Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1872-01-25

What Has Become of the Famous Sail
ing Vessels OF the Last Fifty Ycars--
Fate of Chin and India Traders.

old ships go to-" Nantucket CORE
spondent of that paper thus writes:
"While the tonnage of our sea-going
ships has not increased, the number of
them must have very much decreased
when we consider the greater size of
those built within the past thirty years.
1t is but few years since the largest
ships in the mercantile marine did not
exceed 600 tons burden, while at pres
ent the average of sea going vessels
is probably near 1000 tons, and many
are as large as 1900 tons. The Great
Republic, of $500 tons, was an excep-
ton. Then the large fleet of steam
ships have taken the place of the sail
ing vessels, and seem to be fast driving
these Jewels from the ocean. But the
inquiry, "Where do the old ships go
/ To ~ is an interesting one; and the
writer has some means ut his command
! to partially answer the question. On
/ the discovery of gold in California, it
/ Will be remembered that an innumera-
BILE crowd of adventures hocked to its
shores, hoping to wash out for
tunes from the golden sands. Small,
old and cheap ships were sought for,
and, crowded with passengers, sailed
for the blissful land On arrival with
in the Golden Gate the ships were
abandoned in haste by their passengers
and crews for the mines and the ships
/ thus left were converted into stores,
piers and dwellings,, some allowed to
decay and wash to pieces about the
river and bays, while a pat were pur-
chased by the Celestials and broken up
for the metal that was in them, the
wood being sold to the citizens for fuel,
while the metals were shipped to the
Celestial Empire. Quite number of
these old palaces went in this manner
under the writer's eyes. During the
year 1850 more than thousand ships
were observed in the Bay of San Fran
cisco, large portion of which never
passed without its gates
Among the interesting old ships was
Rotch 4 Sons, by George Claghorn-
the same who built the frigate Consti-
tuition, (old Ironsides). The Barclay
was calamity cut out of Callao, from
under the guns of the Spanish fortiti-
cations, in 1913, by Commodore Da-
vid Porter, then in the United States
frigate Essex, with our glorious Far
ragut, at that time midshipman under
his command. After an eventful career
she was broken up at New Bedford in
1864. Also the ship Canada, famous in
her day, when in the Liverpool trade,
making her passages from New York
in from thirteen to sixteen days, when
commanded by Seth c. Macy, of Hud
dol r., Sc
sage in Liverpool as promptly as the
steamers do others in these days. This
ship was seized by the Brazilian Gov
eminent, while ashore near Pernam-
buco, i'll 1855, and was since paid for,
every dollar.
Large numbers of noted old ships, |
when the requirements of commerce
demanded those of larger size for trans
portation of cotton, grain and other
merchandise, were transferred to the .
whaling business, and have since laid
their keels in some of the numerous
groups of the Pacific seas, or been
crushed in the ice of the Arctic foes or
by the leviathan of the seas Among
these we have in mind the Boston
China ship Honqua, long commanded .
by the gallant Josiah Sturgis, of that
city, who figured 50 largely in the
Government revenue service, and died
while on duty, some years ago This
ship was driven ashore and |
wrecked in the Okotsk Sea
in 1851. Then among our own was the .
Essex, once of Salem, but, when
lost, of Nantucket-stove by huge
whale in the Pacific Ocean in Novem-
Der, 1920 Captain Pollard, who com
mand her, sailed again in the Two
Brothers, and in less than five months
she was a wreck, having struck reef |
west Ofthe Sandwich Islands The ship !
Harmony (also of Nantucket) Capt.
Abel Rawson, late in the last century,
had whale breach out of the sea at
night across the deck breaking in the
decks and sinking the ship below the
water in few minutes. The crew es
capped in the boats just as they came
out OF their berths, and were picked up
by consort ship, the Leo, and brought
home This IS the only case of the kind
we ever had any knowledge of in the
experience of all our people for pc
Rod of IT'S years. The ship Ann Alex
ander, of New Bedford, was destroyed
on the coast of Peru in August, 1851,
in similar manner to the Essex, and
the crew taken of by the ship Nan
tucket, of Nantucket The whole affair
was wildly noticed at the time by the
London Punch, in verse.
There is shlpnow sailing from Hol-
land, built in 1868, when the Prince of
Orange was lighting Philip H. of Spain,
then at the zenith of his power. She
was sailing to the Indies when the Hol-
landers organized themselves into the
Reggars of the Sea, and as privateers-