The San Francisco call., 1896-01-10

pected to sail for San Francisco on January
6. She was twenty days from Yokohama
to Honolulu.
By the brig w. G. Irwin, Captain Will
liams, which arrived yesterday, IA davs
from Honolulu, is learned the full particu-
lars of the stormy voyage of the Baltimore
from okohama to that port.
"a few more deep rolls and Uncle Sam
would have had one less cruiser on his
navy list, for the Baltimore would have
been at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean,"
This was the report of the crew of the
Baltimore given out when the big war
vessel arrived in Honolulu Monday, De-
cember -, after a stormy passage of twenty
days from Yokohama
Poor Boatswain's Mate Jessen was
dashed overheard by heavy sea without
moments warning" said petty officer,
land Carpenter Cooper was thrown against
an 8-inch rife and crushed to death.
The big cruiser was flung around on
the billows like feather. Hardly man,
from the main deck to the fireroom, es-
capped without more or less bumps and
bruises. 1t was awful"
The story OF the cruirer's struggle with
the terrible gale fully tests the seagoing
qualities of the new navy. She left Yoko-
hama December 3, and when three days
out struck one of the hardest gales ever
encountered at sea. The barometer
suddenly dropped down, and in a few
minutes the sea was laundering against
her steel SIDES like ponderous battering
rams.
Everything was made snug fore and aft.
The battery was secured for storm, and
the battle-doors tightly closed.
The great mass OF metal was tossed like
a cork, in the words of one of the off GERS,
and occasionally the seas would come
aboard and wash through the passages of
Ii Ee furious dood nou,r
in the engine-rooms the motion of the
vessels plunging was not so apparent as
up above, but the machiniSts on the plat
form and the firemen feeding the furnaces
were often pitched from their stations by
the spring and heave of the great hull.
Boatswain's Mate Jessen, while engaged
in securing the lashings of boat that was
breaking loose, was lifted from his place
On the rail and washed overheard by an
unusually wild sea that swept across the
decks. He disappeared in an instant and
was never seen again.
The constant Jerking of the rifles
in their fastenings worked the heavy
pieces loose and some of them had to be
removed and the machine-guns placed be-
low. Several of the boats were badly
wrecked by the seas and number of the
crew were more or less injured by being
thrown by the waves against the steel
walls and partitions of the upper works
The gale finally moderated only to
spring up again more fierce than ever, and
for six days the great cruiser struggled
with the seas. She was fighting her battle
over again. The hatches, battery, boats
and everything movable were relashed and
secured for a second siege. During this
blow Carpenter Isaac Cooper was thrown
against gun and crushed.
His skull was fractured several bones
broken and otherwise fearfuly injured.
The battered officer never regained con-
sciousness, but died in the hospital at
Honolulu the day after the vessels ar
rival at that port.
During the gales all the fires were
lighted and the full strength of the Balti-
more's steam capacity tested. With all
this great power no perceptibe headway
could be made-she could only be kept bow
on 10 the sea. But her behavior was
magnificent, and, Notwithstanding the
deep, dangerous rolls which often laid her
decks vertical 10 the surface of the furious
ocean, not once did she slip from the control
of her people. She obeyed her helm like
a yacht in a ten-knot breeze and rode the
surges like big white swan.
When the cruiser came into Honolulu
harbor, on the sunny afternoon of Decem-
ber %, her battered and bedraggIed ap-
pearance told the story of u terrible struc-
gle with an AsiaIic gale, even before the
accounts of their twelve days and nights
of storm were given. Captain Day and his
officers were somewhat reticent regarding
the startling details of their perilous pas.