The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-07-18
Everything Movable Is Being
Transferred to the Schooner
Jewel.
cApERs OF FIREMAN COLLINS.
Vexing Tribulations of the Ships
Baker, Whose Bird School Was
Broken Up.

ON BOARD P. NJ. s. S. COLOMBIA,
wrecked off Pigeon Point (via Pescadero,
CALI, July 17.-To-night the ocean is calm,
with light wind coming in from the thin
fogbank to the west. There Is a long,
graceful swell sweeping over the surface
of the waters of the little cove, slightly
rocking the stranded steamer and passing
on to break and die away on the beach.
High over the waves that are peaceful now
and over the land, redolent with the hay
and over the wounded thing pros
trate on her bed of reef, the solemn white
tower stands and sends its flame afar, afar
to the ships at sea. The stranded vessel
has settled down on the rocks and is await
ing the end, the furious incoming of the
pillows t hat will heaye themselves against
her strong frame and crush it with their
irresistible power.
Through the rents in her bottom the
tides ebb and flow, and the water stains
on the buIkheads mark their rise and fall.
A glass gauge in the fireroom that once
told the level of the water within the
boiler now tells its height without The
food is washing through the coal
and the hulk seems filled with ink. 1t
flows outside, and the vessel wallows in
waves of Stygian blackness. There is
about twenty-five feet of water in the for
ward compartments and somewhat less aft
when the tide is high. But there will be
no more so long as the rocks are beneath
her; they have done their worst and are
holding her for the storm swell.
1t is a cruel, fatal, but secure resting
place the Colon ia found in the fog that
bewildered and misled her helmsman.
While the sea is still and the wind asleep
they are stripping the steamer, and two
schooners moored alongside are receiving
the plumber
The cabin and stateroom furnishings
went long ago and now the heavy articles
are being removed. Wenches, anchors,
chains and all the machinery above the
water are hoisted out and sent away. The
splendid engines, which ran like lady's
watch, cannot be moved now and must
probably share in the general destruction
that will overtake the hull. At present
they lie in twenty feet of black, oily water.
The donkey engine is alive and is being
used TO strip the hulk. However, its time
of labor Is limited to low water, as the
rising tide floods its furnaces and the fires
quenched.
The genius OF this forlorn hope is Fire
man Collins, and he is a hero. The iron
floor of the apartment being submerged,
he built rude staging with a few planks.
These are slung so that he can. walk on
them from the coal-bunkers TO the fur
mace. There Collins stands and fights for
his fire. He occasionally stun bles on his
insecure perch and drops a shovel of coal
I.
himself in, but Collins never minds a lit
tie thing like that. He watches food
marks on the bulkhead, and by this tide
guage, when it gets SO high, knows when
his staging will be covered and the waves
will lap over the grate-bars. Then he re-
treats to the deck above and waits for low
water. The under part of the boiler is al
ways submerged, but he keeps steam on
with the upper part of the water in the
boiler and with his fire roaring to over
come the cold of the huid that washes
around him..
This is the way Collins explains it, and
he insists that he knows all about donkey
engines. The check valves and other
parts of the machinery are out of sight.
but this inyincible fireman rolls up his
sleeves and hunts around in the water I'M
til he finds them and all is well.
Collins? Collins is worth column, but
he has other troubles and does not hest
tate to tell them. He has only one pair of
shoes. Firemen in the Pacific Mail are
not gifted with many or expensive belong
ings and ne wants to keep those shoes out
of the sea water, so he pulls them off and
goes barefoot when his tide gauge on the
bulkhead marks the rising. Then, so he
saws on his honor, the crabs clinging to
the staging nibble at his toes and bother
him in his work. Often he grows despe-
rate and drops hot clinkers on the mis-
chievous crustscians.
Yesterday Collins though. he saw seal
swimming around in the compartment.
Visions of new $3.50 jacket for Mrs. Col
Inns fioated through his mind and he pre-.
pared to secure the visitor. He called
Chief Steward Rodell and wanted to know
what kind of pait he could land the crea-
ture with. That person informed him
that there was a revenue officer on the
deck above. and an arrest for pelagic seal
ing might follow any attempt to capture
one of the furry wards OF the Treasury
Department. Collins insisted that the
seal was now pdII "a ZIG lIcfSub OF the
Colombia, and that as it was of domestic
manufacture it was not subject to duty
and was out of the reach of the customs
officers.
Then he procured boat hook and went
sealing in his aquarium. He crawled
carefully over the great engines cylinder,
and after spIashing around for some time
captured the prize. 1t was a pair of his
own brown overalls, which he had lost
from his locker when the ship went on the
rock.
Yesterday morning Collins thought he
saw big Goldfish moving around a sub
merged brass steam gauge. as though it
was examining the shining thing, with
a view OF having one made like it. That
fish, Collins thought, would be tooth
some addition to the rather slender fare of
the fireman's table, where leathery salt
beef is the piece de resistance. Collins
doesn't think in such elegant language,
but that is about the idea running through
his ingenious and lively brain.
He procured several lines and hooks and
with bait calculated to lure things finny