The San Francisco call., 1896-06-24
ALL IS PLAIN SAILING
And the Vessel Will Now Be
Righted and Pumped Out
Immediately.
NARROW ESCAPE OF TWO MEN
The Sugar Refinery, Gas Works ant
Rolling-Mills May Have to Pay
Wharfage.

The Blairmore has been moved into
shallow water and the raisers are conf
dent of success. When operations were
begun she was sunk eleven feet in the
mud. She had to be raised out of this bed
she had made for herself, and that was
the chief difficulty. On several occasions
the bow was raised several times, but Just
at the critical moment the pumps would
choke up or the hawsers part. Extra
pumps were placed on the hull and yester-
day the first real success was gained.
At low water the air pump was started
and soon the bow began to rise. The
Monarch and Whitelaw were both towing
inshore and when the pumps began to
tell on the water that was in the stern of
the vessel up the vessel came. Then the
strain began to tell and slowly tug, wrecker
and sunken ship moved inshore. When
almost half mile had been covered the
tide began to flow, and as there were q
couple of vessels in the way Captain Burns
determined to stop operations for the day
The Blairmore is now in eight feet shall
lower water than she was last Monday and
there will now be no difficulty in getting
her on an even keel ano pumping her out.
81 am now satisfied that we will have
the Blairmore up and as good as new in
side of two months" said Captain Burns
yesterday. Where she was lying there
was a terrible tide running, and it was
hard to work in it. In fact there were
only two or three hours at time in which
we could do anything. Last night Mon
day. the tide ran like miIlrace, and
thought everything would be torn out of
the Whitelaw. As it was our surging
tangled the hawsers and the Blairmore's S
bowsprit. and the latter snapped off close
to the stem. We are now in slack water
nearly all the time, and will be able to
work continuously"
The probable cost of raising and refit-
ting the Blairmore will be $4,000. The
work is being done by the insurance com
panies, and they will make money on the
transaction as the vessel is insured for
$4,000. Had she been abandoned and the
wreck sold it probably would not have
brought more than $1,000 at auction, so the
underwriters will De fully $29, 900 ahead on
the transaction.
News from the whaling fleet that win
tered in the Arctic is not encouraging.
The catch has been a small one and all the
fish taken were small ones, so the yield in
bone and oil was poor one. The catch,
as given in private letter was only up 10
of the vessels may have done better The
Mary D. Hume had only l whale, New
port Z, Wanderer l, Jessie II. Freeman 8,
John and Winthrop l, Fearless g, Northern
Light 2, Jeanette l, karluk l and Navarch
3. Later advices, which arrived yester-
day, give the catch of the Fearless as 5
and the Orca 6. This news is not authen-
tic, however, and the officers of the Steam
Whaling Company discredit it.
CAPTAIN RldeOut of the steamer 7rilbV
denies that this vessel was in collision
with the SVengah He says the Trilby
never left her moorings on Monday, and
there fore could not have been in Mission
Bay. 1t must have been some other
steamer that the Svengali hypDotized, for
the collision undoubtedly took place
Captain Russell, late of the Rio de
Janeiro and City of Para, will take out the
San Jose on July 1. The steamer on that
date will make a special round trip to all
Central American ports and make clean
up OF all delayed freight. a new service
will then be inaugurated and the Mail
Company will be ready for all opposition
change on the Acapulco. Captain Searles,
who brought her in, will resume his old
position of "ship's husband, F." and Captain
Mortensen will assume command.
The Barbor Commissioners held short
session yesterday and the pile question
occupied nearly all their time. The Teredo-
proof Pile Company wrote complaining
that the San Francisco Timber Preserving
Company was infringing on its patent, and
stating on the authority of its attorney
that the board would be held responsible
ii it used any of the opposition's piles in
the construction of the new ferry slips.
President Colnon thought the Teredo-
proof Pile Company had no ground for
complaint, as the Timber Preserving Com
pany used creosote on solid logs and then
nailed on an outside casing, whereas the
other company built up an artificial log
with small pieces of timber. the latter
process being on the principle that a teredo
when at work will never pass a crack in
the wood.
AT this point P F. Dundon, who repre-
sents the Timber Preserving Company,
said he would enter into an indemnity
bond to project the commission in the
event of any lawsuit. The law point was
finally submitted to the boards attorney
for his opinion, and the pile question was
turned over to Chief Engineer Holmes
with full power to act.
President Colnon raised the question of
dockage charges at the Union Iron Works.
rolling mills, gas works and sugar refinery
At none of those manufactures is dockage
paid. and the Commissioner Thought it
should be, as the board has full authority
over the water front, from the Presidio to
the county line. On the motion of Com
missioner ChadbourDe the matter was re-
ferred to the attorney for his opinion
Thomas O'Neil and Ed Jones had a mar
row escape for their lives yesterday after
ternoon. When off Blossom Rock their
boat capsized, and they drifted around on
the keel for nearly half an hour Finally
the Monticello came along and Captain
Randall went to their assistance He was
en- route for Vallejo, but went out OF his
wav to put the men aboard the revenue
cutter Hartley. Their boat also was
picked up, and the men were landed at
Meiggs wharf little the worse for their
ducking.
A whitehall boat with two men in it
capsized yesterday afternoon off Blossom
Rock. They were rescued by the steamer
Monticello. The United States steamer
Hartley also went to the rescue and picked
up the boat. The rescued men were
Thomas 0'Neil, runner, and partner.
They were transferred from the Monti-
cello to the Hartley and landed at Meiggs
wharf.
English Mining gents Sightseeing.
The representa- of large English syndi.