The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-03-12
OLD BOATS HAVE GOOD LUCK.
They Seldom Suffer Seriously by Collisions
on the Lakes.

They Seldom Suffer Seriously by Collision.
on the Lakes.
Did YOU ever notice" said the old mar
iner one day, "that when collision oc
ours on the lakes, the better boat nine
cases out of ten gets the worst of it
and generally goes to the bottom? Or
the other hand, the old boat, for IN e
great many instances it is an old boat
receives little damage, if any. If she is
damaged her owners send her to some
dry dock to be patched up.
st have always found that to be the
case" continued the old man, who fol-
the past 40 years has earned his iveli.
hood on the lakes. "All the collisions
that can remember between new and
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 oc-
CURED on the 10th of last May. She
coIlided with the steamer Joseph l.
Hurd and was sunk in Lake Michigan
near Skilligalee light. The Cayuga,
which was one of the best steamers on
the lakes, was bound down with load
Of grain and merchandise. The Hurd
was an old lumber barge. which had
been condemned once and then rebuilt.
She was not worth much, while nhe
Cayuga was worth somewhere in the
neighborhood of 100000.
"At the time of the collision the fog
M 10 oil IN h.
ter in banks. Fog banks are peculiar
things to run up against, because one
minute you are right in the midst of Il
and the next you are through it, only to
meet another. For this reason they are
very puzzling and have a tendency to
get a fellow ratified for q minute A
minute is not very long, but q man is
likely TO lose his boat as well as his life
in that short space of time. A captain
has no business to get ratified, and espe-
cially when running in fog. The best
of them will lose their heads, and when
in that state are liable 10 give orders
they ought not to have given.
THAT is the way the fog acted on the
night that the Cayuga went down. The
right signals had apparently been Civ
en-, but with hardly a minutes warning
the Hurd took a sheer and struck the
Cayuga amidships. 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. Tempo
rary repairs were made and she was
then towed to dry dock. She came out
again later in the season and ran in tbs
lumber trade on Lake Michigan.
THE Cayuga, however, is still at the
bottom, lying in about 101 feet of water,
and her chances for remaining there are
very good. Jim Reid, the Bay City
wrecker, has taken the contract to raise
her. He has had big steel pontoons
built, which he thinks will have buoy.
sncy enough to lift her. The pontoons
were completed too late last fall for him
to do anything, but as soon as navigs-
ton opens up in the spring he will be.
gin operations. One day last fall he
donned his diving suit and went down
and made an examination of her. He
found her in good condition and lying
right side up. If he is successful and
gets her into a harbor in the straits he
will get something like s100, 900 for the
job. II he fails he will get nothing
That is the mo cure, no pay plan. A
good many wreckers have taken con.
tracts on that plan, but as a rule they
fail, for the underwriters, after offer
ing them a half interest in the boat
know that the boat cannot be raised.
'Tet me cite you another instance
where the better boat was sunk by an
old one-weE, won't say she was old.
for she had not been in commission
very long. She was an ungainly look
ing craft, and about the unluckiest
boat that had been built on the lakes In
some time. She was called the Jack.
and she was a jack for your life Her
first feat that brought her before pub
lie notice was when she collided with
one of the locks on the Welland canal
Navigation was delayed several days by
the accident. She was brought TO this
city, where she was docked and re-
L
the dock walked up and took look at
her. She had the appearance of sand
scow with a square bow, and was about
the queerest-looking boat had ever
seen.
1.-THE next prominent feat that she
accomplished was to sink the big steel
steamer Norman, which was owned by
the Menominee Steamship company.
She sunk her in good shape out in the
middle of Lake Huron and in deep water
In fact, it has been q mystery where she
did 60 down, for they have never been
able to locste her. She was also worth
about $4,000 The Jack sustained lit
tie damage and was soon in commission
again. Now there are two boats which
were worth about 100000, and both
were sunk by boats which could be
bought for $50, 900, and that would be a
big price for them."-Buffale Express.