The San Francisco call., 1896-07-29

and come OF his officers were examined as
to what happened just before the wreck
and how it was that the ship came to be
hung up on the Pigeon Point reef.
r. P. Schwerin, vice-president and man.
ager of the Pacific Mail Company, came in
while the examination was in progress,
and he was allow ed to question the wit
nesses, and then at the end he took the
stand himself. The stories told did not
differ much from the accounts of the
wreck which have been published, but
there was one fact added which had not
previously been brought to light. 1t ap-
peared from the testimony of George t.
Bright, who was the lookout at the time
the vessel struck, that shortly after the
acclaent a gray-haired man came
aboard from a small boat and said
he was the keeper of the lighthouse on
Pigeon Point. He said he wanted TO clear
himself-that sometimes the fog-whlstle
worked and sometimes it didn't, and more
words leading to the inference that the
whistle had not been working properly or
had not been working at all. Later
Charles Mccarthy, quartermaster. test1-
fed that when he went ashore in the first
boat he met two young ladies who told
him the fog signal had not been going
during the night.
the disaster. He said he had never, in all
his experience as master on this coast,
passed close enough to Ano Nueya to hear
the fog signal there, and so when he beard
the signal there he at once concluded it
was Pigeon Point. He calculated that be
was about five miles off Ano Nueva, or, as
he thought, Pigeon Point, but had he been
that distance off shore the course he laid
would have carried him clear of Pigeon
Point. He said he took no soundings, but
the lead was ready on the bridge in case
of sudden necessity. When she struck,
the captain said, the Colombia was max
ing thirteen and a half knots.
John Thompson, the third officer, told
how he and the captain had debated over
fog signal they heard, and concluded
that it was the Pigeon Point whistle, and
that they were about five miles off shore,
by the sound. He said he heard but two
or three faint blasts of the signal ahead,
the Pigeon Point signal, and these sounded
like one blast, not ike the double blast
which is peculiar to that signal.
Charles Olsen, the second officer, told
a story substantially the same, SO far as the
run from Point Sur was concerned. He
was not on watch when the vessel struck.
Pilot George d. Korts was called to tell
what he knew of the fog signals on Pigeon
Point and Ano Nueva. Then Bright tes-
tifled and then Mccarthy.
Captain Clark was then called once more
and Mr. Schwerin began to question him.
He had not gone far, however, when Cap
tain Birmingham stopped him, saying
that the questions he asked had already
been gone over. Mr.. Schwerin then said
be thought he had right to question the
witness, as the Pacific Mail was a party
vtally interested. He said he had prop
erty at the mercy of captains licensed by
the Government and he should have the
right to show whether or not these cap
talns are qualified for their trust. DE
wanted to show that the Pacific Mail Com
pany's had positive instructions to place
no dependence in fog signals.
1t was suggested that Mr.. Schweriii be
sworn, and when this had been done be
told how Captain Clark had come to have
command of the Colombia. When the
ship came out, he said, Captain Clark was
put in charge and told that she was to be
made as popular as possible.
Schwerin told the captain he had had
peculiar ideas about the lead line, that it
was the best friend a captain ever had and
that he wished no chances taken, either in
running in or out of a port in fog. or at
any point in thick weather, and that 1t
was much easier to find bottom with
lead than with the ships keel. He said
Clark had been in the company's service
for twenty-six years, and that he con-
sidered the captain in every way fitted to
take command of the Colon bia-that is
before she ran on the rocks