The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 25, 1896, Page 19

D e F all books, the logbooks of the mer- chantmen that make fast to the wharves of San Francisco are prob- ably the dullest to the ordinary mortal. To the sailor every eniry means a story, and some of the most interesting stories gleaned during tén years at sea are here- with related. Strange Freake of lhe éeaf M('JLA‘ It may seem strange to read about the | blowing so strongly that it tore open lor's mouth, but the strangeness of it not make it any the less true. It was once my fortune to ke caught off ie. island of Fayal, in the Azores, ina yelone, with every stitch of canvas stretthed. The experience was not one of those for which we had a week to prepare, but came so suddénly that we did not realize what had struck us till we were repairing our wrecked sails and rigging in the calm Iwmer to leeward of theisland half an hour ater. THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 25, 1896. skippers mean enough to think that the result was not worth the price. One morning, while making a voyage from Sydney to San Francisco, we were becalmed somewhere near the equator, and, as usual, several sharks were“swim- ming about the ship. At such times it is customary, if the water be at all smooth, to lower a stage over the ship's side and scrub off the grass that always grows on iron vessels at sea. The watch had just been relieved, when there was a cry of “man overboard,” and on looking over the starboard side we saw a Swede, who had tumbled off the stage and was keeping himse!f afloat with difficulty. As s00n as the splash was neard two or three large sharks immediately swam to- ward him. Itisa peculiarity of a man- eater that he will never touch anything that is moving unless he be very hungry. Peterson evidently knew this, for he splasked with his arms and legs as much as he could, but it did not seem to intimi- date those sharks. It would not take more than a few seconds to throw him a bow- lIine ana haul him on board, but it wouldn’t take a shark a hundredth part of that time to make a sheer and nip off a leg. It happened that Peterson had fallen We were within a week’s sail of home, overboard close to the meat cask, and one referred to we were passing through be- tween Lombok and the island east of it, and had safely passed Ringit Point, in the southeast corner of Lombok. Between the two islands all kinds of conflicting cur- rents were met, and as there was not a preath of wind the ship was as helpless as alog. Just about midnight it was discovered that we were being carried fast on to a pervendicular cliff. On dropping the lead we found no bottom ata hundred tathoms, and to have let go an anchor under such conditions would simply mean ripping the ves«el's plates below .the water line with a cable. It was pitch dark and we could not see how close we were, but we soon discovered our distance when the spanker boom struck the rock end on, broke in two in the middle and was sent crashing down into the cabin through the skylight. The mizzen yards next locked with the cliff, and at the same time we could feel the stern of the vessel pounding on a ledge beneath. The cliff must have run down into the water perpendicularly for over a hundred fatloms, which fact we provea by taking soundings. To have had aholeknocked into the ship meant that she would sink bodily oat of sight, and to run the risk of having our starboard boats THE SWEEP OF THE FREAKISH GALE, and every mariner knows the feeling of those who, having been on a long voyage, pass .the Western Islands (Azores) and straighten out for the Lizard. It was at this time one interesting after- { noon, just after four bells, when a little | bit of a cloud appeared that grew and grew | faster then the turnip of Longiellow’s boy- { hood days. A few minules after making | its appearance the whole atmosphere sud- | denly turned white. There was just one | flash of lightning | a mixed crash of thun- | der, broken spars, torn sails and parted | shroucs. The ship’s lee rail was under wa the wind was blowing half a do; gales and had hauled several points d, placing the rocky little island dead to leeward of it, but what was even more | dangerous, blotting it from sight. Every- body knew that unless we could immedi- ately get the snip off before the wind be- fore she sagged to leewerd there was ncta particie of hope of outliving that white squall. The captain immediately mus- tered the hands aft, and although the ves- sel was nearly at right angles to the water told them that their only hope was in going aloft and either cutting away or | furling the rags of the after canvas. Headed by the mate the men scrambied | aloit.and started to obey the order. It was en that one Norwegian sailor met with he accident with which this little story | Y After climbing out to the weather | cross-jack yardarm he looked