The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 21, 1900, Page 1

- @all, 1900 . —1 PRICE. FIVE. CENTS LXXXVII—-NO. 121 GOES ON THE British Ship City of Florence Goes on Montara Reef in Halfmoon SFECIALLY .SAN FRANCISCO, WEDNESDAY, MARCH .21, ROCKS NEAR THE WRECKED NEW YORK ® A A TSR TSR A DA A A AT AIA kS AT RS A S Q SCENES ATTENDING THE RESCUE OF THE 2 MEN IN THE BOATS OF THE CITY OF FLORENCE | TAKEN Captain and Crew Take to the Boats and Are Rescued by The BY THE CALL’'S PHOTOGRAFHER. z Bay, Tearing a Great Hole in Her Side. Call's Tug After Having Almost Lost Their Bearings. THE _[Eoro - BCAT . REAcHES . THE “ALERT anta. Cruz, overhauled us, and Captain | great mystery to the people down ‘the Nicholson gave me.our position.” He of- | coast. ,When the City of Florence struck fered to take us all to Santa Crus, but I | she must have torn a great rent in her wanted to get to San Franctsco, and de- | bottom, and the wonder is that she did | cided to come on here. We had nothing | not go down at once. to eat or drink in the boats, as we had to | Two hundred vards to the morth of the re- cut away from the ship when she ap- | mains of the ill-fated City of New York, peared to be foundering. Captain Nichol- | wrecked here in March, 189, how lies all that son gave us a three days’' supply, and I | is left of the English ship City of Fldrence. can tell you it tasted good. That put| Early this morning & dismantled vessel was fresh heart into everybody and we were | seen about a mile off shore, and in a short making fair headway for San Francisco | time it had drifted so far In as to become when the tug sew out by Mr. Spreckels | Fecognized as the City of Florence, bound from came alorig 2nd brought us into port. It | Jaulque to San Francisco. No living persons was a mighty good thing for us that the | Were to be seen on the vessel. The wreck is Alert came along, for, judging by the | % cOmpléte that it is not now possible to teil progress we made during the morning, we | WIth What the vessel was loaded, as not a ves- would not have reached port last night."” Dick McKeever, who was on the look- my surprise to him that we did not pick | Out When the City of Florence went up the Farallones light and sent him aloft | 2shore, said, when talking about the dis- to see it he could get a sight of jt. It |aster: “The mystery to me is how the was then about $:30 p. m. and a clear | 0/d ship floated as long as she did. - She night. The moon was about haif an hour | I8 DOW over thirty years old, and in those above the horizon and all seemed calm | 12¥s they put the proper kind of material and peaceful. There was just enough | into a vessel.. Had we been in one of the wind 0 keep the upper and lower topsails [ "W fangled steel clippers not & man ot and the fore topmast. staysalls filled and | US,Would have been 0 tell thegale. A Delusive Fog. steerage way on the ship. “When the mate came down he told me “There was a haze on the water that there was not a light in sight, but that | would fool the devil himself. It was a he thought he saw breakers ahead |thin kind of film that one minute would through the haze. I ordered him alofi | make you think there was a fog afid the | next- make you.rub. your eyes to wonder ABoqrp THWE-TTa. (Continued on Page Two.) Captain Stone saw that the Alert was g for him he ordered the sail taken just kept steerage way on the s After some maneuvering the life- at was got alongside the tug and in a minutes sixteen of the men were ferred to the Alert, the remainder left in the boat to steer and take | f her while she was being towed | into Sen Francisco. The only man.who ha to be helped aboard the tug Chief Officer Fyfe, who was on the s d g injured his arm about three ks ago. S 1 were the tug’s deck. | to pay off tdward the east, but in a few |[out of ‘her. Then, she struck again, and . f rapi were left aboard to steer | seconds she struck. Judging from the | I thought the mainmast would come out v immedi- | the pinnace as she towed behind the life- | sound she must have gone on a rock but [ of her. Lowered the Boats. I b, 21 in longitude 110 west. We n Too s Third Officer Thompson, who was on port % pinnac» were | lost the southeast trades the following -g;’v:txlg;h::dwzn ::’v‘,mm.d tor.;:mp ‘watch with Captaln Thompson, sald: ““We S o B s occupled by v and did not get the northeast trades out the ocean. In about two minutes from | B0t two good ‘observations d g the - the crew, | until ¥ 24 In latitude 5 degrees | 1o tyme the carpenter first reported there | 48y and according to all our ons ate Mgqjd and | 2oTtR: tude 112 degrees 30 minutes | wag ten feet of water in the hold and she | Should have beén off the Farallones. saved their | me ) ° were light throughout and | paq taken on a decided list. When T went aloft the first time I got as - Moot away | oo lost them on March 9 in latitude 29| “iiyhen I saw there was no hope for the | far as thie foreyard and, happeming to k s.'v“-x s | Acerpes 30 minutes north, longitude 128 ship 1 ordered the boats lowered and we | look out under the lower foretopsail, I he P degrees ) minutes west. Everything was afloat | saw the breakers. I got to the deck in a shore ar carried ir was toward . light. Although th hay rowing we north. As|pElC 4 ouEh Shere Ball et s good Lyuitel | ATSGT OIS Vers B “The captain was wondertully cool and ¢ recze throughout the day the weather | got clear of the broken water and out to Bpre proprietor of | o, " clear and T was able to make good | sea. ‘ collected ithroughout, and only gave the the state Of | opservations at noon and 4 p. m. I had| “In the morning there was no sign of | 0rder to lower the boats when every e held the bet- | three weeks and approaching the coast I|must be north of San Francisco fnstead of | weather. ws aking good head- was on duty all the time. I had been on | south, so I started back over my course| The following description of the ‘wreck feby was closer ‘in- | watch forty-eight hours at a stretch and | again. comes from The Call's correspondent at th off, but 1 n an- k again and of Florence ot As About iro the went until two »d out the tug Trewren two ship- hted and the tug Eox, aware. Judging from my noon observa- 1 the Ifeboat. |0 T "ehip was at least twenty miies | this Port—once twenty-seven years ago | washed from the poop into the of The life- | .\ of her course when she struck. and again to-day—so I do not know the | the ship during a gale about three - > coast line very well. All my charts were | 2go. They have no knowledge -how. WO men were but surely being Rescued Ten More. As soon as the lifeboat was safely tow- ng astern Captain Trewrem turned the head for the pinnace and in a space of time Mate Mold and boat the run_from Point Pedro to 1eisco Cap Stone gave the fol- g account of t v e: on February 2 with a ned to Balfour, Guth- ““We started with a nd, which soon turned into . but carried us along at 1 we crossed the equator ““We had light variabie winds and ‘calms up to the 18th inst., but the next day— and have still every canfidence that my chronometer was correct, so the only reason I can give for the loss of my ship is that there must have been a strong current setting south of which I was not How the Wreck Occurred. “Chiet Officer Fyfe had been sick for on Mopday night Third Officer Thompson “beach. As soon as | was on the bridge with me. I expressed agaln to make sure, but he had not got as far as the foremast head when Djck McKeever, the man on the lookout, yelled, ‘Breakers on the port bow.’ I at once ordered the helm up and the after yards squared. Almost at once the ship began slipped off into deep water again. There must have been over twenty feet of water there, as we were drawing that much. In two minutes we struck again and I thought the ship would go.down bedily. I called the carpenter aft and told him to sound the weil. He repo s8ix teet of water in the hold. By t time a number of the crew had begun to get their kits together, but I at once ordered them to the pumps. all got into them. in the cabin, so the officers could not save anything, but the men secured their ef- r e g the day of our misfortune—we had a |fects and got them into the boats. After got to the foretopmast head I the s Seom Half- strong northwest breeze up to $ p. m. | getting away from the ship's side we |cry of “Breakers abead!” and heard o the ci gy s e wind then fell light and I put the | found ourselves in a sea of breakers. We | fore I got to the deck again the ship e news that oA pr»“b' ship under canvas as I was ex- | were surrounded by them and every mo- | struck. = £ es and that pecting every minute to see the Farallones | ment we were in danger of being en- s O 0 % the ship, and figuring that we were south of San Francisco we started to sail and row to the north. About noon time we were off Point Pedro, but there was nothing to indicate that we were anywhere near the Golden Gate. I have only been twice to aboard the ship, and having nothing to go by I came to the conclusion that I Overhauled by the Bonita. “Luckily the steamer Bonita, bound for whether. you saw anything-or not. Once or twice I fancled I.saw land and was going-to so report to the bridge when I saw the breakers. . When the ship struck I thought her whole bottom had been torn “There i3 only one cargo ‘worse' than nitre when you are on the rocks, and that is pigiron. All of the crew knew this and made sure the boat would go from under us:in a few minutes, I can tell'you we lost no time in getting the boats over when the old man gave the word. 'We had a hard time of it until picked up by The Call’'s boat, but I can tell you it was heavenly compared with being aboard a nitrate-laden ship pounding on the rocks.” hurry and reported to the captain, when he sent me aloft to make sure. Just as I chance of saving the ship was gone. We all had a close call, and it is wonderful that there was not a mishap.” It was Second Mate Inoid's watch be- low, and Chief Officer Fyfe was lajd up be- low with a broken arm, he ha ‘gn the disaster happened and can only eor- roborate the captain’s report the Bay. Captain Stone’'s account of the disaster explains what seems .1 The City of Florence Just Before Going on Montara Reef. L{From a Description Furnished by Captain Stone.]