Los Angeles herald., 1892-09-26
done tole me to come down hyur an
cotch cells! !"

cotch eels!"
thought my years of light-draft nav
igation on the Willamette and Snake
iivefs had put me in hearing OF every
etory that had ever been told on shallow
water teamboating, but Capt. w. l..
Merry told me new one last night.
He eaid when he was in charge OF the
Nicaragua Transit eompany's business
on the isthmus, they had several nice
at-bottomed boats on the San JuaH
river, plying between Greytown and the
lake. | will tell the rest of the story in
his own words;
"One Of these boats was commanded
by man named Birdsall, who had
learned shallow-water work on the Ken
nebec, which is really the parent stream
of that style of navigation. He was an
excellent pilot, and made it a rule new
er to interfere with any of those gentle
men in matters of actual navigation, as
it was a species of work to which was
never educated, and from observing
which / occasionally got useful lesson" !"
x*x
"One day had to go up the lake to
look after repairs to one of the big low
DTGSSuTt pOaOc Oh tu0b bhCQt VI WotNA
and took passage with Birdsall. ALI
went well enough till we got up to the
San Carlos rapids, where the water at
that season nearly stood ON end. The
boat got aground, and Birdsall got out a
six Inch hawser to heave her over. Four
or five deck hands were carrying the
line on their shoulders, and one Of these
was short, stout fellow named Tom
Tnp1 W. m oduonno nf hIo
-laborers, and all of them had
their pantaloons and boots off. Tom
wore red shirt, and, when he got
about 120 yards ahead of the boat, he
suddenly went down 30 deep in the
water that his shirt got wet. Birdsall
saw this, and told them to fasten the
line just above that point. They then
took the line to the capst tan and began
to heave ahead. When the boat got up
| to where Maginnis sank down, she was
| Just as hard aground as at the foot OF
the rapids. Birdsall began to look puz-
zled. He called up the deck hand and
a. ked TON, did you 60 down here in
thtswater till your shirt got wet?"
s'Faix an did, captain dear; but ye
see. sor, I've not got on me own shirt,
at all, at all. It's Jim Fogarty's shirt,
! six feet foor inches tall, SCRIP
| And Bird all turned around to me
with a look / shall never forget, aud
said, quietly: Captain, regret to say
that | have made a mistake in my
soundings!"
Twenty-Five years ago was purser on
| the old Visalia with Jack Greer, long
since gone over to the majority. One
day Greer shipped new mate, who was
a irst-class man oD big boats such as
run between Louisville and New Orleans
but wholly unacquainted with shallow
water work. He had never handled q
steam capstan in his life, and / can as
sure the unpracticsd reader that it il
I the next meanest thing to buzz-saw.
On the second day out we struck shallow
water just above the mouth of the
Tuolumne, and Greer was lying dowr
after an eight-hour watch. 1 had the
wheel myself, and gave orders to lay ths
warp. The new mate had loaded the
boat to perfection, and l had every con
fidence of making the rifle" with her
The donkey engine shortened the line
rapidly, and everything went well til
she caught on the CENTER" / saw the
new mate pick up capstan bar te
throw her off again.
"Don't ship that bar, Mr.. Loker
You'll get hurt if you do" called dowl
| from the pilot house. But it was to'
late The pent-up pressure of steam
spun the capstan around like lightning
and Loker was thrown into the river
which was less than 20 inches deep
"Put plank over there and help the
mate aboard" roared from the pilo
| house. At the sound of my voice Loke
looked up wards:
"Say, how fur is it from here to tn,
head of the river?"
| About 80 miles,"
| ''All right" says Loker, 'I'll walk.
x*x
The white squadron" left San Fran
cisco on Saturday, or was to leave OF
that day. Granting that it got off a
any time before dark, it ought to pasi
Redondo and Santa Monica sometim
about p. m. today. Admiral Gherard
has never been through the channel tt
the best of my belief, but all the officer
have on the Charleston and San Fran
cisco, 80 ! cannot imagine they woult
go outside of the barrier islands whel
they can have smoother water and ,
shorter route by taking the inside pas
| sage. On their return from the Cabrill,
celebration at San Diego, 1 trust tn
iron fleet will call in at the Santa Moni
ca anchorage, and lay over there fo
| three or four days, as there are thou.
sands of our citizens who have never
seen an iron warship. My own idea is
that while there is nothing besutifu
about the average modern war vessel
there are thousands who are anxious tx
zee it. HIDALGo.