The San Francisco call., 1896-05-28
CREASIEST THING
IN THE WORLD
The Oily Enoch Talbot Of
the Old Black Ball
Line.
CAME WITH PETROLEUM
Completely Saturated by the
Bursting of a Tank in
Her Hold.
sHEpS AN UNCTUOUS CHARM.
How the Crude Stuff Had It's Own
Way in the Hull of the
Vessel.
sHEps AN UNCTUoUs CHARM.

Nearly the greasiest thing in the world
at the present time is the old bark Enoch
Talbot, which arrived in port from Re-
dondo last Monday. Compared with her
a Pennsylvania oil we'll is soda-water
fountain and sperm whale refrigerator
Car.
All the alkali in the economy of chem
istry couldn't ''out out" the spot that COW
ers the Enoch Talbot from stem to stern,
keel to truck, clew to caring. Even the
winds that blow by her become fabricated
from their passage through the oleaginous
atmosphere and fly away all the faster
from the instant association.
She is so oily that she floats in calm of
her own making, for no wave can hold its
own against the unctuous charm she sheds
around herself.
Twenty-six days ago the bark started
from Redondo with 5000 barrels of crude
petroleum on board. The entire interior
of the vessels hull had been fitted up with
wooden tanks, into which the thick, tar
like fluid had been pumped.
She had head winds, Gains and bad
weather generally, which accounts for the
long passage of twenty-four days. a short
time out from port the pitching OF the
Talbot burst tank, letting almost 1000
barrels OF oil loose to roam around the
bark at pleasure.
1t may be said that that stuff in its crude
petroleum way made the most of the op-
portunity. When it couldn't flow freely
it seeped, and between the flowing and
seeping it managed to get pretty much
everywhere. The pitching and rolling of
the bark dashed the oil here and there
through the hull, forcing it where even
the most ambitious fluid would not care to
fn ernf int, he. hrls orxyifh he
water leakage, and when the vessel was
pumped out the oil came up through. the
pump well and ran out into the sea.
Every timber, ana 1t seemed that every
spar, block and rope was saturated, and
the oleaginousness rampant In that hold
reached as high as the royal trucks. 1t
didn't ooze out through the seams of the
Enoch Talbot, because she was an old
Black Ball packet, and ship with the
great black disk on her foretopsail. was
never known to wear out.
For several days no particular danger
threatened the oil-logged bark. She simply
rolled along working northward, and Cap
tain Johnson was careful not to drop any
burning matches down into that rather in
| fammable hold. But the leaning of the
! vessel over to leeward caused the heavy,
thick fluid to collect on that side, conse-
| quently the bark gradually acquired dan
gerous list.
I Everything solid that was movable was
shifted to the weather side, and the pumps
were set to work to help ease the bark.
Several hundred barrels of oil were run
overheard, smoothing the sea down for a
wide distance around the vessel. During
| the bad weather the steam pump at the
| m ain hatch broke from its fastenings and
fell into the hold, where it lay submerged
in the petroleum.
The bark finally succeeded in getting of
the harbor, where tug smelled her out
it is said. She is at the Arctic OIL Work:
getting rid OF her dangerous and inconve
nient cargo. The old craft is all right, but
she is about the greasiest thing in the
world.