, one of whose crew I was, into the outer basin of the Waterloo dock in Liverpool. The tide was yetin the flood and the zates leading to the in- ner basin were open to allow a great big painted port ship. to haul out. As she moved slowly through the gates the sailors who were heaving on the forward capstan nad struck up the chanty: HIS little sea sketch that T write | El;raugh John D. Eost;‘s labippiug office L 2357 les She was a great big burly woman, was to-day will be read by at least tlv:_o | Mrs. Reilly, of huge proportions, as broad hundred thousand people in this ;g oy wagfall, with an unkempt head of or another have stroiled down to | and a round, fat face that was as red as the city front to look av the ships that lay | the sun when seen through a fog. She red to the wharves and anchored in | could curse like a b’o’son, drink ’alf an ’alf gl ¢ : with her sailor boarders and charge bay. Nearly all of them must have seen | the barks Columbia and Germania, b“‘ialwa_\- stopped at her house. This gory few knew anything of their history. If | appellation was given them by captains they had they would have bestowed on |and mates who feared them, for they n » than a ing glance. 3 Ahets moes I B | hipped on vesscls whoso ofticers bore the 1t i the other side of the dock that command | "ePutation of being more brutal than their the attention of tbe oniooker, while (hei two old sea rovers whose pictures are | e given on this page of THE CALL are passed | | The Columbia was launched at New: York City in 1846 and four years later the | Germania slid off the ways at Portsmouth, N. H. They were built for the “Black- | was a crack Havre packet. They were full-rigged ships then, carrying .great big single topsails, but nothing higher than royals. On their foretop sails was from the footrope to the jackstay, and the tips of their royal masts were crowned with gilded trucks upon which the morn- ing sunbeams played. They had high painted ports that were always kept clean and shiny. i Up to this time ship-building had not at- | tainea a very high standarad of excellence, | on their maiden voyage men who were com- | vetent to judge pronounced them “‘float- | ing palaces.”’ but to keep u‘% the reputa- | City, most of whom at some time | hair that looked like a bundle of oakum, it to their account. The *‘bloody forty’s’ It 1s | always hung together. This gang usually the modern sky-scraping clippers tied to by unnoticed. ball line,” though for a time the latter | painted a black ball so large that it reached | bluff bows, square sterns and very large for when these two ships were ready to sail | tions alrea gained the officers brought their brass kouckles along, and the sailors | on both sides of the Atlantic soon began | to denounce them as “‘fioating hells.” They could not be anything else and fly from tkeir main roval truck the bouse flag of Charlie Marshall, for the | “Black-bail line” was Marshall’s line of packet ships. They were of the same ton- | nage, spread the same amount of canvas | and each could carry more than 600 pas- sengers at a time. Their courses, topsails end lower staysails, were made of No. 1 cotton canvas that was as white as the | crest that curls on top of an Atlantic| wave. What was most needed at the time was speed as well as strength, and it was to meet these requirements that both were constructed and their successful liveson ; this and other oceans speak well for the | carpenters who worked upon their ribs, | knees and joints from their backbone to the sheer plank. Last winter they were at sea and safely weathered the gale and waves which swampea and sent to the bottom the steamers Keweenaw and Mont- | serrat and the sailing ship Spartan and others. They were accustomed to riding out gales and climbing to the top of | mountainous waves. These two old vet- erans rode out.many a howling wintry gale on the stormy Atlantic half a century | ago, and the waves that kissed their knight- | heads off Cape Mendocino when so many | precious lives found watery graves were as | ripples thrown up against the side ofa | Whitehall skiff from the splashing of the | paddle of a ferry-boat in the bay, when compared to the roaring white-maned monsters that thundered against their | bows and battered at their sides in the | North Atlantic with a force that made | every knee and joint creak and groan. They were the ocean racers of the forties and every time they left Liverpool west- ward bound their cabins and 'tween decks were crowded with the best blood of the 0O!d World anxious to reach the New. | Stowed away in their ‘tween decks, packed like sardines in a box, could be found youth and beauty, mirth, innocence and virtue, | whose capital were their brawny arms,;’ | splendid constitutions and iron will, with no vutfit, all mixed up together, every one being content with his or her quarters, and | there was no growling as to who should | have the loweror the upper bunk, forsome | were there who had no bunks at all, and THE COLUMBIA AS SHE APPEARED IN THE DAYS OF HER PRIME AS A BLACKBALL LINER many others had neither mattresses nor pillows. They had to content themselves | with the soft side of a board, while their heads rested on their hard hob-nailed | shoes, beside which the yellow-covered | footgear of Joe Gassman, the young as- | tronomer, 1s as a soft bed of down. Oh, | y, if these two old sea warriors