The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 14, 1896, Page 24

T HE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JUNE 14, 1896. [ [y Scattered along the shores of San Francisco Bay are dozens of wrecks of once good ships. Some of them have been months. washed out of existence, so rotten are esque in the extreme. most picturesque and intere: ship has made but one voy there for years and some only a few Some are simply ordinary-looking old hulks, likely at any time to be their timbers, and a few others are pictur- But there is no denying the fact that an old wreck is the ing object on the face of the earth. e and then piled her bones on a lonely beach there is Even though a something romantic about her. Her prow has cut through the waters of far-away climes and her timbers have creaked and struggled in the trough of the sea while fury of the hurricane. But some vessels have more peaceful ceaseless struggling with the elements. groaned as she rode over the swells or her canvas was torn to ribbons by the endings after long lives of usefulness and They become so old and unseaworthy that their owners cannot even sell them for kindling wood, so they are towed to some quiet spot to be used as a habitation of some kind or allowed to slowly fall to pieces and become more picturesque every day. It is over two years since the Peruvian after a most sensational voyage. started here from a Mexican port. When was improperly provisioned, and the crew to see her again. some of the worst storms that ever blew crew safely. Whepn the Adelguisa reached this port dilapidated craft that ever came through the Golden Gate. sails were masses of patches, and her rigging was held together Her crew deserted her in half an hour after she dropped anchor, and in a few days the un- She was then towed to Tiburon and run on the mud, where she has gradually been dropping to with all sorts of makeshifts. derwriters condemnued her. pieces ever since. Her day: bark Adelquisa arrived in San Francisco, s of usefulness were really over before she out only a short time it was founa that she concluded that her owners never wanted The voyage was an awful one, but the old ship that had weathered managed to hold together and land her she was the most Her Last vear the Adelquisa was used for a sort of camping place. In the winter she was abandoned and her hatches left open. The rain poured in and half filled her hull. gale came along and keeled her over on her side. of course, changed its center of gravity, and the old v And there she has remained ever since, the most picturesque wreck to be found on the shores of the bay. The many angles formed by the swinging spars and the broken wmasts produce an effect highly pleasing to an artistic eye. And what beautiful colors her old hull has taken on! could not right itself. nacles and moss have combined to produce beautiful gra moniously with a patch of red on her hull. Back on the shores of the Tiburon Lagoon is all that is left of the famous sidewheel steamer Flora Temple, that was built in the early fifties to ply between this City ana Sacramento. In her day the Flora Temple wasa fine craft, and many excit- In her old cabin some of the stiffest poker games were played, and there were also nu- merous encounters of a sanguinary nature between men who ing incidents took place on her decks. have since become and greens imaginable, that blend most har- Then a terrific The water, el Bar- some of the most famous. But, like ev- F‘ erything else, the old steamer reached the j end of her days of usefuiness and was towed to Tiburon about twelve years 8g0. For several years the Flora Temple was used as a sort of hotel. The old cabins were extended and lengthened, and real- ly she answered very well. In time though she became unfit for this, and was turned into a stable. But now she is not even fit to house horses, and is being allowed to drop to pieces. As she lies among the slimy marsh grass she presents a most dilapidated but with- al picturesque ap- pearance. Every- thing about her is broken. The boards on her sides are ready to fall off, and the windows are all gone. The bottom of the old hull rotted away years ago so that the inside is full of water. Away up in the San Joaquin marshes The SCHIEV IN THEe 5;\~Jot\auw s f Tre ADELQUISA TipvRoN- |/ i ALLTHAT 15 OLD STeameR by a wealthy Stockton man who used her as a sort of duck-shooting lodge for many years. Some say the vessel has been there less than four years, but if such was the case some record of her would be found at the Merchanty’ Exchange. A few old river men who have seen her say the Schiev must have got into her present location during the high water of 1861. They say that the water in that spot has not been deep enough since. But every big flood through the San Joaquin marsh has got several small craft into the same fix, and their wrecks are scattered all along for miles. As the Schiev lies at present, she looks most forlorn. Her masts have broken | off and all her rigging has disappeared. Only a stump