Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1886-09-03
eEcALMeo, AT SEA.
story Of Good Ship which Efsd Bee1
Given Up For Lost.
fSan Eror cisro CAM

Given Up For Lost.
fSan Francisco Canl
There was a scene of revelry and re-,
foicing out ut a certain number ON Polk
street, San Francisco, Cal, the other
aigbt. The place fairly blazed with good
cheer of happy family united. The
sailor husband and father, who had long
been given up as lost and dead, had re-
surned. The scene was the home of Cap
:ain John Dodge, and all the merrimens
was caused by the fact that the day be-
Tore the bark Kuakaua, John Dodge mas
Ter, which left Panama for this port ON
October o, 1885, and not since been heard
from, sailed as unconcernedly into the
Golden Gate as though nothing unusual
had happened.
"Tve been to sea for nearly fifty years.
and, to be candid and tell You the truth, I
iont think care about ever going out be-
yond the heads again." said Captain
Dodge, from the center of his family circle,
to an invading reporter.
"How did it all happen:" inquired the
reporter.
well, it was this way. We started oil
right from Panama ON October q. Some
old tars warned me about going out, and
said would be sure to strike calms; but
wanted to get home, and we started. Wa
had't been out a week before the sail hat
Mapped against the rigging in dead
calm. There wasn't enough stir in the air
to put out a candle. The ocean was as mo-
tloniess as lead; the sun beat down merci-
lessly. Was it hotf Well, should saw
SO. Matches lying down on my table in
my cabin would catch fire by themselves
and burn up. Then il took to raining. !
am not stretching It an inch when sav
that for threo months there were not fif-
teen days of sunshine in all. No, you are
wrong. Rain down in those parts need not
be accompanied by wind.
There was not breath of breeze. ex-
cept Tor an hour or SO, occasionally, AMI
then it came like puff from heated fur
mace. We just driTted about on the ocean
Ike toy. l do not know how we eve
escaped. We had ON board as cargo, 5,52s
pounds or powder, and it was simply
phenomenal dispensation OF luck that ws
were not blownup. The thunder and light
ming was simply horrifying. / never ex-
perienced such storms, and when streaks
OF forked lightning would shoot out of the
sky and play hide-and- seek il our rig
ging the way it used to do, can't under.
stand why the powder did not 60 of.
don't know what ever did to deserve this
Kindness"
"Did you make no headway at alp"
well, as l say, we occasionally had al
few pulls of air, but it required II5 days
for US to sight the Galapagos Islands.
They are only 200 miles from Panama.
Why, for sixty days we laid Off the Coca+
Islands, and day in and day out we never
lost sight of them-just drifting about
within circle of q dozen knots, por-
haps."
did your provisions hold out?"
"Well, no. We began to get down ta
pretty close groupings, and determined
TO get to the Galapagos Islands for u fresh
supply. Luckily for us we met a whaIcr
which had an overstock OF food, and we
took in good store. Tho captain of the
whaler warned me about going to
the Galapagos Islands. He had Just
come from there, and he said he
was glad 60 get away with his
life. The islands are owned by the
Government of Ecuador, which sends out
men TO gather dry moss on them. There
is nothing to eat on the islands except
what is taken there. The class of men
VINO Will go there are a pretty rough lot
any how, and when they are starving for
several months they get great deal
rou ,her. Tie whaler said that the wild
men on the islam Is had killed their SUPER
intendent, seized all the provisions on a
ship lying in their port, and would have
captured the whaler had it not put out to
sea just in time. We concluded after
learning this tale to give the Galapagos
Iolanals vida harth On Fahrnarv "a
fresh breeze sprang up and we made the
remaining thirty three hundred miles I'M
nifty days you see. Our provisions had
almost given out ON Friday, when we were
five hundred miles from this port. /
measured up and found that we only had
twenty p 'un,ls of hard tack and twenty
pounds OF salt beef. ] decided to divide il
into ten rations for the crew of ten next
morning, but as the day broke we sighted
the brig Selma, and sue gave us a Fl esh
store, which lasted US. Well, that is ALL"