The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-08-28
General KeppeI of the Saliva
ton Army Sails for the
Islands.
MISTAKEN PASSENGER.
Troubles OF the Quarantine Officer.
A Tow Bill for the Board
of Health.

Mrs. Keppel and several members of the
Salvation Army took passage on the
steamer en- route for the islands. large
force of the army was on the wharf to bid
their commander and his companions
adieu. The Keppels will return in SIX
weeks.
A belated passenger in Whitehall boat
boarded the Australia off the Oceanic
dock as she pulled out in the stream and
then left the steamship off Powell street
wharf. After he had gotten on board the
Australia it was found that he had cabin
ticket emitting him to passage on the
State of California to Portland. 1t cost
him $40 to board and leave the Australia,
$40 each way, for boat hire.
Quarantine Officer Chalmers efforts to
orderpilots, tugs and ships around over the
bay st will is meeting much adverse crltl-
cism on the water front.
sit is very inconvenient and a needless
job to stop and moor all foreign-port ships
in the quarantine grounds till the doctor
has made his VISIT" said a prominent ship
ping man yesterday. "Dr. Chalmers
doesn't quite understand the difficulty in
handling big ship in a tideway and the
expense OF making double tow. With q
vessel from an infected port or having dis
ease on board that precaution is proper,
but not with vessels coming IN with clean
bills of health.
THE law saws in substance: If the vessel
is subject to quarantine by reason of infec-
tion-that is, coming from port that has
been declared infected with contagious
or pestilential disease-that vessel must go
in quarantine and must be reported to the
Quarantine Officer without delay, presum-
ably by her captain, and no such vessel
must cross right line drawn from Meiggs
rf 70 Ctn nd mt hQ raj
tine Officer has boarded her and given the
order required by law l can see nothing
in that warranting the Quarantine Officer
ordering back every vessel that arrives
from Departure Bay, Victoria Honolulu,
Tahiti and other ports where no infectious
diseases exist.
1.-THE doctor fails to read his orders
Alright. His predecessors have for years
boarded ships in the bay and never
ordered clean vessel back simply to
board her west of Alcatraz. That practice
has been reserved for the present officer,
who understands that all craft entering
the port must come to stop and rendeZ-
vous in quarantine till released by his
visit"
When the ship Sierra Nevada, from Eng
land, was forced by DR.. Chalmers to take
second tug and tow back to the quarantine
grounds the tug company sent their bill to
the captain, who sent it to the ships
agents, Balfour, Guthrie 81 Co.
This firm promptly turned the bill over
to the Board of Health, with the request
that they settle with the tug people. The
firm is determined not to pay the bill, and
the board will wrestle with the problem
next meeting.
1t is whispered loudly along the front
that the rivalry between DR.. Macdonald,
who has lately been given the contract to
attend British ships, and the Quarantine
hn
perquisites is intense. 1t has beer the Gus
tom to charge all these vessels $40 apiece for
medical attendance, and an average of
about $50 of these ships yearly foots up
neat sum.
DR.. Macdonald got friend named Fell
to pull over the British owners on the
basis of $40 fee each ship. DR.. Chalmers
has his unprofessional brothers ships on
his list and he makes it warm for them,
saith rumor.
The doctor is unfortunate in several of
his official acts. He failed to catch the
steamer Mineola upon her arrival several
weeks ago and sent for her to return from
Port Costa and be inspected. Of course
this ran him afoul of the Pacific Mail Com
pany and the matter was soon settled.
The steamer City of Puebla came in from
the north one morning, and the passengers
waited many hours at the dock before the
doctor learned of her arrival. The Pacific
Coast Steamship Company was interested
in this event, and the steamer was not or
dered back to quarantine.
The open telephone was taken out of the
barge-otfice and a nickel-in-the-slot phone
put in. As the hands of the quarantine
tug are not squandering scent pieces out
of their own salaries notifying the doctor
when ships come in or asking the Mer-
chants Exchange about probable arrivals
in port, the machine is practically useless.
The Pacific Mail steamer Aztec arrived
yesterday evening, nine days from Corlnto,
in ballast. While at the Guatemalan port
she received dispatch from the company
officials in this City ordering her to return
here without delay instead of proceeding
to Panama. About 200 tons of cargo for
that place were reshipped on another
steamer bound south. The fact that she
had only 200 tons of through freight-not
enough to Justify steaming further on her
way-and the fact that the load at Panama
did not justify her visit to that place looks
as if the through-freight business might be
at low ebb.
The bark Harvester arrived from Karluk,
Alaska, Monday night with 5000 cases of
salmon. While at Karluk June s the brig
encountered a squat, and dragging the
old, wornout mooring which vessels are
obliged to lay to there, she almost met the
fate which overlook the Raphael few
weekslater. Anchors were hastily gotten
out with heavy lines attached, which held
the vessel from going on the beach, The
captain of the Harvester states that the
anchorage at Karluk is an open roadstead,
and unsafe even in the lightest blow, and
that the Raphael was lost only because
the Alaska Packing Company did not re-
place the old moorings with new anchors
and chains.
The San Joaquin River is lower than it
has been tor years, owing to the great
quantity of water being taken out of the
upper part of the stream for irrigation pur-
poses. The steamer T. G. Walker on her
last trip went aground number of times
where she had always found deep water.
This shoaling of this important stream will
be misfortune to the San Joaquin Valley
people and measures of some character
should be taken to prevent such disaster.
The bark Colorado, from Newcastle to
San Diego, which was thought to have
been lost, has been spoken in latitude 80
north, longitude 142 west. 1t will be re-
membered that the British ship Castor,
from Newcastle to this port, passed dere-
lict which was reported to be the Colorado.
There were forty-fve sealing schooners
at Unalaska August which are all out on
Boring Sea hunting. Latest accounts re-
port the catch as being large, which will
further deplete the already decreased
Most of he cEi,e oa,1eht 81 ,a,