The San Francisco call., 1896-07-27
Ne WS ON THE
WATER FRONT,
A British Hen That Walks
the Deck Full of
Fight.
HER YANKEE RIVAL.
Arrival of the Sugar Bark Albert
From the Hawaiian
Islands.
RELIEVING A HUNGRY CREW.
Getting Out the Colombia's Damaged
Cargo-The Varioloid Case
Recovering.
RELIEVING A HUNGRY CREW

The British ship Star of France which
recently arrived in this port and docked
Saturday at the Brannan-street wharf is
a floating chicken ranch. The poultry
consists of one motherly old hen and a
brood of thirteen young fowls which were
Matched aboard of the ship. The chickens
are as large as their maternal biddy, and
notwithstanding their fateiuI number,
have brought no bad luck to the vessel
the rule probably goes contrary in the
matter of hens.
While the chicks were small she had
them roost on the spare DO oms lying along
the deck, but as they grew larger she led
them higher, and their sleeping place was
in the lower rigging. In all the rough
weather, with the ship pitching from wave
to wave, not a chicken was lost overheard.
Often they were disturbed and scared
down on deck when the sailors climbed
hurriedly up the rigging to struggle with
the gale-filled canvas aloft, bat they re-
| turned to their swaying roost.
That old hen is q true warlike British
Amazon. She sits on the ships rail and
watches the docks with a savage eye.
| Whenever a Brannan-street pullet ven
| lures down on the wharf in search Of a
| meal she springs off her perch and
| charges the intruder. If number come
| down instead of one she battles with them
all the same. She is no respecter of the
lordly male and will fly with savage
! squawks at a rooster as quickly as at a
| fowl of her own sex.
| Often after she has cleared the dock she
| will go aboard the ship and whip some OF
her own ildren, so thoroughly does the
| fighting spirit take possession of her. No
cat, dog or bird can live on that vessel,
and even the pig in his pen forward is only
safe from her furious attacks because she
| can't get at him.
The bark Albert, the first vessel of the
+! island sugar feet which sailed for this
por: about the 1st, came in yesterday
morning twenty-siK days out. She left
| Honolulu IN company with the ). n.
Castle and the ship J. G. Glade, but out
sailed them. The schooner Transit and
bark s. 9. Allen from the islands are both
txenty-eight days out and the barkentine
s. G. Wilder nineteen days.
On July o. in latitude 38 north and
| longitude 134 degrees 80 minutes west, the
Albert sighted the schooner Martha Tufts,
! 4S days out from Tres Marias. Mexico.
She had met with Gains and unfavorable
| weather, and, in consequence of the length
of time at sea, was out of provisions and
in distress. Captain Griffiths supplied the
hungry crew with food, and the vessels
parted company, the schooner bearing
away to her port, 600 miles distant.
The schooner Checto sailed yester-
day morning for Pigeon Point for a
load OF damaged freight from the stranded
steamer Colombia. 1t is thought that
those engaged in getting the ships cargo
will find their venture profitable one, as
the weather is favorable for. the work OF
completely emptying the, HUH and much
of the cargo is not easily damaged by
water.
The Chinaman sick with varioloid al the
quarantine station on Angel Island is re-
covering, and no other cases Of the dis
ease have appeared.
A number Of excursionists went out to
the battle-ship Oregon yesterday, but were
not permitted to go aboard, as the crew
were busy working with the torpedoes,
and the presence of visitors was not deslr.
able at that time. Commodore Howison.
however, will throw the ship open to the
public next Sunday if she is in the harbor