could | only talk, how bewildering the stories they | would tell! The decks of these Blackball liners were the scenes of many bloody rows between | the quarterdeck and the forecustle, and the Columbia was no exception to the rule. | The sailors were the best that ever ree’ed | & topsail or mast-headed a yard, and at the same time the toughest. The officars were just as tough as the sailors. They were made upof men who would rather ficht than eat. Mrs. Reilly’s boarding- house, on Dennison street, in Liverpool, was th'e headquarters for most of the packet ships’ sailors, and she shipped them kiad, and if any of their heads tried to stop a flying belaying pin, there was sure to be music in the air and blood upon the deck. The scuppersran with it. As sailors, they knew their work, and did it. Most of the captains who sailed in the Blackball line preferred them to other crews, for they liked to crack on sail and tbey could safely rely on these sailors to clew up and furl, no matter how strong the snow squall or frosty the weather. It was the grub, not the work, that usually brought about the trouble, and the bloody fortys insisted upon enough of bread scouse and plain duff. If the pork, as was often the case, was ili smelling, some one would cut the harness cask adrift and roll it into the Jea scuppers, where its contents were dumped out and thrown overboard. Trouble was sure to follow such reckless disregard of the food supply. The leaders in whose watch the pork disappeared, if found out, punished the whole watch by reducing their allowance of food to the starvation point. The watch was in about as ugly*a mood as the captain, and they went aft to make trouble. Captain firyer and his officers were not prepared for this early morning attack, though they should have been, for it was customary in those shipe whenever any of the crew showed a muti- nous spirit either trice them up or kill them on the spot. No sooner had Bryer knocked the man senseless than he himself was laid out with a belaying-pin, kicked to death in- stantly and thrown overboard, while the chief mate, who rushed to his assistance, had his right arm broken, besides losing one of his ears, which some fellow cut off with his sheatnknife. He, too, would have been cut to pieces and his body given to the waved, to keep company with vhe captain, but for the timely interference of - iy “,.,‘@3}..\ k¢ Ay i TnkE OLD PACKET-SHIP GERMANIA AS SHE APPEARS TO-DAY. [Sketched by a “Call” grtist.] Heave away, my Johnny, heave away— To the evident delight of themselves ard the passengers on her decks and the crowds who lined both sides of the dock. Sorrow for the time being had ziven place to smileson the faces of those around, notwithstanding the fact that the nearest and dearest of friends were parting, most of them, maybe, never to see each other again. It was a cold, raw, blustery day. The Fround on shore was carpeted with a thick ayer of snow that was frozen hardand the rigging of the ships about us was full of icicles. But the crowds paid. no attention to the freezing blasts that whistled through their ears, reddening the tips. The voing out of a packet ship in thosedays, full of passengers, was an incident above the. ordinary and created a good deal of ex- citement. The populace turned out en masse to see them depart. Molly and May, decorated in cheap straw hats and dressed in clean starched calicoes, came down to the levee to bid good-by to their sailor lovers, and the sobs and sighs of some lovesick swain who but a few mo- ments before had kissed the ripe red lips of his deyarfing sweetheart, gave an addi- tional coloring to the animated scene. The Columbia made fast to the dock astern of us, her pilot having concluded that a snowstorm was brewing, and he decided to remain in the outer basin all night. I was glad of this, for that morn- ing our captain handed me a letter from home which contained the information that three of my schoolmates had left for Liverpool a week or_so before to sail on the Columbia for New York. They were girls and their passages had been prepaid by tneir uncles, who were in the States. 1 'must go and see them. With much dif- ficolty Ifound them standing in & group by themselves on the port side forward of the galley door. They greeted me most affectionately, indeed they wept for joy and smothered me with kisses. I was very young then, they being -six years older, and this chance meetingin a strange land, with the deep blue sea between us and our straw-thatched homes and the parents that we loved, made it the more interesting. For six years they and I at- tended the village school, during all of which time they sat on the row of benches in front of me. This_little schoolbouse in which we learned how to make pot-hooks and hang- ers was warmed in summer from without bf the welcome sunshine, and in winter a blazing turf fire heated it from within, but the scholars had to furnish the fuel, each one bringing his or her share. They were rosy-cheeked village beauties, all three of them, with minds as pure as the opening of dawn and hearts that were light and gay. They feared not the wild Atlantic, and they were not only willing but ¢lad to risk a winter's passage over its stormy waters to seek their fortunes in the land beyond. Where they are now I do not know, but if alive I trust they were suc- cessful, and if they are dead I hope they