of the bowsprit remains. | The hull is quite deep in the mud and marsh grass, but strangely enough the inside seems to be dry, except for a little | rain water. Numerous colors once adorned the sides of the vessel, and even now the yellows and blues are . brilliant. The | picturesqueness of the wreck does not lie so much in the shape or dilapidation, but | in the great amount of ornamentation on her sides. A careful examination of the hull of this vessel shows that it is not in | very bad condition, as it was built of very good material. The cause of the Schiev’s abandonment | can only be guessed at, but judging from her present appearance she was not de- serted because she | was worthless, but | possibly because she ran on a mudbank during very high wa- terand it was impos- | sible to get her off. Ten years ago the steamer Protection | was a well-known | vessel, butshe ran on a reef up the coast about six years ago and ended her career | asa carrier. She was patched up and float- ed and towed to Oak- | land Oreek. Her owners took the en- gines out and put| them into the Protec- tion that is now en- | gaged in the coast trade, intending to | refit the old hull asa | sailing vessel. Hard times, however, pre- | vented them from doing this, and she was allowed to go to ruin. JEFT oF The Protec Tion: For a while a cou- ple of cranks made their homes in the old hull. One occu- MARSH- RESENT APPE ARAN CE= of THe < Tiora TEmPiE isa a wreck that isnot only picturesque, but mysterious. To be sure it is only a | schooner of about 300 vons, but how she came there, or when, is something past finding out, although it is known that the vessel has been there for years and years. | On one side of the prow of this mysterious craft the letters *‘Schiey’”’ can be made | out, but whether that is all of the name or not can only pe surmised. Mr. Coolige, who has preserved some of the earliest records of shipping, inclines to the belief that the old vessel is of Russian origin. He thinks that she must have | been some of the large fleet that began coming in here about 1845, when very |cult task. Oakland Creek is full of them | He has several vessels on his books that contain |2nd the bay shore is ornamented by one the letters “‘Schie,”” such as *‘Schiekoff.” Tt is possible that this vessel may have every mile or so. There is the wreck of & | come in here and for some reason never went out through the Golden Gate again. big ship up at Frenchmans Island that | In time she may have become engaged in the river traffic until she ran on the |Nobody knows anything about and on the | little record was kept of them. mud and stayed there. Numerous stories are told about this vessel by people who bave business near | dozen of them. From all of these ves- | where she is aground, but they are so conflicting little weight can be civen to them. | S¢ls the names have disappeared and the No man can be found who saw the vessel when she was afloat. The oldest inhabitant |PéoPle who live near by have forgotten says she was there when he came, and he don’t know how much longer before. One story frequently told is that the Schiev was towed to her present location | the fact is that some people soon become pled the forecastle and the other the after cabin, leaving the amidships sec- | tion to rats. They were comfortably fixed | and had stoves, beds and other conveni- ences. They might have been there yet | bad not the old hull sprung a leak a few | months ago. This necessitated their find- | ing other places of abode. Since then the bottom of the hull has all rotted out, so |that the inside of the vessel is like a pond. The old wreck is not as pic- | turesque as the others mentioned, but she | has graceful lines, and the portion of her |that now shows above water presents an | appearance pleasing to an artist. | On one of the largest ranches in San Joaquin County there is the wreck of a |sloop in the bottom of a shallow pond. | The hills around it are higher than the highest water recordea in the locality, so | that the sloop must have drifted over them {not later than 1861. Tne owner of the | ranch says the wreck was there when he bought the place, twenty-five years ago, but what its name was or how it came tnere are facts of which he has not the | | least knowledge. | To enumerate all of the wrecks about | San Francisco would be a long and diffi- | | eastern shore of the bay there are nearly | what they were if they ever knew. But Rode like a storm bird, Yet, better far to battle wi % Baffled, but bravely, like a stag at bay, She faced the driving gale and angry sea ; Under short canvas and with helm a-lee, Hove-to, upon the starboard tack she lay, And looked into the wind’s wild eye that day ; Over the great, green, rolling billows, she and did seem to be A mist-born phantom rising from the spray. Her tightened weather-shrouds rang like a lyre, Swept by the furious storm king as he passed ; Wild ocean wraiths wailed in the thundering choir, A thousand demons shrieked in every blast ; th the gale, Than drift o’er