The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 26, 1901, Page 3

THE SUNDAY CALL. — ) s COF THAR | DISRSTROUS WREQKS PAQIFIQ SO HE winter just passed has proved ne of the most disastrous in the ennals of o merchant marine. Pacific Ocean,” declares an “has forfeited her right y she has early part o ales raged not only off t of the Pacific but off Japan coast as well A record of disasters of the Pacific is kept at our Merc u will find sto escapes heard e been spoken ached s of d which ve put rt for repairs after battling nd weeke without getting one b les aw mant r other ports have come r in distress—warped, ess and inoperative—mute gor and might of our ty book disposes of an acci- w words; and yet\the disaster of our last winter covers many Anda full weird interest it is, e night clerk of the exchange of down the great volume and pours te cold, impassive pages, and let me tell you he no mean c riterion of the ajemy El Pa- and croche are a few accounts of the dis- ships that have entered this port winter: the British 2 from Astoriz nd barley. December a terrific sea, which end, her starboard ubmerged. ree riey were jettiscned she listed 40 degrees the harbor. The crew neck high in water, but re- e pumps until the moment of nes of the United States an are interesting. From we learn that on December typhoon which tore off the roof of aterooms on the hurricane deck, tw the iron stanchions and jamming the roof up against the smoke- stack Early last fall the German bark J. C. PAluger, Captain Hoover, bound _for Queenstown, put back in distress. About 110 miles south-southwest of San Fran- cisco she struck a whirlwind. Her main topmast and main topgallant mast, lower, mizzen and topmasts were carried away. In falling they smashed two small boats and skids. Her loghook says that it took the crew nine hours to clear away the wreckage. “Bent a new foresail,” the log continued, “and laid a course for the ship with wheat 15 she encountered 1 am 17 she struck | = 5 coast to reach nearest port. Drifted down coast at § a. m. past Point Conception with signals set for assistance. Picked up steamer Greenwood ten miles off the Santa Barbara coast and was towed into port at Santa Barbara.” She remained there five days and was y towed into our harbor by She was repaired a out to face the mighty ¥ in a weeks she came limpin into port dismasted, her cargo of flour dar aged by a leak in her hold. She was then given up by her owners and sold at public n at the Merchants' Exchange for i About this time the steamer W. H. Kru- ger, bound from San Francisco to Santa B ra, while 'entering the Santa. Bar- bara channel, was caught in a gale from the southwest and miles rom shore. She ile ba sted at an seemed about to goned 150,000 feet of e was towed into nd taken to the dry rtle. They je r to right her. n Francisco harbor dock for re The steamer South Portland caught fire while yading her cargo of lime at the Pacific-street wharf. It was raining. ome of her hatches were open, the lime caught fire and the San Francisco fire department was called and finally sank the vessel. Later five tugs tried in to pull her up. Finally she was raised by the wrecker Whitelaw, with much dif- ficulty. She was taken to the dry dock for repairs and then sent into the northern trade. The fall records the disaster of the May Flint, which, on September 9, en- tered and sailed down the hnarbor at 8 o'clock_p. m. She was loaded with coal from Nanaimo. The water front was all aglow and the bay was illuminated, for California was celebrating her riftieth ah- niversary as a State and the bay was as light s day. The May Flint saw the bat- tleship Towa ahead, but she did not know that the Iowa had a long ram vprojecting ear’ forward. In turning to pass the Jowa she ran a this ram, hit the Vidette and immediately sank from sight with her November 9 the British ship Flintshire ut into our harbor in distress. “The wind lew a gale off Point Bonita,” the ~ecord states, “which washed away the life- boats and wrecked the starboard fore- castle—washed off everything portable from the decks. Hurricane and territic sea continue all hands employed cutting away wreckage: used oil to keev sea down.” Many mariners were wrecked outside the heads and along the coast before they could reach a harbor. The steamer Cieone, bound from San Francisco to Eureka, was driven ashore December 7, near Point Gorda. 