The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1892-10-20
SHE IS A HOODOO SHIP.
Some Strange Tales Of the
Knight Commander.
WHAT ONE MATE SAID.
He Would Not Be Surprised II She Should
Founder at Sea and Did Not Want
to Sail in Her.

LIE report from Liverpool tha 1t Is feared
the bark knight Commander. from this
| port Tor Queenstown, has foundered off the
Horn' arouses some very preplexing and
dlsagreeable speculations.
Inc Knight Commander is one of num-
Der OF vessels owned in Liverpool and all
having the prefix Knight, as knight Errant.
hhight Templar, Knight Poursurvant, and
SO Iorlh. She is about the oldest OF her
class and decidedly behind the age as a
swift and safe carrier. She was rugged as q
Dark when she arrived here for the simple
reason that she was dismasted in the voyage
here. and sufficient number Of spars could
not be obtained at Port Stanley when she
put In there to refit.
Inc Knight Commander arrived here on
April 4 and sailed on July 80. She has
therefore been out only about eighty days.
She was not likely to be spoken by any
steamer below Valparaiso. 1t is therefore
passing strange that rum0rs should already
be spread that she is lost
In this connection it Is pertinent to re-
call an interview between First Mate Null
ler Of the Knight Commander and a repre-
sentative OF The CALL, who boarded the
vessel when she docked week or two after
her arrival
Muller was evidently uneasy in his mind.
lie said the ship carried too small crew,
and showed the miserable quarters In the
forecastle which 1t occupied. Then. taking
the reporter into his cabin, he showed how
the woodwork was rotten, and great rents
in the walls and roof showing the sky. "a
single heavy sea-" said he. would sweep
all this away"
Then he showed a wide, deep hole abaft
the mainmast, covered with grating and
communicating directly with the hold. Ii a
big sea should come aboard or the vessel
be popped there is nothing In Gods world
to prevent her from sinking. | don't want
TO go out in her, i expect nothing less than
for her to founder at sea.
The reporter did not see Mate Muller
again, but the conversation made lasting
impression on his mind which the runor
OF the present disaster has not tended 10
remove.
The knight Commander has always been
looked upon as 'hoodoo" ship by sailors
from the time she made her first trip from
Calcutta to Liverpool Her career has been
most romantic one. The scenes that have
been enacted on her decks, and the storms
she has been through would furnish material
for novelist like Captain Marryatt.
She was built OF iron in Dublin in the
year 1864 for I'll. Ferris of Liverpool, in
which port she was registered. 1t was just
after the war of the rebellion in this country
that she made her first trip in command Of
Captain Bell Times were still lively and
war prices could still be obtained, SO there
was a great deal Of money to be made by
getting some of the Injuries of the Orient
to Liverpool where they could be sold to
American merchants.
Her first run was to Calcutta for tea, and
as she was built for speed, she made her
run In good time. She carried sails where
ever they could be placed. Studding-
sails stuck out over the bulwarks almost as
far as the length of the ship. They occa-
sionally few away in the gales of the Indian
Ocean, but they were replaced; anything to
make lime.
Dozens Of men have met their death by
being washed from her decks. An appren-
tice boy was killed by falling down her
hatchway into the hold. There have been
fights with mutneers and among the sail
ors. Men have fallen from the rigging and
been killed, and in many ways her decks
have been stained with blood.
Some of her runs have been made in ex-
traordnarily short time and others have
been almost endless. On her last trip she
was 45S days getting here from Antwerp,
and arrived here bark, although she left
Antwerp a ship. She left Antwerp in Feb
ruary. 1891. and put into Port Stanley,
Falkland Islands, July Of the same year.
She sailed again. but returned on October
3 with jury-rudder, her own having been
carried away in storm. When repairs
were made she sailed once more, but re-
turned December y with mutinous crew.
She got another at Montevideo and arrived
in San Francisco ninety-nine days later.
While at Port Stanley her first mate, VIII
son. went ashore after some men who re-
fused to work and fight ensued. lie was
taken to jail by constable, but when being
searched for weapons used his revolver on
the man, wounding him severely. He was
taken to Monteydeo. where he nearly died
of his wounds. Wilson had to serve six
months in jail for the offense, aud another
mate mad TO be secured.
Every thing that could befall ship has
struck the Knight Commander. She has
been beealmed for months on the Pacific
and has bad all her masts carried away in
the typhooDs of the Indian Ocean. She has
been In the heat of the tropics. where the
pitch melted out of the seams Of her deck,
and she has been caught in the ice and
SHOWS OF the Antarctic. She has arrived
weeks before she was expected and mas
also turned up months after she was given
up.
Sailors are afraid of her, and at times 1t
has been necessary to pay several hundred
dollars blood money TO get the very worst
kind OF men to man the ship.