to wind- ward, and just why he opened his mouth no one knew, unless it was to try and shout something to the men on deck. Sev- eral large hailstones were being thrown around by the wind, and apparently one must have struck him on each side of Lis mouth et once, for & little later his mouth was found to be cut fully half an inch each Aiter a few minutes we succeeded in getiing the ship off before the wind, and | had no sooner done so than a man from aJoft could be heard yelling, ‘‘Breakers ahead.”” Instantly everybody looked in the direction indicated, and not more a hundred feet away was the white water, foaming around the rocks lying off the southwest corner of the island. Another minates would settle the fate of all on d. By some timely trimming of +ds we passed the pointin safety, gnd teh minutes later we were in a beautiful ni patch to leeward of the island and tle viliage we saw in thf center, of a steeple was prominent, never looked so peaceful or s0 acceptable to any =w of sailors. But while saved ourselves, alittle Dun- dee green-painted bark whom we h,u been trying to signal just when the white =quall struck us was not so fortunate. She was just (oo far ahead to go to lee- ward of the island and we knew by ob- servation that she did not go to windward, copsequently only one fate was left her. h‘i'em, down and not one of her crew culvived that squall. Every inquiry was made for months afterward, bul she was never seen agai 4 Pork Better Chan Man It once required the throwing overboard of a barrel of pork to save the life of a man irom sharks, and 1 believe that there are five b pe thel of the old sailors, with a presence of mind that I have never yet ceased to admire, immediately kicked off the Jid and threw three or four piecss of juicy fat pork tothe sharks, They swallowed them rapidly, as they always will anything that is station- ary, and the oid sailor kept pelting the sharks with chunks of meat until Peter- son was hauled aboard, after.which the free lunth was declared cff. Jack )_s‘ Not Fa\jf.. Poets and romancers never seem to tire of talking about the unfaithfulness ofa sailor. Such an idea is one of the grossest of calumnies, A sailor is more faithful to his wife or his sweetheart than the major- ity of people ashore ever pretend to be. Many times on clear moonlight nights, as well as under the shelter of the weather- cock in a gale of wind, I have heard cap- tains, officers and sailors talk of the loved ones at home, and in a manner that showed mors respect and tenderness than is ever credited to an old shellback. There was one captain who never tired of talking about his home, It was his constant companion in thought from the time he waved farewell to his wife and ittle ones as they went back on the tug- boat to the time he met them again. Somewhere in the north oi Scotland there was a little, green grave, of which he had a photograph in his cabin, and the attachment for that little mound was something to be admired. Frequently he would unburden himself of his inmost thoughts and then he would be no longer the stern captain to whom everybody must show ready obedience and respect, but one of the most tender-hearted of human beings, and as he turned occasior- ally to look at the lighted binnacle his clistening eyes would have been an in- | spiration to those who cavil at a sailor’s morality. With the rank and file of forecastle | hands there should be & vast amount of sympathy for their weaknesses, when it is known the great sacrifices that a life at sea entails, but with the young middies 1 and officers things are diffecent, and they are asa rule the truest and most faithful of lovers. Uoyage of the Degerted ShF Itisan unwritten law in nautical juris- prudence that a ship is not deserted and cannot be called a legal derelict if there is life on board of her. In some instances stories have been told where the discovery of a cat on board a deserted ship has pre- vented the salvors from claiming the greatest limit of salvage. Had any one pboarded the ship City of Hankow while on her last voyage from Philadelphia to Japan, and while passing through the Omhaya passage, their claim to total salvage would have been frustrated by a p‘f‘z is never a matter of safety or pleasure to enter the Indian Ocean from the south through any of the passages that extend from Sumatra westward., On the occasion’ smashed as our port ones had been by the cliff would have been suicidal and left us with no means of escape in case of the worst. The captain ordered the starboard boats to be lowered and provisioned. While we were passing some crackers and hams into them the carpenter reported that the ves- sel.was making water fast. Provisions were forgotten, there was a wild scramble for the boats and a minute later all hands were pulling hard away from their late home to avoid the suction that wou!d in- evitably occur