glassy seas with listless sail. Louis A. ROBERTSON. familiar with a wreck and look upon it as so much old wood and nothing more. The | amount of beauty there may be in its soft | lines appeals them not at all. But those ! who do appreciate the beauties of an old vessel that has sailed its last voyage will surely concede it to be the most pice turesque objects in the world. His Fall From a I Sea Captain | To a Digger of Clams. } Herbert Clay is an old clam-digger, who has his home in a tiny, dilapidated shanty on the bay shore near East Oskland, He | js only a poor man now and has to work | very hard for very little. But things were | not always so. Herbert bas been the cap- tain of many fine ships, and all of the good | things of the world were his. That was a | long time ago, though, and his hair was of a darker shade then than it is now. Herbert Clay was born in England | seventy-two years ago. When he was 12 | he went to sea, and before he had reached | his majority he was a first mate. Things | came his way and he decided to try his | fortunes under the stars and strives. In Jess than a year he had command of a big clipper that sailed out of New York and soon became famous for fast voyages. By the time the War of the Rebellion broke out Captain Herbert Clay had taken ships to all of the principal ports of the world and had considerable money laid by. Then came several yéars of excite- ment as a privateer, mingled with wounds, | bLardships and sickness in rebel prisons. | When peace was declared and Herbert | was discharged from the hospital he found himself without a dollar and American | shipping a thing of the past. He managed to reach California about 1866 and has been here ever since. The glories of his past career, however, have been only mem- ories. He could not get a ship, so took command of a bay schooner; and, as he says, was glad to get it. But he wasn’t the man he used to be when he stood on the bridge of a big packet, and when he lost that job he was compeiled to ship as an ordinary seaman. When at last Herbert got so that he couldn’t do any work aboard ship he took | a job in the Osakland railroad yards, which be held until about six years ago, when he again found himself adrift on the world. For along time he didn’t know what to | do and wandered about almost starving, | until one day he saw some men digging | clams and concluded that he could do the same, He built himself alittle shanty and | in less than two days was at work. He has been digging ever since and says that it has been the Lappiest part of his life. | Herbert certainly looks happy. His { face is ruddy and his eyes bright, ana | even if his house is small it is as clean as possible, and he sleeps with a clear conscience. He don’t make money, of course, but he has enough, and a little to spare to buy tobacco. When he gete his pipe alight, he lays back and dreams, | was slow and tedious, and before the work | | The northernmost lighthouse in the Dis- | trict of California is the one on St. Georges | Reef, on the coast of Del Norte County, | and about twelve miles distant from Cres- cent City. It isbeyond doubt one of the | finest lighthouses in the world, and the | position it occupies made the work of con- | struction long and expensive. The need of a lighthouse on St. George’s Reef had been manifest for many years, | but nothing was done in the way of build- ing until April 3, 1883, on which day the | schooner La Ninfa left San Francisco with | a party of engineers aboard for the pur- pose of making surveys and drawings. This took several months, and the work of | construction was not commenced until tne | following year, The stone work was com- | pleted in 1891, The lamp was not lighted until October 20, 1892. | The lighthouse engineers were never | confronted with a more difficalt job. The | first work was to prepare the surface of the rock to receive the foundations, which necessitated a great deal of blasting. ‘Wharves were then built and the neces- sary derricks and tackle had to be put in position before anything couid be done. It was imperative that there should be a | good anchorage for the steamer that car- ried out the material, and a 12,000-pound | weight was sunk ana un enormous buoy | anchored to it, so that the steamer could | tie uo quickly. Every step of progress | was completed $500,000 had been expended. Thelong time, required together with the | great incidental expenses, were due, in a great measure, to inadequate appropria- tions. The stone in the structure was quar- | ried from granite bowlders found on Mad | River, near Humbold¢ Bay, 100 miles from | the lighthouse site. These had to be dug | up aud broken up into suitable sizes. The | larger pieces, which are used for dimen- | sion stones, were sent to the yard at the entrance to Humboldt Bay, where they | were dressed. Each stone was cut by a | gauge to fit the space it was to occupy in the finished structure. It was then marked with its number and a record was made of the time used in dressing it and of the name of the