'U'he cao- tain and crew were compelled to abandon her. She floated off at high tide and was last seen, badly water-logged, about filve miles from Point Gorda. Danger has made playthings of the ships of the Pacific. “Some, in her wrath, she has annihilated utterly and some on the point of destruction have been miracu- lously snatched from oblivion after own- ers, sweethearts and gambler them up for t and mo ording to the varied lights in which the disartcr is seen in the domestic and comme world. An overdue vessel makes t bler smile contentedly. Barte: builders, barbers and merch one another as to whether th land or be posted as missing. Daily they crowd arvund the Merchants® Exchange and watch, some with a smile, others with a frown, the board which says in black and white: ship will | Days| | Out. | Rate SEL. To. Jno. McDonald|Baltimore an Fran. | San Francisco is said to be second only to London in the amount of gambling done in this lie and in the line of reinsur- ance. The marine insurance agent figures his loss on the John McDonald As the days count up on the overdue list his frown becomes fixed. It looks as if the insur- ance was up to him. An_overdue-sh : bler wanders in. His frown_ abate n the gambler goes out. He has confirmed the following agreement made by the insurance com- pany: . “I confirm having made the following agreement with you in regard to the ship John McDonald, which safled from Balti- more for San Francisco, now out 250 days. “That If sald vessel arrives at her desti- nation as above I shall pay you the sum of $1000 in United States gold coin: if said vessel does not arrive at her destination as above, as soon as she is known to be lost or is posted as ‘missing’ at Lloyds, London, you shall forfeit to me the sum of $900 in United States gold coin. Please confirm and oblige. Yours very truly, “MARINE INSURANCE COMPANY."” If the ship is lost the $900 goes to pay the $1000 insurance, and the insurance man is only $19) out. Some study the weather and the sea- worthiness of the ship during the time she is out, and they bet from a scientific standpoint; while with others it is merely a game of chance. The game ended last week when the John McDonald was taken Off the list as uninsurable. The Pactolus sighted the John MeDon- ald off the Horn. The captains of the two ships were brothers. They had not seen cach other for ten years. The vessels drew up and the brothers went on board each other’s ships. They were both bound for this port. 'The John McDonald was a fast sailing vessel, the Pactolus a slow one. When the Pactolus ‘Watts’ first question wi John McDonald get In “She has not arrived,” was the answer, The Pactolus went north, came back and is now on her wav to South Africa, and still “‘the John McDonald has not ar- rived,” and probably never will. If the ship came around the Horn, the usual passage from Baltimore, she is long landed Captain , “When diq the I | The Wreck From a Painting by W. A. COULTER, The Call’s Marine Artist. . . o o but many of the gamblers rea- he encountered adverse winds and went around by way of »d.Hope, in which case she for she left Baltimore overdue, sored that off the Hox the Cape of G is expected soon, September 19. She is a well-built steel ship In charge of a veteran navigator. She carries a car- go of coal, and the only danger appre- hended by these sanguine © gamblers is that a fire might have caught in her hold. The safe arrival of the French bark Grand Duchess Olga ended a neat little insurance gamble in this city. She left here many months ago and was compelled to put into Tahiti, dismasted and leaking. While she was in the land of the over- dues an unknown vessel was reported on the reefs in the South Seas. Many thought it was the French bark. The commercial market was astir. Now that she has landed it is still astir, for the question is now: What missing vessel is it that stranded on the reefs in the South Seas? The barkentine Monitor was posted last week as overdue. She left Grays Harbor, Wash., March 23, bound for this port with a carga of lumber. Captain Donelly and wife were on board. Nothing has ever been seen of the Monitor from the time she left Grays Harbor. The most mysterfous disappearance of the winter was that of the bark Andrada. She sailed from Santa Rosalia, Mexico, November 12, 1800, destined for Portland, Or. She was a steel bark of almost 3000 tons register and was well fitted to com- bat the fiercest storms. She was built in 1891 and was owned by the Andrada Sail- ing Ship Company of England. Severe storms raged at intervals along the coast, but when the Andrada ap- proached the mouth of the Columbia Riv- er there was a comparative calm. Pilot Cordina of Astoria boarded her and al- most immediately a gale sprung up and