should she founder. After rowing off about half a mile we paused and wished for daylight. To our horror we d:scovered when wanting a drink of water that the boat’s breaker was empty. Before we had Jeft the ship an hour some one noticed that she had left the rock and was sailing through the straits on her own account. We tried to overtake her, but being in a current adverse to the one which was sweeping her onward we made no headway. Finally we struck the same current and away we went chasing the City of Hankow, which was flying through the night with all sails clewed up like a veritable phantom ship, without a sign of life aboard except the pig which we had left in the sty. No time was lost in taking possession of our ship and next morning we dropped an anchor in about sixty-five fathoms, opposite the little viilage where the monarch of the islandslive. Captain King went ashore, managed in a way known only to himself to make known our wants and returned with a turtle, some skinny goats, some skeletons of chickens and a few sweet potatoes. On arrival in port we found that a large por- tion of our rudder had been knocked away and much of the false keel. But as the vessel was of the build known as compos- ite this loss was not material. For the rest of the voyage the crew never tired of telling the story of how the pig steered the ship off the rock. S Shark Tira ahe and Water Poot Plenty of people have seen a shark and a thresher indulge in a finish contest, but few have seen the two animals, while fighting to the deatb, drawn out of the water in the vortex of a waterspout. Every sailor knows what the doldrums are—variable zirs, violent rains and every now and then one or more waterspouts. We were becalmed in the doldrums off the coast of Brazil and were watching the antics of a shark and a thrasher who were struggling near the ship in water which had been turned red with their blood. They were lashing the red foam in all di- rections, when our attention was arrested by the presence of several waterspouts on the horizon, We also noticed that an- other one was forming rather too near the ship for our amusement. The heavy black cloud had already dropped the point which is the first sign of a waterspout forming. \ Immediately beneath it the water began to circle round and round and boil and’ gradually to rise from the surface like a pillar to meet the upper portion that was dropping from the skies. Shark and thresher, totally unmindful of their prox- imity to danger, stabbed and bit each other with increasing energy as they feit the pain of their wounds. Nearér and nearer the scething water approached them, and finally they were within its in- flaence. Still fighting they were carried round and round a few timesand appar- ently got madder and mauder, each ani- mal seeming to credit the other forcausing the peculiar performance. A moment or two later they were lifted clear above the surface and were in the lower portion of the waterspout. It was very evident that they threw up the sponge under the cir- cumstances, for when the spout burst, which it seemed to do as soon as it had lifted the fighters out of the water, they swam off in different directions and: we saw no more of them. Tsg T [rmitt . . o Che Pitaiin -TRa0 It was once the duty of the ship City of Fiorence to carry what was undoubtedly the most interesting mail on record. It consisted of seventeen letters written by Pitcairn Isiand maidens to their friends and their friends’ friends in Tahiti. The islana of Tahiti is distant only abouta week’s sail from Pitcairn, yet these letters were required to travel more than theen- tire distance around the earth, which jour- ney occupied nearly five months before they were delivered. They were interesting letters, too. Nearly all of them bore the address of a young man, and, according to our infor- mation, nearly all related to South Sea affaires de ceour, One beautiful Christmas eve about 1 seven years ago the City of Florence while on ber way from this port to England ap- proached Pitcairn Island and hove to. A few minutes later President MecCoy, one of the Young family: and several dusky looking Pitcairners came on board, and as no other ship bad called there for several months they were right glad to see us. We exchanged many kinds of food and material for two boatloads of islanc produce, and for each of the officers Miss Rose Young, the scheol mistress, sent a fine bouquet with a Christmas card 1 her own handwriting. But the most precious thing confided to our care was a little bunch of letters. Pitcairn Island not being in the Interna- tional Postal Union the envelope bore not a postmark or stamp. The livtle packaze was carried around Cape Horn and eighty days later arrived at Falmouth. Although they had then traveled about 12,000 miles they had only camplated the first stage of their journey. Our vessel, not being a recognized mail ship, had to perform several red-tape evo- Jutions, and Captain Leask had to sign almost an affidavit for each letter before her Majesty’s Government would accept the responsibility of forwarding them to their desiination. 