person by whom dressed.: The stones were dressed so as to be iaid with three-sixteenth-inch joints. When a course of stone was dressea it | was shipped to the site by the steamer, which would be moored as close to. the | reef as praciicable. ' Each finished stone, averaging in weight about two and a half tons, was then placed in a rope netting, attached simultaneously to the derrick on the steamer and to that on the structure, and it was thus landed. By this method of handling the stone none of them were spalled or chipped, and when the last stone of each course was slipped into place the joints on each side of it were found to be just three-sixteenths of an inch thick. The face of the pier is composed of 1339 of these dressed dimension stones, and it is believed that no finer, more substantial, | or more accurately fitting stonework can | be found in the United States. " As the completed lighthouse now stands it1s certainly an imposing structure. A massive circular stone pier rises from the | rock to a height of sixty feet above bigh [tide. Dn top of this the light tower is j erected. This is a square stone structure that rises 145 feet above the water, with a circular projection for the spiral stairway. St. Georges Reef light is of the first or- der. The lenses were made especially for it by Eenry Lepaute of Paris, France. The lamp.s of the Funk pattern, with a five- wick turner and capable of producing 500 candle-power. The light, as the mariners see it, is a red and white flash every fifteen seconds and is visible fifteen miles at sea. The fog-signal with which the station is equipped is one of the latest patterns of that apparatus. Everything about the station is built in duplicate. The whisties are of the twelve-inch locomotive type and give a five-second blast every seventy-five seconds. The dwelling-rooms of the keepers are in the tower. There are three bedrooms and one kitchen, all of them large and comfortable. Four keepersdo all the work about the station and make the necessary trips to Crescent City for provisions and to send the reports to the inspectors. The St. Georges Reef lighthouse is the most lonesome station on the coast of California. In the four years it has been erected there has been only one party of visitors. They were carried out to the rock by a large steamer from Crescent City on an unusually fine day. Under ordinary conditions it 1s almost as much as one's life is worth to attempt to land or leave the rock. John Olsen has been charge of the St. Georges Reef station ever sincs it was built. "In fact, he was one of the workmen who helped put it up. Since then the other keepers have been changed three or four times. It is hard to get men to stay His Whole Life Has Been One Endless Hardship. George Clark is one of the human wrecks of the water front. His life has been one long hardship, and there is no sign of a change in sight. George has his home under a wharf on the banks of the chan- nel, but he wanders from place to placeall day long, and can often be seen in differ- ent sailors’ resorts. Just when or where George first saw the light of day 1s something he don’t know, but he thinks it was in New York City and about fifty years ago. He looks much older, but his life has been an awful hard one. “My first recollection,” said George, “was of getting a whipping. [ don't know how old I was, but my father was doing tne job on the deck of a canal-boat, while my mother looked on. Iremem- ber going to some sort of a charitable school for several years, where 1 was beaten all the time and then back to the canal-boat and more beatings. Of course I didn’t like the beatings and the first chance I got ran away to New York, where I crawled into the hold of a ship, ‘When I got starved out I came on deck, where I got whipped and put to work “How I got around the world until I Was a young man is pretty hard to say. I was on a good many ships. Some of them were wrecked and [ ran away from some. But they are all alike—poor food, hard work and an occasional beating. When the war of the Rebellion came I was one of the first men to enlist. I thought I could not have any harder time than I had been having, but Igotfooled. My company saw plenty of fighting and privation. I was captured and spent several months in arebel prison before I was exchanged, only to be eaptured again in a short time. I managed to escape to the swamps and soon became so starved that I passed my- self off asa Southern man and joined a rebel company. After that I didn’t do much fighting, but had an awful time getting food. ‘Before I knew it the war was over and I got my honorable discharge as a rebel. I could get no work in the East, 5o started to San Francisco, and walked all the way, begging my food. It took a long time, and when I got here the only job I could get was on a whaler. After a three years' voyage I owed the ship $4, and had to ship again to keep from starving. I have made many voyages since, but no money. In fact I have never bad $20 at one time in on the lonely rock. + my life,”