The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-04-28
RESCUED FROM THE MUD,
An Old Boat Which Was Once
the Pride of the Bay to
Sail Again.
After Years of Repose the Tita
Begins Her Career
Anew.

For over ten years an old s1oop has lain
high and dry on the Sausalito beach, near
| the Pacific Yacht Club. Nestled against
| the bank, and under the shade of the oaks
| that line its margin, it seemed as if, like a
sea-weary mariner who had found snug
| harbor, the wave-worn boat was to be per-
mitted to rest in peace. But recently a
speculative fisherman spied her, probed
| her mbers, found that she was still sound,
and with little nursing would be fit for
! the sea again, and the Tita was launched
once more.
That boat is a chapter of the ancient his
| tory of the peninsula. She was built by
one of the oldest settlers of Marin County,
and when Captain Storey retired from
blowing the waves, his son Leonard in
herited her. She was bread-winner from
the hour her shapely bow first touched the
water to the day of her retirement. She is
rich in traditions, and some of the most
prominent of the old Californians have sat
in her cockpit. At the period when the
ferry service between Sausalito and San
Francisco was ftful, uncertain and unsat-
isfactory, when the merry guest, lingering
late by the smoke of the clambake, lost the
last boat, the spectacle of the Tita riding at
her moorings assured him that he would
sleep that night under the domestic roof.
land so it was the custom for those early
| merrymakers to charter the old sloop and
sail across with the sense of perfect secur-
ity in her seaworthineSs. She never be-
trayed her trust. She was weatherly and
stanch to the last And when Leonard
Storey married the woman of his choice
the Tita ranked high in the category of
his possessions, for the rates of freighting
were high, and the fast and roomy sloop
was never idle on weekdays. On Sundays
she put on her holiday attire, as it were,
and took fishing parties to the favorite
grounds and back to town again were they
so disposed.
When the captain and owners eldest
girl was born he called her after the sloop,
reversing the order of things, where usually
the boat is named after the individual.
Other children blessed his cottage by the
beach, who climbed over the rails of the
good boat which brought them their bread
and butter, and dived overheard from her
decks, and learned to handle the tiller,
and became expert in putting her about,
and luffing to the breeze and rounding to
at her moorings, and all the other arts
of the boat sailor. The Tita was their
marine godmother, and her captain be-
lieved that she never sailed as we'll or an
swered the helm so promptly as when the
children were on board. The hercest
squall that ever came tearing down Hur-
ricane Gulch was powerless to beam-end
the lusty craft when her precious freight
was crowded up on the weather rail,
laughing at the spray that swept over
them.
But there came a time when business
became so bad that the sioop was hauled
on the beach for repairs, which were never
made. Her owner used to visit her every
day and sound her timbers and discourse
to any one patient enough to listen of her
magnificent record and what a fortune
there was in her still by the expenditure of
few hundred dollars. He predicted that
some day the proper person would come
along and the Tita would be put once more
in commission. He never lived to see her
rejuvenation.
One day he went out in a small boat to
fish off Lime Point The weather was
threatening, but Storey was an expert
sailor, knew all the tides and currents in
the bay, and was perfectly fearless. The
strong afternoon breeze freshened to a
gale, but the folks at home were not IN
easy about him.
Possibly he might have been compelled
to run before the breeze to the San Fran
cisco shore, or had found lee to Horse
shoe Bay and was waiting there for the
weather to moderate. Early on the morn
ing of the next day his boys climbed the
headlands to look out for their father but
his boat was not visible. She was found
afterward lying on the rocks, but not
badly stove in No other trace of the
hardy mariner who sailed her was ever
discovered. Some ventured the theory
that he might have been picked up by an
outward bound ship, but when month after
month went by without any tidings from
him the conclusion became inevitable that
the sea had claimed him, and had refused
to give up its dead. But 10, long after the
death of him whose fortunes were bound
up in the old boat and who loved her, as
sailors will love true and sturdy craft, the
Tita has begun a new era in her life, under
helm.