The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-10-01
INA TyPHooN.
A Maine Captains Interesting Account OF
His Experience.

People in the East who suffer from
gales and big blow hrve but the slight
est conception Of the nature of ty.
phoon. Consequently the following ex
tract from letter written from Hons
Kong, Aug. :, by Capt. r. D. Waldo
of the Thomaston ship, Isaac Reed, vii.
he read with interest:
1.-THE typhoon ball went up Wednesday
morning, July 81 (they have different
signals that they hoist to let you know
how far off the typhoon is and also il
what direction 1t is), but it did not be-
gin to blow until Thursday morning at
about O'Clock. when the typhoon gun
was fred. which means that you had bet.
ter shave. Well, 1t commenced to blow,
continually increasing in force, not in
steady breeze, but in squalls, aud about
noon We dropped our second anchor and
played out ITO fathoms Of chain, 1OC
fathoms on our portQ said ITO fathoms,
but it was only 40 as we lay with 80 feet
to the waters edge), and as we had our
royal yards on dsk all we had to do was
to let her blow, and blow she did.
I never saw it blow so hard before
that you could not look in the direction
from which the wind was blowing.
1.-The Chinese junks all made bee
line for Iyphoon bay. You would see
one of them coming under full sail, he
would catch a squall. and there would be
nothing left of his sail but strings. The
sails are made OF straw mats and. some
junks have three sails, some two and
some only one. but they are mostly
lighters.
''By two O'Clock most of the sailing
craft had got into some place of shelter
and then the steamers commenced to
move and run into Typhoon Bay which
IL behind an Island, (6tone Cutters is
land it is called, where the English have
fort and no one is allowed 10 landl By
i've O'Clock in the afternoon there was
not much moving in the harbor, except
for steam launch now and then or a
small boat that some heather Chinese
had lost.
at blew SO hard at times that could
not walk forward, unless / waited until
the squall was ovsr, or took hold of
netting, SO that would not be blown
back. The first mate had to lie down
and crawl when he went to look at the
anchor chains to see how they were ly-
Ing. and he is very heavy man. The
wind did not go down until after mid
night, but oh what a difference in the
morning.
''We were the only large sailing vessel
In the harbor' that did not drag. The
Manuel Llaguno, Capt. Small, Commo-
dore I. Il. Allen, Capt Merriman,
Charles E. Moody, Capt. Leonard and
the British ship Scotia, Capt. Rhodes,
all dragged from one half to three uart-
els of a mile, but were not damaged
Several other vessels STARTED the anchors,
but did not drag. Some of the vessels
had three anchors down and had the
fourth one ready.
"Tne English bark, Glen Caladh, Capt.
Lamont, which has been on fire once
since we have been here, dragged about
three mileg and WAS stopped only after
the masts had been cut out. Fifteen or
more junks and number of lighters
went ashore. Some of the steamers got
to dragging and all got in a bunch and
were considerably damaged. The dry
docks are doing rushing business.
1.-THE British iron ship, Scottish Isles,
Capt Nichol, which was laying down
to Wanchai, (the eastern part Of Hong
Kong Harbor), dragged into the Naval
Hospital and stove in some plates on
her quarter and carried away the mizzen
royal mast She was all ready for sea
and had her sails bent, now he will have
to 20 on the dry dock and as the dry
dock 10 very busy with steamers it will
be month or more before she will get
away. The day after the typhoon the
Italian bark, Lothian, Capt. Fenetta,
from Caliao. with chinese passengers
was lowed in here with her fore
tcpmast and main and mizzenmast gone.
Some fears are entertained for the ship
st. Marx, Capt. Dudley, as she was re-
ported outside by tho Hawaiian bark
Foohug Suey, Capt. Wiilet, which came
in the day after the typhoon, and the st.
Marks has not since been seen.
The typa 0on Is reported to have been
the hardest one for years, and seems to
have spread all over The China sea.
About so lives were lost In the harbor.
The ship j. 3. Walker. Capt. Wal
lace, also Thomaston vessel, bound to
Shanghai was reported to be outside,
60 probably she got shaking up"