The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-09-05
The Machrihanish Arrived
Yesterday With All Her
Boats Stove In.
RIGGING COATED WITH ICE.
A Ship From Shanghai Comes In.
The Old Steamer Herald Again
Running.

clueu taste OF the gentle breeZes that mum
merrily around Cape Horn. The three
boats which the heavy seas left on board
are melancholy wrecks, and the smashed
and splintered woodwork around the deck
is a speaking reminder of what the good
ship passed through.
81 have gone around the Horn several
times" said Second Officer Hewett, "but
never did have such an experience. For
six weeks we were battered by the tenn
pestuous wind and water. Rails, ladders.
compass and boats were all ruined. Look
at those tive cutters, utterly useless, except
for frewood. The remains of the gig are
down in the hold. We keep them there
for the insurance agents to examine. The
other three are somewhere floating around
the cape.
"On June IL the ship ran into western
hurricane which kicked up sea as high as
the lower mastheads. The decks were
food ed to the sails and it was impossible
to get forward or aft. If a man ventured
out of the forecastle he was washed around
like cork. On the night of June II we
caught 1T. While hove-to under fore and
main lower topsails we were struck on the
weather beam by terrible sea which
struck Us little abaft the main rigging.
1t took the starboard boats overheard,
smashed the port boats, the bridge, tore
the rails and iron stanchions out OF their
fastenings, and wrecked the McGregor
compass.
Everything around was washed from
its place; an oil tank was broken in and
thirty gallons of oil were mixed with the
water. The gale kept up and the ship was
constantly buried under the frothy seas.
This went on for weeks, almost without
cessation. We used oil bags, which did
much to deaden the blows of those waves.
Part of the time the ship was over on her
constantly. The gale would moderate a
little, to start up again with increased
fury. We encountered billiards, hail and
snow storms. The ice coated the deck
inches deep, and the running gear and
blocks were frozen up tight.
before rope would run through
sheaf the ice would have to be beaten off
with belaying-pin. For many days we
were hove-to and all hands were in the
afterhouse trying to keep from freezing to
death. 1t was impossible to do anything
on deck and 1t was no use to keep the men
there.
"July We were visited by another hur-
ricane which finished the forward part of
the vessel as the former blow did the aft.
The boats there were wrecked, the forecastle
and galley skylights were stove in and the
deplorable condition aloft, sails split and
running-g gear parted"
But the stanch vessel with the hard
Scotch name weathered the awful gales
that hurled her down in the topping seas,
and she came into port somewhat dam
aged but in good condition. The officers
state that the storms were unusually Sc
we're off the Horn this year, and June,
which is the calm month, was thirty days
of ripping roaring gales
The British ship Glenerecht, Captain e.
II. Davies, arrived yesterday, forty-four
days from Shanghai. She is splendid
four-master, 800 feet long, A beam and q
deep. Her register is 2200 tons, but her
hold capacity is over 5000 tons burden.
The Glenerecht is ship with thick
plates and weights 1760 tons. An iron
vessel of her size will carry about 800 tons
less than a steel ship of the same dimen-
sions. She has about 1000 tons of ballast
in her hold, taken aboard at Shanghai,
and Captain Davies says it is the richest
China garden soil.
The captains wife and two small chill
dren are passengers on the vessel. The
little ones are great pets of the Japanese
crew, and baby-wagons and the swings
suspended from the rigging provided by
the men for their two pets made the deck
of the great ship look like nursery.
Mrs. Davies, who made many voyages
with her husband, says she would like to
get back to England and get acquainted
with her three eldest daughters, who are
at school. "The ship is not home" said
this intelligent lady, land 1 don't believe
l shall ever be much of a sailor. There is
no place like place away from the sea-"
The old stern-wheeler Herald is again in
commission, running between San Fran
cisco and Vallejo. This ancient tub is kept
by the Southern Pacific for the purpose of
choking off opposition.
Whenever some enterprising steamer
starts in to compete with the railroad on
the bay for the passenger traffic, the Herald
gets up steam and goes wheeling around,
with the fare at the lowest figure, until the
other boat is forced out of business; then
she lays up. She is now engaged in the
effort to run off the steamer Monticello,
which has been plying between this place
and Vallejo for several weeks. When the
pretty little Seattle craft has been frozen
out the Herald will rest from her labors
and the Southern Pacific Railroad will
catch the Vallejo travel.
Skipper Titchworth of the trim tug
Annie is now the envy OF all the water
front. Yesterday he let business take care
of itself, and paraded up and down the
front wearing" a fine gold headed cane,
on which was inscribed: Captain Caspar
Tltchworth; Sept. 4, 1885," 1t was gift
from the "Annie gang" coterie of news
paper men who travel to their homes IN
Oakland on the tug each morning before
sun-up.
F. II. Owens of this City has returned
from a mining and exploring trip to
Alaska, and from his statement it may be
known that that country is good place to
keep away from.
1.-The country is grossly oyerestimated,
said be, land poor man, least of all, has
no business there. 1t is the most inhos-
pitable locality on the continent, and to
those who are not well provided with
means the hardships are inconceivable.
"You can't travel through the dark, i'm.
penetrable forests without cutting your
way, and dangers of getting lost or falling
into those deep, almost bottomless ravines
menace you every step. You have to
climb glaciers and Recovered mountains,
through deep, snowy valleys, until you
are worn out and utterly discouraged.
Several parties of explorers have been lost
and their bodies are living somewhere
under the eternal white pail of everlasting
winter. Only a well-equipped party with
guides should ever attempt that wild coun-
try. There are about 800 miners at Turn
agin and Cooks Inlet and it is impossible
to state how they will all get out of that
region. OF course, there are rich mines
there, but difficulties surround the pros
pector at every STEP"
REGARDING the attack made in an even