The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1896-05-31
THE OILY ENOCH TALBOT
She Is Called the Greasiest Thing on
Earth at San Francisco
Tank Burst Upon the Vessels Last Trip
North. and She Became Completely
Saturated

Nearly the greasiest thing in the world
at the present time, says the San Fran
cisco Call, is the old bark knoch Talbot
which arrived in port from Redondo last
Monday. Compared with her Penn
SylNania oil we'll is a soda water foun-
tain and sperm whale refrigerator
car.
All the alkali in the economy of chem
istry couldn't out out" the spot that
covered the Enoch Talbot from stem to
stern, keel to truck, clew to caring Even
the winds that blow by her become lu-
bricated from their passage through the
oleaginous atmosphere and fly away all
the faster from the instant association
She is so oi.y that she floats in calm
of her own making, for no wave can hold
its own against the unctious charm she
sheds around herself.
Twenty-siX days ago the bark started
from Redondo with 5000 barrels of crude
petroleum on board. The entire interior
of the vessels hull had been fitted up
with wooden tanks, into which the thick,
tar!ke fluid had been pumped.
She had head winds. Gains and bad
weather generally, which accounts for
the long passage of twenty-four days.
A short time out from port the pitching
of the Talbot burst a tank, letting almost
1000 barrels of oil loose to roam around
the bark at pleasure.
1t may be said that that stuff, in it's
crude petroleum way, made the most of
the opportunity. When it couldn't flow
freely it seeped, and between the flowing
and seeping it managed to get pretty
much everywhere. The pitching and
rolling Of the bark dashed the oil here
and there through the hull forcing it
where even the most ambitious fluid
would not care to penetrate. 1t got into
the bilge With the water leakage. and
when the vessel was pumped out the oil
came up through the pump wei! and ran
out into the sea.
Every timber. and it seemed that
every spar, block and rope was saturat-
ed, and the Righteousness rampant in
that hold reached as high as the royal
trucks. it didn't OOze out through the
seams Of the Enoch Talbot, because she
was an old Black Ball packet, and ship
with the great black disk on her foretop-
sail was never known to wear out
For several days no particular danger
threatened the oil-logged bark. She
simply rolled along working northward,
end Captain johnson was careful not to
drop any burning matches down into
that rather inhammable hold. But the
leaning of the vessel over TO leeward
caused the heavy, thick fluid to collect
on that side, consequently the bark grad
ually acquired dangerous list.
I]VeTV hing solid that was movable
was shifted to the weather side, and the
pumps were set to work to help ease the
bark. Several hundred barrels of oil
were run overheard smoothing the sea
down for a wide distance around the
vessel. During the bad weather the
steam pump at the main hatch broke
from it's fastenings and fell into the hold,
where it lay submerged in the petro-
leum.
The bark finally succeeded in getting
off the harbor, where a tug smelled her
out, it is said. She is at the Arctic OIL
works getting rid of her dangerous and
inconvenient cargo. The old craft is all
right. but she is about the greasiest
thing in the world.