The Dickinson press. (Dickinson, Stark County, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1883-1927, 1889-05-25
DRIFTED ,JUNKS.
RECORD OF JAPANESE WRECKS IN
THE NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN.

RECORD OF JAPANESE WRECKS IN
THE NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN,.
A List of Oriental Castaways That Runs
from 1917 to 13SI-Tales of Awful Sur-
fering by the Shipwrccked-A Voyage of
Seventeen Months.
Among the wany theories that are set up
to explain the original settlement of the
North American continent that which as
cribes it to the enforced visitation of some
storm driven japanese fishermen meets with
much favor. Without recountng tho vari-
ous arguments that are based on architect
ural, physical and pathological similarities
between the aborigines of the Pacific coast of
the New World and the old races of the
Orient, it may be said that the shipwrecketl
sailor idea has many plausible features to
| recommend it.
Charles Walcott Brooks who was n firm
believer i'll this theory, devoted much atten-
tion to the subject, and certainly proved
three things: First, that the number of
wrecked junks that have been reported i'll
one way or another exceeded n hundred; sec
ond, that every junk found ndrift or stranded
| OH the North American coast has proved to
be japanese; third, that their presence is due
to the existence of the Kuro Shiwo or Japan
csc stream, which sweeps northcastcrly past
Japan toward the Aleutian Islands, thence
curving around and passing south along the
coast of Alaska, Oregon and California.
| The first record of storm driven iunks goes
as far back us 1911. when mention is made in
an old Spanish book of a japanese boat being
Mt Acapulco Usually, however, the junks
were driven north rather than south, stranded
japanese vessels being reported on the coast
| of kamchatka i'll 1904 1896, l1l0 and l729
So, too, i'll l1Se n japanese junk was wrecked
| upon the Aleutian Islands: i'll 1905 Japanese
| junk was wrecked on the coast of Alaska, and
in 1872 and 1873 two others were run across
by Russian SloopS i'll simil ,rly high ATTITUDES.
HEADED UP IN FlRKlNS.
The first reported wreck of the sort which
came to the California coast occurred in lSl5.
On the 2ith of March in that year the brig
Forester, Capt. PiSgott, was cruising off
Santa Barbara, when he sighted japanese
junk drifting at the mercy of the winds and
waves Her ruddcr and masts were gone.
Although blowing Il gale, he boarded the
| junk, and found fourteen dead bodies in tho
hold, the captain, carpenter and onr seaman
alone surviving They were on VOYAGE from
Osaka to Ycddo and We're seventeen months
out. In 1920 a junk was cast upon Point
Adams the southern shore of the mouth of
the Columbia, and in 1883 another was
wrecked on the coast of Washington terri
tory, in tho immediate vicinity of Cape Flat.
| terry.
Many of her crew had perished aud several
dead bodies were headed up in tirkins i'll the
customary Japanese style, ready for burial
In ls40 Japanese junk of about forty tons
was driven on the Bonin islands, while in
lsri5 the United States frigatc ST. Louis tool
from Mexico to Ningpo three shipwricktsl
japanese, survivors of Il junks crew which
across the Pacific ocean.
In lSl1 Capt. Cooper, of the whalcshl
Manhattan, rescued eleven shipwrecke,l Jap
anese from a little island near Niphon, and q
few days after rescued several more from q
sinking junk. Rcscues of Il similar character
We're made in 1917. lS4S and 1870, and thel
in February, 1851, seventeen shipwrcckc,
japanese We're brought to San Francisco by
Capt. Jennings, of the bark Auckland, tht
junk from which they were taken having
been drifting about in mid-ocenn since til,
fall of the previN year.
SO tho record goes ~ to 1916, until sixt,
cases are enumerated of these -four wrr,
from 1913 to 1894, three from ITO to l7s2, 81,
| from 1904 to lS20, eleven from 1881 to lSiS
and thirty-sX from 1850 to 1876 This np
parent increase during the last mentioned
period is not owing to their increased mum
Der, but solely to tue fact that the increase OF
conmerco on the Pacific has distributed there
u large fleet whose presence has material,
increased the chances of rescue to disabled
vessels and the likelihood of receiving report
from stranded wrecks
Taking up the record from where Nj.
Brooks dropped in 1876, it is seen that sinc
and including that year only six cases hnv,
been reported, and none at all since 1851 Th
reason for this decrease lies in the fact tia
Japan has recently awakened to the ncccssit,
of improving the models of her vessels an,
adopting those with sea going qualities.
ONLY TWO ALIVE
The Chronicle of Wednesday, Aug. IL, 1871;
contains the following story, which was wei
entitled "4A Horror of the Sea-"
'''Thc Emma Utter arrived in port ycstcr
day evening IAug H. 1870, bringing n state
ment made by Capt. Nelson, master of tn,
British bark Abbey Cowper, which ,cs,ribrt
an encounter he had had with II phantom
ship on the preceding 81 of July. He say
that on that day he was in latitude 81 II
north, longitude lti7.35 east, with light winds
when hulk was discovered drifting in
southcastcrly direction, tlis,nascd and will
| signals flying. He bore down upon her an,
an officer was sent aboard who found tina
she was the japanese junk Coke Cu-man
bound from IIakaldc to Yokohama, ulu
that she had left the former port on Nov. {!
ls1,:5. Her crew formerly consisted of twclv
| mon bIIt ,yf Df w hp,D wore OIivp
''Thcy We're removed to the Abbey CowDe
and everything possible was done for them
Ono of the men was entirely helpless, bcjn!
nearly dead with the scurvy, while his com
panion, although not so bad, was still in u dc
plorable condition, and was barely able t
| climb aboard.
THE wlctchcd men had been drifting MOI,
dead than alive for six months, and ns on
by one their companions had succu,nlr I,
that frightful disease, scurvy, they had bee,
saltcd and slowed away in the hold, wllicI
emitted horrible stencil. AT the time the,
were found they had been without tho mean
of making n fire for some time, having use,
everything that was available for that lur
pose long before, and were sustaining all OK
istcnce with nothing but dry rice md wha
fish they caught. Their supply Of water l.at
been long exhausted, and they were obligc'
to depend on what they could save whenever
it laincd.
The wretched survivors would ere lon;
have pcrishcd as had their fellow sufferers
and the fate Of the vessel would in all pro''a
bilit; never have been known but for tlli
timely discovery, for even if the men hut
been able to sustain lifo in such horrible
manner, still the vessel would have soon gon'
to the bottom, as she was complete wreck.
San Francisco Chronicle
Breathe Through the Nose.
Do not breathe through the mouth unles