are in heaven. Idid know three, but since the death of Detective John Coffey I only know two men now who sailed in the Columbia with Cag(:dn Bryer in the fifties—John Deery and Billy Eilison, the old city front boat- man. Both tasted the sweetsand the bit- ter of packet-ship life. They have lived in this City for more than fortv years, are above want and have been these many years. Like myself they stroll down tothe wharf to look at the old Columbia. She is now owned by Renton, Holmes & Co. of this City and is kept hard at work hauling lumber from Puget Sound to_this port, while the Germania belongs to P. B. Corn- wall ana is employed in bringing coal from his mines, Dexis KEARNEY. A mole’s eyes are believed to give the animal nothing more than an impression of light, which is probably painful or at least annoying, the sensation prompting the creature at once to burrow into the éarth and escape the annoyance. RULED FOR THE RAILAOAD Judge Hebbard Had “ Small Sym- pathy With This Class of Cases.” PASSENGERS' RIGHT TO RIDE. Frank C. Colville Had a Ticket to Redding, but Was Oaly Allowed Passage to Red Bluff. “I have small sympathy with this class of cases,”” announced Judge Hebbard on Friday prior to deciding a railroad dam- age suit involving the rights of passen- gers. It was an appealed case brought by Frank C. Colville against the Southern Pa- cific Company. Colville bought a ticket from Oakland to Redding, He rode to Davisville and changed cars. After leav- ing Davisville the conductor took away the ticket, substituting a hat check which he took away on nearing the town of Red Bluff. After leaving Red Bluff, the con- ductor asked Colville for a ticket and re- fusing to accept any explanation, collected from the passenger $115 fare from Red Bluff to Redding, paid under protest. These facts were admitted, the ticket reading ‘‘Oakland to Redding,”’ being produced in court. On these facts Mr. Colville sued for $299, being $99 exemplary damages and $200 under section 490 of the Civil Code. Attorney Thomas R. Knox for Mr. Col- ville proved the facts and cited the law of the case. Section 490 says plainly: Every railroad corporation must provide and furnish to every person desiring a passage on their passenger-cars a ticket which entitles the purchaser to a ride from the depot or sta- tion where the same is purchased to any other depot or station on the line of their road. Every such ticket entitles its holder to ride on their passenger-cars to the station or depot of destination. Any corporation failing so to pro- vide and furnish tickets or refusing the pas- sage which the case calls for when sold must pey to the person so refused the sum of $200. This section Mr. Knox explained further as foilows: *'It says to defendant, ‘If you do not give the ride which you agreed to give plaintiff you must do something else by way of penalty or satisfaction. In the words of the law, you must pay $200. You had a plain choice; you agreed to do one of two things—give plaintff the ride paid for or give him $200. You refused the ride called for, and now the law says you must pay him $200.” The defense urged that the plaintiff had suffered through an ‘“honest mistake” of its conductor. It was claimed that every- thing had been conducted in a peaceable and gentlemanly way. To this Attorney Knoxreplied: “In de- fiance of the strongest kind of proof, know- ingly, willfully and deliberately, the con- ductor refused to look at the ticket, which was in his own possession. Plaintiff fur- ther informed Yim that his baggage had been checked on that ticket from Oakland to Redding and showed him the check and itsnumber. Did the conductor attempt to verify plaintiff's claim by looking for the ticket or the baggage, both of which were in his charze? No; but showed him a single memorandum made by himself (the conductor), and that alone declared that plaintiff was making a false claim; told him that if. he had his baggage checked to Reading it was checked on some one else’s ticket, thereby declaring plaintiff to be an intruder on defendant’s cars, attempting to obtain a ride through fraud and misrep- resentation. “Whether there were few or any passen- gers on the car at that time matters not; it was afpublln place and plaintiff was ac- cused of wrongdoing, declared to be an impostor and a petty larcenist. For this indignity inflicted willfully on the plain- tiff he asks exemplary damages in the sum of $99 under section 3294 of the Civil Code.” It was further contended by the plaintiff that on the question of an *“‘honest mis- take” by the conductor the law does not contemplate excusing wrongdoing on the ground of a correct motive, and cited in- numerable authorities showing that “‘zood faitu is no excuse for a violation of stat- utes. The legal wrong is in the injury done.” Judge Hebbard stated at first that he did not see the necessity for argument in the case; that bhis sympathy for such cases was small. He refused to transfer the case when taxed with bias in uttering this statement and allowed brieis to be sub- mitted. Finally the court nnderedgudiment for the defendant railroad, the Southern Pa- cific, stating, among his reasons, that the oonductor did not attempt to eject the passenger; that the dispute had been courteously settled; that the ssenger had only claimed $115, which had been refunded him by the ‘railroad, and that the