The San Francisco call., 1896-05-11
ALONG THE WATER FRONT
The Sternwheel Steamer Herald,
the Boss Collider of the
Bay.
She Catches Two Eoats in One Day
The Farallon in the Dry.
dock.

The Southern Pacific steamer Herald is
the terror of the bay. She is not beauty
nor the sort of nautical thing that plows
the waves with motions majestic, full and
free. She is troad and tubby from stem
aft to the big, ungraceful wheel that digs
up the water at the stern.
When the Herald starts in to plow she
plows up the other bay craft. Her prey
are not generally those she finds out on
the open waters. Her method is to sight
some vessel lying quietly and safely (seem-
inglyl in some slip with boilers cold and
dock-lines out.
Then is the Herald happy. She will
creep softly around the pierhead and be-
fore that doomed boat can get ont fender
or slack off line the other is upon her.
Crash, bang, and the splinters fly woody
cloud in all directions. Through the dark
ness of many night the lonely wharf
watchmen have heard the awful shock
the breaking of the straining planks, the
smashing of the rail and the groaning of
the wrecked beams. And the guardian of
the gloom would lean back against moor
ing pile and murmur sleepily-"Its only
the Herald docking. / wonder what boat
she has got into this timer"
There is one craft which the Herald has
marked for her own. That devoted vessel
is yet running, but the Herald is not dis
4 w
| night the Monticello-thats her name
will feel the iron-shod stem of her savage
| foe grinding into her vitals.
The Monticello is q graceful little pas
| senger vessel that has been all her life
| fighting railroad boats. She carried on
the war with the Northern Pacific steam
ers on Puget Sound up to few months
| ago, when she came to this port. On her
way thither she broke down and fell into
the hands OF the Philistines, or rather, the
| Southern Pacific, who towed her out OF
the vastly deep. Then Mr.. Huntington,
| with characteristic good humor and good
| judgment, claimed the unfortunate craft
as generous reward for his disinterested
| humanity.
The salvage suit is pending, the Monti-
| cello is running between this CITY and
| Vallejo, and the Herald is, night and day.
| camping on her trail. The two boats dock
at the same slip, near the foot of Mission
street, and every time the railroad steamer
| lumbers into her landing the officers of tn e
Sound craft tremble. It would be so easy
to crush the little passenger steamer as she
| lies at her moorings. A slight error with
| the helm and the opposition line to Vallejo
and Benicia would be under the bay. Ad-
ding to this constant menace is the fact
that the Herald docks outside of the Mon
ticello and manages to take up much of
the channel In the entrance to the siip.
Pacific officials and to the Harbor Com
missioners," said Captain Hatch. owner of
the Monticello, yesterday, that the
Herald is permitted to swing with slack
towlines far out into the slip. Some
times only by the utmost caution can we
get by that boat and reach our landing.
Even now one can see hole in the side of
the Monticello where the planking is
mashed. We struck the Herald yeste rday
as we were trying to get around her stern.
There'll be a big smash-up in this slip. !
have more troub BILE, trying to avoid the
Herald, than with all the other boats on
the bay"
Yesterday morning the Herald found q
victim, though it was not an opposition
boat, but a sister craft. the big stern wheel
steamer Modoc. The Herald came plung-
ing into the slip digging up the bay be-
hind her in great foam-coyered surces.
She tried to check up, but the reversed
engine could not hold her, aud she plowed
into the Modoc's wheel frame. cutting
deeply through the great timbers. Then
she backed ont in time to bump her own
wheel frame against the Monticello, which
was just coming TO the wharf. Then, with
two disabled boats for morning catch to
her credit, the Herald tied up to her land
ing.
The steamer Farallon, which bumped
on the rocks at Little River few davs
ago, is on the drydock. Her false keel was
crushed near the bow and amidships IL is
broken off completely. The bottom of the
vessel was broken in when she came down
ON the rocks making extensive repairs
uararaarv