The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-07-07
Earthquake Shocks ON
San Nicolas.
GALES AND TIDAL WAVES.
Terrible Experience of Fishermen Off
the Coast of Southern
California.
Special to THE MORNING CALL

| SAN DIEGO. uly6.-The steam-schooner
| Jennie Griffin arrived this morning from
San Nicolas Island. Captain MuIlett and
crew tell of strange Gnd wonderful meteor
| illogical disturbances on the island. The
| schooner is engaged in the crawfish busi-
ness for the Pacific Coast Fishing and
Packing Company of this city, and a couple
of weeks ago left gang OF eight men on
San Nicolas to prosecute the work.
The Jennie Griffin arrived there last Sum
day to load the catch for this point, but
received news instead which astounded
the whole party, and caused Captain
Mullett 10 take on the gang from shore and
leave the island as quickly as ne could.
The men reported that the island had
been visited by tremendous gale OF wind
which raised the sea in the nature of a
tidal wave. completely filling with sand the
only harbor of the island, which is marked
Coral har Dor" on the Government charts.
Captain Mullett was dumfounded to find
stretch of SAND where two weeks ago he
rode at anch or in his schooner. A big
crawfish car holding about five tons of fish,
which was moored in the bay. was hall
covered with sand and the fish were lost.
The foreman on shore kept logbook,
which was seen by THE CALL correspon-
dent. In it is recorded everything occur
ring from the date of tho arrival of the
men until July 2. The weather for sew
eral days was most remarkable. Every
thing seemed to foretell disaster. Seabirds
and other living things acted strangely.
On June 26 at II A. NJ. a heavy earthquake
was experienced on the Island. The os-
cillaton was from east to west, the shocks
being of several seconds duration. The
Kanakas and one negro In separate camp
were scared almost to death and became
almost crazy, running up and down in
terror.
The weather was then very foggy with
sitting heat. A peculiar light covered the
sea in spite of the fog. adding weird
aspect to the scene. SO far as the men
could tell the fog centered about the
island. Next day tremendous wind
storm arose, causing great damage. No
attempt was made by the men to work.
All expected the island to sink in the sea
at any moment.
On June riGs1rs
earthquake as-a
wac heavy
oyer the is zs--.
I men obser
| few yard eetsae
| tran sparency ".
see for quite a distance, and Captain
Mullett thinks the steamers compasses
were affected by the strange occurrences
and the accompanying electrical disturb
ance The Jennie Griffin was in the
neighborhood IN the fog and her two CON-
passes would not work together while near
the island The men could not make out
ho nf
! stood away from the island.
Still another distinct shock of earthquake
was felt at noon on June 80, the vibrations
being from east to west. This completed
the decentralization of the camp, and the log
book says the men became bowling saw
| ages.
| the phenomena is that crawfish and other
| fish died from some unknown cause, prob
| ably electricity, as the men remembered
afterward seeing lights on the water at
night.
When the Jennie Griffin hove in sight
the men waded out to meet the small boats,
refusing to return to the land. Captain
| Mullett refused to believe their story, but
was finally compelled to accept the fore
mans word. All the men were taken OH
UOdTu tU0 eCuOUuGE, WulCu Hastily eblltu
away.
| San Nicolas is the most westerly of the
group known as the Santa Barbara
| Islands and is about $50 miles from San
| Diego. twenty-five years ago it was
covered with grass. which afforded pasture
tor thousands of sheep, whose owner lived
there in fine residence. A strange trans
| formation has been going on since then.
1t is now a windy. barren, sandy waste,
where but few hundred sheep without
shepherd exc out miserable existence.
1t is but eight miles long and four wide.
but " herever one digs can be found human
bones and skulls. In the distant past it
must have been rather densely populated,
or may have been the site Of burial
ground or battlefield
Some fifty years ago the last inhabitant
was found in the person of a woman. A
Santa Barbara otter hunter named
Nidever found her and took her to his
| home, where she died shortly after with
out being able to make any one under
stand her language. She was found in
cave. subsisting on fish caught with hooks
made of abalone shells. Her discovery
caused considerable interest in the scien-
| tifc world at the time.
1