The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1895-01-05
AN OCEAN TERROR.
Ten Thousand Gigantic Logs Toss
ing About on the Waves.
They Formed m Immense Raft which
Had to De Abandoned by . Tug In
. Storm-A Menace to the
Vessels Of Commerce.

Towing big RATS OF timber in tur-
bulent sea is no easy task. So Capt.
Thompson, Of the tug Monarch, and
Pilot Wheeler told the other captains,
and pilots along the water front the
other day, says the San Francisco tx
aminer. -
October IL to tow q raft Of piles to this
port. The Monarch arrived recently
but the raft is afloat in sections on the
Pacific ocean. 1t may be that every
one of the ten thousand piles of which
the raft was originally composed is
scattered driftwood on the high seas,
or perhaps q few hundred of these
great logs are still lashed, plunging
sidelong or headlong at the caprice of
every billow, and at every plunge
threatening collision with passing COM
merce. Some unfortunate ship may
encounter one or more of these rowing
timbers and few holes may be stove
into the sides of unsuspccti1c vessels.
The raft was valued at fifty thousand
dollars, but if landed safely here would
have been worth four times as much.
Besides, there was eighteen thousand
dollars insurance on the raft and its
loss will represent total loss to the
enterprising men who sought to have it
towed into San Francisco bay. s.-as
The trip of the Monarch wcs rough
one from the start. Every precautiop
had been taken. The logs were RATED
in cigar shape, previous experiences
with tows of that kind having taught
Capt. Thompson many lesson in
methods of lashing, but the south
eastern gale, which has done SO much
damage to the shipping in the north,
was too much for the logging expedi-
tion and when they got as far as the
Hecta lighthouse, about $40 a. m. on
Tuesday, October Is, after having bat
tied with the elements four days and
four nights. they decided to abandon
what was left of their tow. 1t was not
much, for most of it had abandoned it.
self long. before. The big raft COM
menced to lose piles and the heavy
chains which held them together had
long since been nothing but drag an
chOrs. seueA.c..,s;r.:s .c..,;:s sz.e=s ,-z1-7s...---
The wind was so heavy that the
Monarch could not possibly make any
headway, and the first night out she
had to lie in the trough of the sea.
Heavy seas and gales continued all the
time. There was no possibility to con-
tinue the voyage with the dragging of
chains and logs as handicap, and that
is why the two captains decided to
abandon their tow and cast the logs
adrift on the pillows of the turbulent
ocean, to bang against ships wherever
they meet them; to drive big holes into
their sides and, perhaps, to sink them.
Much indignation was expressed
among the men who go to sea and the
men who have shipping interests.
They said that the attempt to tow big
RATS during stormy times is criminal,
because every man acquainted with
the coast knows it cannot be accom-
plished. Many time it has been tried,
but never has anybody succeeded in
bringing raft of large dimensions
into this port from the north except
when the winds were calm and the
seas were undisturbed. 1t may be dcne
at this season, said some Q! The old sea
dogs, if the open sea is avoided and the
trip is made by dodging along the
coast and by travelling through bays
and CULTS only, but ON the wide, open
ocean, during stormy seasons, no Ore
gon timbers will ever be made to float
into the waters of San Francisco bay.