19 their chance of arriving at their island destination. The only means of com- munication is by an occasional schooner or a man of war, but eventually they were delivered and no doubt the interesting nature of their news more than compen- sated for the delay in receiving them. Some time afterward Governor McCoy visited Oakland on a visit to the Adventist headquarters. He called on me at a news- paper office and said that-the letters were duly delivered and that some of the young men to whom they were written were now the gallant busbands of the writers on the lonely little isle made famous by its con- nection with the history of the mutiny of the Bounty. A Coviarsly Cog&cat ®artacn. The captains of tugboats on the Pacific Coast are as a rule brave men. To this rule, however, my logbook shows one marked exception. A few years ago the City of York, a Glasgow vessel, came from Adelaide 1n ballast, hound for the Colum- bia River. A smart passage was made associations. When they hear of how some of these same gnests spena a Christe mas day off Cape Horn they will know why the turkey and plum pudding taste so good at Pastor Rowell's mission. Sailors as a rule refer to any person who attempts to administer to their spiritual needs as a ‘““‘Holy Joe,” but such words do not always express contempt. Rev. Mr. Rowell has a warm spot in the hearts of many sailors who have visited S8an Fran- cisco, and frequently his name and that of his honored wife and daughter, the latter being now the helpmate of a worthy Sal- vation Army officer, are discussed during mealtime at sea. But for our story of Christmas off Cape Horn. About five vears ago we were outward bound to this port, and, as usual, Cape Horn decided to be as boisterous and ob- stinate as even Jack’s worst enemy could desire. It was blowing a gale of wind, a heavy cross sea was running and, conse- quently, everything and everybody was being turned topsy-turvey. In spite of all, there was a Chrisimas feeling among everybody on board, and when the cap- tain’s wife wished the man atthe wheel a “Merry Christmas” he felt so pleased at her condescension that he forgot the utter across the Pacific and one bleak December i inaptness of her words. VOYAGE OF THE SAILORLESS SHIP. It cannot be said that carrying Pitcairn Island mail is a very lucrative undertak- ing, for each of the leiters carried the ship-owners received the sum of one penny, aud the cost of obtaining this 34 cents was equal to the amount received. Aiter leaving Falmouth the letters took a trip to London, there they went through the general postoffice, were liberally plas- tered with postmarks and explanations as to how they came there and why they were not stamped. 2 After leaving the British capital they went to Southampton and were then placed on board a New York mail steamer. At New York they were furtlier decorated and forwarded to San francisco. By this time they had traveled fully twenty thousand miles and had been more than three months and a half on their journey. At San Francisco the sections of the en- velopes that were still unmarked were duly covered and they were placed on board one of the regular vessels that carry the mails to Tah had From there they to take THE SEA BATTLE IN A WATERSPOUT. afternoon we approached the bar. The tug Columbia came as near alongside as possible, and as the weather was very threatening the captain decided to take a tow. We caught his heaving line and made fast bis bawser, and then procerded toward the bar, which was breaking heavily. The wind steadily increased, and beiore we had been towing an hour it was blow- ing a gale, with frequent squalls accompa- nied by thick passing mists, which blotted out everything for several minutes at a time. Very naturally, having a pilot on board and a tugboat ahead, we felt that we were perfectly safe and were congratulating ourselves that in a few hours we would be safely at anchor off Astoria. To our great surprise, when the storm seemed to be at its highest, the tugboat gave three or four sharp toots and cast adrift the hawser. ‘We could then see that we were drifting bodily onto the northwest beach, where the waves were breaking over the ribs of the Great Republic and the City of Dub- lin, one of our sister ships which had been wrecked there some years previously. It was no time for parleying, as a vessel in ballast drifts quicker than a cork. All hands were at once ordered to make all possible sail, but even then enough canvas could not be set to insure tacking off that 1ee shore. was approaching the wrecked Dublin, and it seemed to be simply a case of a few minntes before we should need the ser- vices