The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-08-24
LARGEST IRON SHIP.
The I. f. Cakes, of New York,
Now i'm This Port.
QUICK TRIP AROUND THE HORN.
Cargo Of Steel Rails for the Port Town
send Southern-A Sight for Thou
ssnds-Water Front.

The I. T. Cakes, the largest American
iron ship aiioat, is in the harbor. She ar
rived from Port Townsend yesterday
morning and will remain about week.
The vessel brought from New ] ork for the
Oregon improvement Company Z9,O60
steel rails to be used in the construction
of the Port Townsend Southern railway.
At Port Townsend the entire cargo was
discharged excepting 500 rails which were
sent to Olympia, 300 more that were for
warded to Anacortes and 2. 400 which are
still on board, but will be loaded on the
cars from the Oregon improvement Com
pany's docks in this city. The ship,
which is lying in the slip at Ocean dock, is
a model OF the merchant sailing vessel.
The figurehead is quite original-an
immense gilded American eagle. Dur
ing the afternoon the ship was
thrown open to visitors and fully 1900
persons avaiied themselves of the oppor-
tunity to inspect the mysteries of fore
castle, galley and cabins. The sailors had
polished the white wood decks until they
were almost as spotless and smooth as
new dancing floor, and the huge iron
masts, the protruding iron yards and nice
ly furled sails, the coils of big hawsers ly-
ing about the decks, the peculiar elevated
compasses with brass holders, polished
brass rails, tarred rigging, great anchors
with mammoth chains and groups of
sailors squatting about in nautical pos
lures, presented fascinating scene that
caused all to feel an interest in the craft
The T. F. Cakes was built little over
seven years ago in Philadelphia by Lieu
tenant Garringer the naval officer who
al Oh ist To
and is the largest of the three vessels owned
and operated by William Fl. Starbuck,
of New York-the others being the Tillie
f. Starbuck and Clarence 5. Bement. The
vessel is commanded by Captain E. w.
Reed, who is accompanied by his wife.
The ship left New York harbor March 10,
and completing the voyage around Cape
Horn arrived at Port Townsend August A.
The Cakes has been on the Sound three
times She was launched in the fall of
1884, and her first trip was to the Sound
with steel rails which were discharged at
Tacoma. Touching at Seattle, cargo of
coal was taken on and she went to sea.
Fifteen months ago the Cakes was on the
Sound, but did not touch at Seattle.
While in harbor the vessel will take on
1900 tons of coal for Portland and from
Kingdom with 5000 tons of grain. The
probable destination of the vessel will be
Antwerp.
Captain Reed and wife are very courteous
and everywhere they go they meet old
friends ''Our home is in Haverill, Mass"
said the captain, land we meet Eastern
acquaintance not only here but i'll Port
Townsend" Mrs Reed is almost as great
sailor as her husband, for she has made
several voyages with him and is at home
when at sea. In the dining cabin are
three stuffed albatrosses, two Cape
pigeons and two Patagonian doves
that were captured off Cape Horn.
1.-The sailors caught them with FISH hooks
baited with pork" said Mrs. Reed. The
pigeons, you see, have web feet and are
spotted but those white Patagonian doves
are a strictly land bird and their feet are
not webbed. We were sixty miles at sea
when one day they alighted on the rig
ging. They had been blown off shore
during a storm, and were so very tired that
they allowed the boatswain to climb up to
them and catch them with his hands.
They were killed by a string being tied
around their necks, and the boatswain,
who is quite a taxidermist, mounted them.
We caught many other albatrosses, several
of their wings measuring eleven feet from
tip TO tip. The voyage was very pleasant
one"
Captain Reed is not by any means unac-
auainted with Seattle. He was here al
most as soon as any ofthe earliest pioneers.
He came to the Sound on the sloop-of-war
Decatur IN 1853 He was then a boy of
16 years. Since that time he has
been on the Sound five times-three t;,nes