drove her northward out to sea, never to return. That was on December 11, and ship, crew and pilot are yet to be heard from. She was a sister ship to the Andelana, which just about a year before turned turtle in Tacoma harbor, going to the bottom with nineteen of "her crew on board. X Fully as mysterious a fate as the An- drada is shared by the Rathdown, another British ship, Captain H. W. DyKe. She also was made of steel and registered 2058 tons. October 4 she sailed in light ballast from /Yokohama. Her charter read, “Wheat—Portland.” Nothing has ever been heard of her Dosted as “lNissing” since- the hour she left port, and she is supposed to have been lost in a typnoon that was raging off the coast. For months the Rathdown was held at 9 per cent re- insurance, and then was entirely removed from quotation as not reinsurable. Boon after she was posted at Lloyd's as mis ing, and th nderwriters have settled with her owners for her, as they have also for the Andrada. The British bark Bertha, 2085 tons, is the third that the Pacific storms have swal- lowed. She also was a stanch steel ship, but steel and iron, earth’s strongest met- als, were held in ‘derision last winter by the relentless Pacific. : 5 The Bertha, Captain Brunings. sailed frora Honolulu October 24, for Portland, in light ballast. What became of her none will ever know until the ocean gives up its dead. She was auoted at 90 per cent for months, but none cared to buy her to arrive. Now she is posted at Lloyd's as missing. The British bark Cape Urath, 1998 tons register, Captain Hart, left Callao on No- vember 2 for Astoria, Or. Her story will never be written save as it Is summed up in_the brief word “missing.” On January 24 a vessel was spoken off the mouth of the Columbia River, but as nothing more was heard concerning it, some mariners have concluded that the re- ported speaking was an error; others hoid to the belief that it was the Cape Urath, and that she was swept northward in the storm and shared the same fate as the Andrada. A thrilling novel of adventure and dan- ger could be woven about the Pyrenees, which was burned at sea. The Pyrenees was a British four-mast- ed steel bark of 2169 tons register. She safled from Tacoma October 14, with a cargo of barley and wheat for England, valued at $78,784. The first week in No- vember she encountered a hurricane gale in midocean. In trying to combat It she was driven far off her course. While the storn) was at the height of its fury, a fire which had Been smoldering in her hold tor days mafe its presence known. The Pyrenees was then crossing the equator. On consulting his charts, Cap- tain Bryce found that they were in mid- ocean. The nearest land was the Mar- quesas Islands, 300 miles distant to the southwest, but the wind was agalnst them; so the captain headed his bark to- ward Pitcairn Island, onc of the Gambler group, 1700 miles distant, where live the descendants of the mutineers of H. M. S. Bounty. November 6 the hatches were battened down and hermetically sealed. It took twelve days to reach the island. One of the crew declares that during this time life on board was a /veritable hell. Her steel beams were warped nigh unto bursting. Added to the heat of the ver- tical sun was the fear that the fiery fur- nace beneath might break forth any mo- ment and lick up the frail wooden Super- structure. Half the crew were sick from the heat and all were In the last extremi- ties of despair. When they reached the Gambier group a new misfortune awziied them. A wind suddenly syrung up, altering the | MOST FRTAL WINTER FOR THE SAILCRS ship’s course. It increased In violence, making it impossible to effeot a landing. The burning vessel beat about the island Pitcalrn for two days, then the captain hgaded for Magna Reva in the Paumotu group, 300 miles away. By this time life oun board was almost unbearable. The ship had become a fur- nace. Several of the crew put off in small boats, preferring to take their chances on the ocean. In four d and the bur Magna Reva was reached g vessel was driven on the beach. Sc: ly had Captain Bryce and the remainder of his crew left the ship before the fire burst forth from the hold. The castaways were picked up by a assing schooner and taken to Port Pirie, where they secured passage on the steam- er Au for San Francisco, reaching here on February 6 The Pyrenees cost $150,00. What was left of her was sold at auction to a com- pany of San Francisco stevadores for i‘?!