conductor, whose fitness was indi- cated by twentv-seven years’ service, had only made an ‘‘honest mistake.” In regard to points in the decision not touched on, Attorney Knox had explained that the passenger had not resisted the conductor under pain of committing a Federal offense, and that he had not “only claimed $115" in settlement, but had simply written to the company a succinct statement of the unjust manner in which he had been treated. NEW TO-DAY. TOBACCO-TWISTED NERVES. The Unavoidable Result of the Continued Use of Tobacco. Is There a Sure, Easy and Quick Way ef Obtaining Permanent Relief From the Habit ? Millions of men | think they need stim- ulants because their nerves are set on fire by tobacco. The per- sistent abuse to which the tobacco-user sub- jects hisnerves cannot possibly fail to make weak the strongest man. Chewing and smoking destroy man- hood and nerve power. What you call a habit is a nervous disease. ‘Tobacco in the ma- jority of casesdeadens the feelings. Youmay not think tobacco hurts you, but how are you ever-going to tell how much better you would feel without it unless you follow the advice of Postmaster Holbrook: CURED 48 casEs oUT OF 50. HOLBROOK, Nev.. June 13, * Gentlemen—The effects of No-To-Bac are truly wonderful. I had used tobacco for forty-three geare, & pound plug & week, 1used two No-To-Bac and baye had desire for tobacco since. I gave two boxes of No-To-Bac t0 & man named West who had used tobacco for forty-seven years and two boxes to Mr. Whiteman, and neither of them have used t since,and say they have no desire for it. Over fifty that I know of have used No-To-Bac through my influence, and I only know of one case where It did not cure, and then it ‘was the fanit of the patient. © I was 64 years old last week. I have gained 17 gounds in flesh since I quiz tne use of lobacco, ‘ou can use this letter, or any par: of it, as you ‘Yours respectfuily, i . 2 You say it is wonderful. Indeed itis. No -Bac cured over 300, cases just as bad You can be made well and strong by No-To-Bac Your own drnpfln guarantees a cure. Getou’ booklet, “Don’t Tobacco Spit and Smoke Your Life Away,” written guarantee of cure and free sample, mailed for the asking. Address The Sterling Co., Chicago or New York. 0N « rezé\kflfick WA ) 'f\l())\) W72, DOCTOR SWEANY. - WHY Is DOCTOR SWEANY acknowladged' as SAN FRANCISCO'S LEADING AND MOST SUCCESSFUL SPECIALIST? BECAUSE His reputation has been established by effecting CURES of CHRONIC DISEASES, where other physicians, of acknowl- edged ability, had failed. FAGTS ARE STUBBORN THINGS. DIPLOMAS AND LICENSES from the best medical colleges of the world adorn the walls of his offices. Chronic and Wast- ing Diseases of the Throat, Lungs, Heart, Stomach, Bowels, Kidneys andthe GENITO-URINARY ORGANS have been Doctor Sweany’s study for life. There are cases of this character which, through neglect or improper treatment, are beyond medical aid, but there are many more given up as hopeless simply because incompetent physicians have failed to effect a cure. This especially applies to venereal diseases of the blood and the GENITO-URINARY ORGANS, and Doctor Sweany yearly saves thousands from becoming mental and physical wrecks. . MEN WHO ARE WASTING AWAY Take heed and secure proper treatment before it is too late. If you are suffering from the effects of indiscretions, excesses and unnatural losses, which rob the blood of its richness and the body of its animating influences, which enfeeble the con- stitution and result in Impotency, Paralysis, Softening of the Brain and Insanity; if you are tormented with morbid fear and your days are passed with distressing thoughts of your disease and you are unfit for the every-day duties of life; if you have any or all of these symptoms you are suffering from SEMINAL WEAKNESS, NERVOUS DEBILITY and their kindred causes. THE FIRST THING TO DO In order to get cured is to cast aside all false modesty and place yourself under Doctor Sweany’s treatment. His experience in treating such diseases has been world-wide. He has cured thousands of others and CAN CURE YOU. GONORRHCEA, GLEET and that terrible and loathsome disease, SYPHILIS, thoroughly and forever cured. THE POOR who call at his offices on Friday afternoons are welcome to the doctor’s valuable services free of charge. Your troubles if living away from the city. Thousands are cured at home by means of correspondence and medicines sent them. Letters are answered in ENGLISH, GERMAN, FRENCH, ITALIAN, SWEDISH, NORWEGIAN and DANISH. BOOK OF INFORMATION is mailed free upon request to thos e describing their troubles. : NAMES of patients or their diseases are not published or exposed, but there are thousands of testimonials on file in Doctor Sweany’s private office. They are voluntarily given as deep and sincere expressions of gratitude from our merchants, manufacturers, mechanics, farmers, lawyers, laborers and literary people, who have been cured and restored to health and happiness by him. Itis a part of judgment and sense to seek Doctor Sweany first, instead of squandering away time and money upon the uncertainties of patent medicines and pica- yune specialists. E —— OFFICE HOURS : S A.M.to 12 M., 20 5 and 7 to8P. M. Sundays, 10 A. M. to 12 M. only. 24 ) % ADDRESS : F.L.SWEANY, M.D., 737 Market Street, OPPOSITE EXAMINER OFFICE, SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.