Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-09-12
a storm ouelIed hy Oil.

The steamship Polynesia arrived at New
York from Hamburg Friday night, and re-
ported having encountered a cyclone, dur
ing which her companion hatch ladders
and all movable articles had been washed
overheard. Captain Kuhn said: I'VE
sailed from Hamburg on July I'd, with 249
passengers, and had fine weather until we
reached the banks. On August 10th, in
latitude $50, longitude $50 3O', a terrible cy-
clone swept down on us. We were some
what prepared for it, however. AT o'clock
in the morning the barometer stood at 81 10
By s o'clock, or in four hours, it had fallen
to 29.60, a half inch, This in summer
weather means storm.
g l ordered all the matches to be closed
down and to prepare for hurricane. The
barometer still continued to fall fast At
10 o'clock the wind suddenly swept down
on us in perfect fury, and in moment
the sea ran mountains high. l Immediate
ly ordered the engines to stop, and decided
to lay to until the cyclone had passed, feel
ing assured that it would only last few
hours, and that if we went ahead we
should get the full force of it. The wind
first struck us from the southeast and the
sea was lashed into perfect fury. Wave
after wave dashed on our starboard, but we
managed to keep her head in such posi-
ton that little harm was done.
I" At 10 o'clock the wind suddenly shifted
to the southwark, and terrific breaker,
looking like huge mountain of water,
broke over our starboard bow. | tell you,
sir, it unneryed me for moment. have
never seen anything so terrific | have
seen gales off Mauritius, and anyone who
has been to sea knows they are bad enough,
but this beat them all. The water fell
with a crash on the deck, knocked down
the seamen who were on duty, and hurled
them against the bulwarks. 1t swept the
deck from stem to stern, carried away q
companion hatch, and poured into the
cabins, causing panic among the passen-
gers, who were kept below. 1t knocked
down the chief steward and broke his leg;
and also carried away the ladder leading to
the spar deck. / think if another wave
had Immediately followed this we should
have gone down. We got her head righted
again and continued to receive the breakers
on our deck for some time, the wind at the
same time tearing through our rigging at a
fearful rate.
/" AT midday another huge breaker broke
with full force on our bow 1t carried
away boat and the main gait and all
movable articles ON deck. / saw that
something must be done to try and stop
this, and decided to try the effects of oil.
A tank of paint oil was placed on the star
board side of the ship, and the oil allowed
to leak out. The effect was marvellous. 1t
gradually spread over the water and
quoted it right down. The oil spread over
a large space around the vessel and quelled
the storm entirely. The cyclone lasted
for eight hours, passing off to the north
west"
do you think steamers now crossing
the Atlantic will be in any way endangered
by the gale?"
No. 1t only covered a small space, and
passed away to the northwest We were
on the edge of it. The next day l noticed
several sailing vessels with their sails and
rigging torn to pieces. They had evidently
received the full force of it. We were
about 900 miles from Sandy Hook ~ Bos-
ton Transcript.