The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 27, 1899, Page 21

e, whence he had e JI7A 1d probab etter as a s put off till ip almost er than crew to 1t down t they ncluded that it ake a hand in the 7 piled into illed ashore, leav- rigantine to fight her th wind and waves. The talie repai < the most notorious nia—the Bal Oro, which was situated on d Alvarado across the ptain Lambert, pointing modern-looking two-story. Althou Hu mus! e gh she looks know that, in this town, the rest 11 the re- However, , the Na- a 'k to lend a hand, and when the morning broke, after a heavy southeast night, not a spar nor a timber was left vis- ible above the water. The gri ship had broken her low her tough littie t ndy bottom of Monte ‘Ard she was teak buil Captain Lambert, with an hones of reminiscent pride, “the kind of ship you don . nowadays; solid teak copper fastened, with coppef heavy as the nchions on & battleship. J walk over here me to Duarte’s fish market. I will show you the Natalie’s rudde This was washed asho: was loosened from the sh heavy southeast storm la young Mr. Duart b and bottom searching, der and brought it see it mow. Take you cut into the wood. See how firm the grain is. “Now, my boy, those were the days when they built ships to last for gen ations. No iron or steel ship of mod- ern construction could possibly have withstood the wear and tear of fift five ye s beneath the water and leave a plece of this size in sight. Just no- tice the copper bolts with which she is braced. Why, the copper itself in that rudder Is worth $20 to-day, and her fastenings when she was built must have cost a small fortune. No, she was not of the old-fashloned, round-powed, or rather p during a -r, and ful diving ed the rud- (ArrIrD high-pooped style that you might im- She was rather a smart-look- , trim-built little brigantine, and lines were similar to those you will find in the South Sea Island trade > Of course, her shrouds and 1ge were much heavier than you raft, as steel rig- known in her time. well- s that might have shown great 1g qualities. he was armed after a fashion. She carried one bronze swivel gun for- ward and small arms, principally old- -d Spanish rifles and cutlasses ckets about the masts ’tween It would probably be worth a r's while to make a diligent search for that old bronze cannon, for it would certainly bring a falr price from any C torical curiosities. No, to my knowledge no one has ever at- t T mpted to rescue this rare piece of metal. “Oh! you need have no doubts as to the authenticity of the ship. She is the same bit of marine architecture that ed Napoleon to France upon his escape from Elba when he started on hi t ‘wild rampage with the avowed of changing the political ge- of the world. Had It not been - his terriblc repulse and downfall at Waterloo, it is very probable that the Natalie would not this day be ling her bleached bones beneath e waters of Monterey, but on the con- iry she would be preserved by France the ship which had conveyed the greatest 1 from exile to his grandest victo: aptain Bralee, another old-time pper, who lives in Monterey, re- membe the 1, which was plainly visible when he arrived there in 1844. tain Bralee sald: “I arrived in Mon- on Admiral Sloat's flagship, the nnah, in 1844, We were warned by rbor master to beware of our an- Mexican revenue cutter and her upper works came very near the surface. I have looked at the old ship many times in the last fifty years and have watched the gradual decay of the historical old She was undoubtedly the ship which carried Napoleon from Elba to ! e, just previous to the battle of loo. She was a brigantine— that is. a two-masted craft, square-rigged for- ward, with fore and aft sails on main- mast—something seldom seen at the present time. She was constructed on what might be termed modern lines, and was wrecked in the bay of Mon- terey in March, 1843, through the crimi- nal negligence of her captain and crew, who left her without so much as an an- chor watch on a threatening night when there was every indication of ap- proaching bad weather, that they might enjoy themselves in debauchery ashore. She was considered a clever little ship in her day, and had seen service in many parts of the world, and prob- ably had a historical record of greater importance than any vessel of which a vestige is left at the present time In these waters. “I have an affection for the old hulk because I have watched her for so many years. If I had the money I shéuld like to have her old bones flshed up from the bottom, set them up and give them a covering of planking, sa we could exhibit her to the present gen- eration as one of the relics of the past She is certainly worthy of some better fate, and a few years will mean the total destruction of what remains of the brave little craft. Every heavy gale during the winter months brings one or more pieces of her timber ashore. “You may depend upon it, mnobody will dispute my knowledge of the his- tory of this place. As I told you be- fore, I came here on the old flagship Savannah with Admiral Sloat. No. I am not the man who was ordered to holst the flag at Monterey. I am quite sure that no individual was told to do s0. As a boat's crew we were ordered to do so collectively, and I was one of the crew. It was the proudest moment of my life when I took a heave on those halyards, and when I s 0Old Glory slide up to the truck of that flagstaff 1 realized that the United States had added another star to the banner which would eventually outshine them all. I am not at all disappointed, either. I am now an old man, but I have had the jsfaction of seeing this State emerge from a miserable little Mexican province to one of the greatest agri- cultural districts of the world. I am proud of this State, and I am proud of the little I had to do with its transi- tion. I was only wrong in one forecast; I really expected to see Monterey a great' seaport; I had every reason to believe that in the-course of-years this % THE NAPOLEGN BACK TO FRANCE. AT THE SAY FANDANSO, beautiful with San Francisco in the way of com- merce. I was wrong in this respect as you can see. “I have carefully studied the history of Napoleon’s escape from Elba, and I am positive the Natalie is the ship that carried ‘him'to his final defeat. Many people have sald that her original name means. All was the Undaunted, which is a' mistake, 'STANCH CRAET BEARS THE NATALIES SREW IN MONTEREY ay would divide honors The Undaunted was the carried him from France to Elba. ““The result of that last battle was in my opinion the best thing that could ave happened, for had he won that ght, the whole world would have been at his mercy, and although a great gen- eral, he was not a.merciful man by any against this one man, determined to down him if such a thing were possible, and they succeeded. “Just think of the egotism of the man on the night preceding the battle. It had been raining and the night was dark and threatening. Napoleon walked over the ground, as was his custom before a battle. Lightning flashed and thunder rolled like the heavy can..onading which was but music to his ears. When he had reached the center of the fleld he paused, and, wrapping his martial cloak about his shivering body looked up into the sky and remarked, "“God, we are agreed.” He actually believed he was in league with his Maker to conquer the world, but God was not with him on this particular occasion. The fates had ordained otherswise. ‘““Napoleon was lost to fame forever, and for over fifty years the little ship that did so much to bring about this result has been dead to history. It seems like neglecting a corpse to leave her poor skeleton out there on the sandy bottom of Monterey Bay. “I am sometimes inclined to believe that as a people we have very little reverence in our make-up. Our rich men go abroad year after year that they may improve themselves by view- ing the treasures that have been care- fully pressrved by all of the great na- tions of Europe, yet they simply ig- nore things of far greater interest at home, and the wreck of the Natalle is a fair sample of our neglect.” In an obscure coruer of the Btate Mining Bureau may be found a plece of worm-eaten timber which is labeled something after the following: “This is a piece of the ship Natalle. This s the one that carried Na- poleon from Elba to fore the battle of Wat wrecked in Monterey Bay in 1843.” No further interest has ever been takeny in the matter by our local historians. W. C. BUNNER,