\’u. but nothing has ever been donezwith er. While this tropical storm_was ruling the South Pacific the North Pacific’s ree- ord also shows wreck after wreck. The Pacific S((‘flmshlg Company’s floating palac of Topeka, bound from S v’ to Seattle, was wrecked off the Alaskan coast. Her log describes the storm as ‘“‘one of the worst gales known in the north, a terrific wind accompanied by a blinding snow and sleei. The seas were mountains high and navigation was impossible.” She was deserted by her passengers and crew. Just one week later, on December 15, the steamer Alpha, bound for Yokohama, en route from Victoria. B. C., was totally wrecked on the reels off Union Bay. Eight lives were lost, Including the managing owner, the captain, the purser, the first and second engineers, two able seamen and an unknown stowaway. A furious gale was raging. In the dark- ness she ran on the rocks in Baynea Sound, at the entrance to Union Bay. She groaned and creak:d her warning to the passengers and crew and in a few mo- ments dashed to pleces. All would have perished but for the bravery of an unknswn and unnamed hero, one of the crew, who suddenly leaped out into the darkness and swam through the raging sca from the fast sink- ing ship with a line to the lighthouse on Yellow Island Rock. Twenty-five of those on board succeeded in reaching safety. The other seven and the unknown stowaway remained on Dboard till the last and went down with the steamer. The Alpha had quite an interesting his- tory, fof she was a notorious craft in the North Pacific. She was an English vessel and had been brought around the Horn to enter the Alaskan traffic at the time of the gold fever. She landed freight and passengers at Nome and got into serious trouble with the United States revenue officers there. She was ordered seized should she be caught in American waters by the revenue cutters. Her usefulness thus impaired, her own- ers decided to take her to the Orient and seil her if possible. A few days after her wreck delayed information from Washing- ton was received stating that the United States Government had decided to remove the ban from the Alpha. The ill-fated ‘Alpha made one start sev- erafr days before her wreck, but had to put into Victoria with a broken feed-pipe and sev feet of water in her hold. A her officers and crew deserted, claring that she was unseaworthy. Her chief engineer was among the de- serters. He was sentenced to six months in jail and was serving his time when the Alpha was wreclke The Lane, also a Nome trading steam- er, was caught in the same storm. When she came back for repairs the men in the engine-room~ were working in water to their waists, and the water had becoms 80 heated from contact with the boll- ers that the engine-room was filled with suffocating steam. Great consternation was felt for the ship Ardnamurchan. She left Vancouver bound for Liverpool with a cargo of salmon. Some days afterward a pum- ber of cases of salmon were washed up on the Oregon coast. These cases wers of that particular brand carried by the Ardnamurchan, and when nothing was heard from her mariners took this as evidence that she was lost. On April 12, when she was out 149 days, she was spoken. Later she landed and discharged her cargo, and the faces of the gamblers of the Pacific fell, as did also their finan- cial standing There are three dismasted ships now in our harbor—all German ships. They are the Edmund. the Willle Rick- mers and the Otto Gildermeister. They were bound to other ports, and were towed into San Francisco harbor.in dis- tress. Another ship lies at the bottom of the bay, as yet unaccounted for. Her fats is shroudgd in mystery. The Rio struck upon rocks at the entrance to our harbor the morning of the 22d of February. The ship Elizabeth just ten years be- fore on the night of the 2ist of Febru struck upon these rocks and was wrecked. The captain and a number of her passen- gers and crew were lost. The iast chapter of the phantom ship Rio de Janeiro has been written in this matter-of-fact log “book of fate at the Merchants' Exchange. The most awtul sea disaster of the year i3 disposed of as follbws: “December 14, 1300, the Rio sailed from this port bound for Honelulu. “February 2, 1%l The Pacific Mail steamship Rio de Janeiro while entering t in a dense fog this morning from onolulu, Yokohama and Hongkong struck on a ledge of rock off Fort t about 5:20 and sank twenty minutes later. The vessel will be a total loss. One hun- dred and thirty-one lives were lost out of 211 aboard. The Rio was in oh: of Captain Ward, who was drowned. Puoe Jordan was on board.” Capital, mediums and scientists have been unable to add anything further. ISABEL FRASER.