The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1896-06-04
LUCK OF OLD BOATS.
In Collisions on the Lakes the ValuabI.
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Did you ever notice, said an
4 old mariner, that when collision
occurs on tho lakes the letter boat,
in nine cases out of ten, gets the
worst of it and generally goes to the
bottom? On the other hand. the old
boat-for in a great many instances
it is an old boat-receives little dam
age, if any. If she is damaged, her
owners send her to some drydock TO
be patched up.
Il have always found that to be
the CASE" continued the old man
who for the past 40 years has earned
his livelihood OF the lakes. "In all the
collisions that / can remember be-
tween a new and an old boat the old
one, somehow or other, managed to
stay on top of the water. Take, for
instance, the sinking of the Lehigh
Valley liner Cayuga, which occur
red OH the 10th of last May.kShe COL
lided with the steamer Joseph L.
Hurd and was sunk in Lake Michi-
gan, near Skilligalee light. The
Cayuga. which was one of the best
steamers on. the lakes, was bound
down with load of grain and mer-
chandise. The Hurd was an old lum-
Der barge, which had been condemn
ed once and then rebuilt. She was
not worth much, while the Cayuga
was worth somewhere in the neigh
borhood of $780,, 900.
"At the time of the collision the
fog was very heavy and lay close to
the water in banks. A fog bank is
a peculiar thing to run up against,
because one minute you are right in
the midst of it and the next you are
through it, only to meet another.
For this reason they are very puz-
zling and have tendency to get a
fellow ratified for minute. A min
ute is not very long, but a man is
likely to lose his boat as we'll as his
life in that short space of time. A
captain has no business to get rat
tied, and especially when running
in a fog. The best of them will lose
their heads, and when in that state
are liable to give orders they ought
not to have given.
"That was the way the fog acted
on the night that the Cayuga weAt
down. The right signals had appar-
emily been given, but with hardly a
minutes warning the Hurd took
sheer and struck the Cayuga amid
ships. The Cayuga went down in
about five minutes, and the Hurd
made for the land, which was not
very far off, where she was beached.
She was leaking quite badly. Tenn
porary repairs we're made, and she
was then towed to a drydock. She
came out again later in tho season
and ran in the lumber trade on Lake
Michigah.
1.-The Cayuga, however, is still at
the bottom, lying in about 1O1 feet
of water, and her chances for re-
naming there are very good.
Let mo cite you another instance
where tho better boat was sunk by
an old one-well, l won't say she
was old, for she had not been in
commission very long She was an
looking craft and about the
unluckiest boat that had been built
on the lakes in some time She was
called the Jack. Her first feat that
brought her before public nosice was
when she collided with one of the
locks in the Welland canal. Nayi-
CATION was delayed for several days
by the accident.
"The next prominent feat that she
was to sink the big
steel steamer Norman, which was
owned by the Menominee Steamship
company. She sunk her in the mid
die of Lake Huron and in deep water.
In fact, it has been a mystery where
she did so down, for they have nev-
er been able to locate her. She was
worth 5000, 900. The Jack sustained
little damage and was soon in COM
mission again. Now, there are two
boats which were worth about $780,
600, and both were sunk by boats
which could be bought for $50, 900,
and that would be a big price for
them. buffalo Express.