of the lifeboat from Astoria. The bar at the entrance to the Columbia River is somewhat in the nature of a horseshoe and only with most favoring winds can a big vessel sail in. Somehow or other we enjoved a charmed existence for a few hours. Just when every hope of weathering that lee shore seemed to have vanished, there was a sudden change in the wind and the ship was enabled to haui off. the bar. Not only this, but as we sailed along the edge of the breakers the little proverbial cherub that is supposed to watch Jack’s fate was evidently on deck, for the gale followed us at every point and at the time when we expected to be breaking to pieces we were letting go the anchor in the harbor. That was the only occasion on which in ten years’ experience I ever saw "a cow- ardly act on the part of a tugboat captain. There was no necessity for the Columbia to have cast us off, as she was making tol- erably good weather, and the duty of her captain was plamnly to have attempted to have towed us to an offing from which we could have worked out to sea. In strange contrast to this incident was that of a San Francisco pilot, who, a couple of years later, worked the same ship from a dan- gerous position near the Potato Patch in a hard gale of wind, and who did not leave our poop-deck for nearly forty hours. LEL DT e Ghvigtmag Dinney at Bea Generous San Franciscans who con- tribute to the Christmas dinners given to the apprentices of shipsin the harbor on Christmas day cannot fully appraciate the extent to which their expression of kindli- Little bv little the old York | | b 3 Of course, there was no turkey; but th. previous day the cook had killed a pig, and such an event on board a ship is of as much importance as the laying of the foundation-stone of a new city ball or a ferry building. The crew’s share would have caused the mouth of an Eskimo to water. It was all fat. The steward had put the legs in pickle for the benefit of the cabin table; he had boiled the head and potted it for the same purpose; he had cut off large portions of each side to make into half-cured bacon, also for the cabin table. He laid claim to the liver an1 kidneys to make a haggis for the captain’s w fe. The balance of the Ppig consisted of large layers of fat attached to the skin, whico when roasted was served to the crew and the apprentices, and to the latter as a special favor was added the trotiers and taii. Then came the duff. Sailors cali it railroad auff, be- cause they say 1hat the distance from one plum to another bears a strong resem- blance to that between railroad stations on the plains. After being placed on the forehatch it was carefully cut into as many pieces as there were men in the watch and then one sailor would be told to turn around and another man would lift up the pudding, a viece at a time, and ask who should have it. ‘The man with his back toward the duff would cail out some name till all had a piece. This may seem a childish way to prevent discrimination over a mouthful of duff between grown men; but it is re- ligiously followed #very time the occasion arises to ‘‘whack out”’ the food. It in- sureseverybody getting an equal *‘whack.” This same rule applies to the apprentices. In addition to these special features there was also some soup, which sailors call “sky blue,” presumably on account of its c.earness and innocence from anything that might obstruct a clear yiew of the bottom of the mess kid. Coffee was also served, of a tint biack enough to suggest that the cook had dropped in a sea boot. All these delicacies were placed care- fully on the floor, so they could not by any vossibility fall. We gathered around with our knives and forks and tin plates as jolly as could be under the circum- stances, when we heard some one who was walking along the weather side cry out, “There she comes.” He referred to a big sea breaking over the weather bow. She came\ The weather door of our house came also, and after it a large proe portion of that sea. Pig, duff, soup, water-beaker, molasses and coffee went flying along the fioor with tbe lurch to leeward and the force of the water which rushed into the house. A few minutes later we had barricaded the broken door, pulled the plug out of the lee side o the bouse, allowed the water to ran out and then make adive under the lee bunk to recover our Christmas dinner. The pork ‘was uninjured; water could not penetrate it. The duff, after cutting liberally all around it, was declared fit to eat, but the soup and the molasses and the coffee could not be found. They had gone out with the sait water. We rrocured a little more coffee, sat on our chests, cursed our ill-luck, talked of home, and mutualiy agreed that a youth who wonlid leave a comfortable uome to ness is appreciated by those laas and the | follow a life on the bounding deep wag= old sailors far removed from all tender not a philosopher-