The morning call., 1894-12-24
ABOUT THE WORD MISSING"

WHO nave D6aTQ TIE NOAOs OfolQuc anu
"missing" applied to vessels that are in or
out bound from San Francisco, are in
Quandary.
Three of the disDared of Overdue
: fleet have come safely into port, and
now the Bedrock, the much-talked-Of YES
sci that was supposed to have been
sighted on her beam ends off Point Reyes
has come into port at Astoria, right side
up with care.
when is a vessel overdue and when
. ought she TO be listed as missing?"
This question has been asked thou
sand times in the past week-in fact ever
since stories have been circulated annOunc-
ing the wreck. everything out of sight Of
land from Cape Flattery 10 San Diego has
been called overdue. The answer is a
simple one. No vessel in or out bound. be-
tween the Puget Sound ports and san
Francisco, is considered overdue during
the months of November, December, jan
uary or February and generally March.
unless she has not been seen or heard of
for at least twenty-five days from the time
of her departure. Conservative persons
usually make the limit thirty days.
Ships seldom make the voyage from the
sound to this city during the months men,
toned in less than fifteen days. Many
make IL IN ten udyS, Dul 2V-dh1 kIipS arc DY
no means uncommon and 25-day trips eau
be found on the records of years back.
WINDS have everything to DO with the
delaying of ships. If you have friend or
relative on vessel bound in and q sensa-
.tionally inclined person tells you that the
craft is overdue, let your first move be to
ascertain from the weather bureau from
\whatquarter the wind has blown since the
ship left port. Prevailing sOuthery winds,
with occasional Gains. and winds that shift
TO the east and blow off shore, VIII cause
soutb-bouud vessels to "Deat' or sail into
the gales. Don't be uneasy in this event
until the vessel you look for is out at least
twenty or twenty-five days.
This explanation may not be as techDi-
cally correct as q seafaTing man would
] ke to have it, but 1t advances the facts.
Northerly or westerly winds change the
calculation somewhat but a ship, even
with a northwest or west wind, bound
from Puget Sound for San Francisco, can
be out fifteen to twenty days and still not
De overdue. Though the breeze blows
ibriskly near the shore it may be very light
further out to sea; again the winds may
he variable and the ship may not be able
10 take any lengthy advantage of favor
ing ZEPHYR.
Lloyd's agents say that the term "miss-
ing" is never applied to a ship until il
has been positively ascertained that the
vessel is lost
''Ships have a very peculiar way of turn
ing up at unexpected places" said a gen.
tleman who is well posted on Ll0yd's
methods of doing business ''The Mari
time Bureau has learned this from over
half century of experience.
II remember one instance of a ship
being posted as missing by the agency
when it was not even due in port. 1t
was many years ago, before the bureau
had been placed on the basis that it now
Is. A Yokohama paper published pur-
ported letter from the mate Of the snip in
question saying that the vessel had been
abandoned off the japanese coast The
story was a fake Ll0yd's agent was
nipped.
now. 1t does not rely upon newspaper
dispatches and never posts shin as miss
ing until il has thoroughly Investigated
the matter.
MARINE reporters OF the daily press
make a great mistake Ia writing up sensa-
tions about missing ships. If a ship is
out few days longer than an average
passage the papers Immediately cry out
that she has probably gone 20 the bottom
with all on board. Then columns of ad-
ditional details as to possibilities are
written to lend verisimilitude to an other
wise bald and unconVincing narrative
"All the morning papers wrote up the
ship India when she was not overdue
day. The morning that the story ap-
peared III print the vessel came into port,
a trif1e battered uD TO be sure, but she got
here Just the same"
There are only few men in town who
have faith in the theory that the Montser-
rat or keweenaw VIII be heard from.
Among these are the RoSenf fields, TO whom
the Montserrat was consigned. These
Well-known coal men say that they still
have some hope for Captain Black burn,
for they we'll know that be was a good
mariner even if he was reckless one
During the early part of the past week
many inquiries were made at the Met
chants EXCHANGE about the GOLFERS, but
now the friends and relatives of those on
board have ceased to make their daily visits
10 that institution. This is accepted as
evidence that the majority of those inter-
ested in the crews of the missing steamers
have come to the conclusion that the last
hope is gone.
The schooner Mary and Ida, which has
been classed as one of the overdue fleet.
came into port Saturday aftern DON. The
captain describes certain wreckage seen by
him off the mouth OF the bia River
as part of a ships cabin: il looked like
the fancy work of a cabin side.
A dispatch from Port Townsend, re-
esiyed Yesterday. reported the abandoning
of the bark Southern Chief. en- route TO
sydney from Tacoma. sixty miles south of
Cape Flattery. The crew was saved, but
the vessel is waterlOgged and therefore of
little value even if claimed by some SAL
Chief has been one which commenced long
before the civil war. At that time she was
a fine, stout vessel and engaged in the At
lantic coast trade. As Pacific coast lum-
ber-tub the Chief has been sort of men,
ace to navigation for number of years.
being TOO old to burn we'll and too leaky
TO carry coal. She was built at Bath, Me-,
10 1857 and registered as bark Of 1882
tons gross. Her managing owner is W. H..
BOole of this city.
The steamer Arawa. that substitutes the
Monowai on the Observation-Disclosures run,
will probably not make more than one
trip more TO San Francisco. The Union
Steamship Company intends to place a
regular passenger steamer on the run.
The Arawa is a splendid vessel for the
cold-storage trade, being specially htted
with refrigerators. hut she is too old-tasll-
Toned to accommodate the regular passen-
ger traffic of the route between San Fran
cisco and the AnIipodes. The Monowai
is TO take the place Of the wrecked Walra-
rapa between Auckland. Sydney. etc., and
wflInot return to this port.
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SHOOTING AT SAN RAFAEL.