The herald., 1896-01-20
Encountered by the United
States Cruiser Baltimore
CAPTAIN WAS SUSPICIOUS
OF the Seaw0rthiness Of the Ship He
Commanded
But His Ideas Have Changed by Her Behavior
In the Typhoon off the
Japan Coast
Associated Press Special Wire.

Associated Press Special Wire.
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 19.-The cruiser
Baltimore arrived here today from Homo
lulu. She encountered fair weather all the
way, and had an uneventful passage.
On board the Baltimore they are still
discussing the storm encountered off the
Japanese coast, and from wardroom to
forecastle the saving of ship and crew is
credited to the excellent seamanship of
Captain B. r. Day. There is no qualifica-
ton to the praise the men give him. He
was on constant duty through it all, and
the slightest error would have cost the en-
tire crew their lives.
Speaking about the adventure of the ship
himself, Captain Day said:
II had always had my suspicious about
the seaworthiness of the Baltimore and my
opinion WAS shared by many in the navy
but I hold to different ideas now. She
went through the worst storm L ever saw.
The storm burst upon us with surprising
suddenness and severity. When we left
Yokohoma on December we had a bar
ometer of 80, which is very high the
weather was high the sea smooth. Two
days later We we're in hrst-ciass typhoon.
To make it more remarkable 1T
was not the season for these
terrible Asiatic storms. l kept the vessel
became so rough that l hove TO. Then l
kept her head into the wind and went
ahead very slowly. A most peculiar effect
was produced by the wind blowing against
the course of the Japan current, and a
terrible sea was the result. The seas swept
over the decks and even reached the boats
in the cradles, which are twenty-five feet
high. There was not enough freeing ports
put in the cruiser, but do not suppose her
constructors ever imagined she would take
such seas, and the decks were nearly al
ways flooded. A couple of ice chests got
adrift and carried away one of the sheels
at critical moment, broke the pinnacle
and smashed the two ladders leading to
the quarterback.
"You can imagine the force of those seas
when tell you that the breakwater on the
top gallant forecastle was bent half foot
out of place and the rail on the forward
bridge bent and twisted out of shape. Gus
tavus lesson, the man lost overheard, was
swept from the top gallant forecastle at 2
7. We had been flying storm
stay sails and he was up
there hauling them down with some men.
He was carried off by one sea larger and
stronger than any that had struck the boat
for some time. He was seen from the port
side and two life buoys and two life pre-
servers were thrown to him, but he never
got near one of them. 1t was simply inn
possible to lower boat or keep the ship
off, for it was too stormy"
fr'Isaac Cooper, the other man who lost
his lite, was thrown down on deck by a
lurch of the ship on the 9th and susl aimed
a fracture of the skull. He lived until we
reached Honolulu, dying in the hospital
there shortly after his arrival. The men
on deck were in constant danger and we
had life lines along the decks as a pre-
cautionary measure. In the ordinary rolf
ing her list was twenty degrees, but the
heaviest was thirty-nine degrees. How
ever, the latter was the extreme and did
not occur very often. The statement that
we took the guns out of their turrets
and took other measures to de-
That would have been impossible
at any time during the ten days we We're in
the storm. No. had then removed before
we left Yokohama. We also took our
lower and topsail yards down to reduce the
top weight. That is an ordinary precau-
ton and in this case it proved very wise.
IL have been going to sea for many
years, aud have experienced some very
rough weather on different oceans, but [
regard my experience on the Baltimore as
one of the most trying of my life," con-
tinued Captain Day. II had seen typhoons
before, but none SO severe as that. The
typhoon itself was circular in motion, and
lasted for five days. There came
a slight lull when it was over
and then followed gales from the southeast
and north-northeast, and during the five
days that they lasted we had to be equally
vigilant for the safety of our vessel. The
gale lasted SO long and was SO terribly Sc
we're that it was constant strain upon the
entire crew. however, we came out of il
with but the loss of the two unfortunate
men, Jessen and Cooper"