The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1897-01-09
THE PoTRIMPos
stni Lies High and Dry on the Sands u
NOrth Beach

Captain Hrach. of the German bark
who succeeded Captain He'll
wege. now In - Mary's hospital. re-
ports that he has not yet succeeded n
sscuring a new crew for his ship. In
fact. he does not need crew just now.
az there h little prospect Of lmmedi-
ately floating the vessel and 20 long as
there IL good cook aboard and plenty
10 eat AMI drink. there IL little else
10 be desired.
should the weather settle down In a
few days. Captain Hirnch win secure a
new crew In order 90 take advantage
Of tide and weather providing he Sc
cures such orders from his OwnerS One
large anchor and twenty-five fath0ms
Of chain are out. and with little addl-
tional work other lines could BE- put
out and the ship brought on with a
good high tide.
In speaking Of his vessel Captain
Hlrsch says that She Is owned With
fifteen other ships by r. Laeirz. OF
Hamburg. Germany In the fleet is
the celebrated iive-master Potosi Cap
tain Hllgendorf. which made the cele-
brated voyage from Bremen TO fqulqul
and rvturn to Hamburg In Ave months
and twenty-One days. The Potrimpos
made the same voyage In hve months
and twenty-slN days, and on one Ooca-
sion sailed from 20 south In the Allan
tic to 30 south In the Pacific. 10 four
teen days Getting around the Horn
is only a matter Of knowledge and ex-
strictly In line with those In vogue in
the United States government depart
ments under the civil service act A
master Of vessel is never appointed
from the outside but the first mates
In line are always chosen. A mate
must serve his apprenticeship through
out all Of the departments. The house
nag bears the initials IF. L." and the
ships are noted for their fast sailing
qualities
Captain Hirsch tells a very interest
ing story OF their approach to the Col
umbla river, and how the vessel was
driven Ia the north and on TO the beach
during southwest gale by a strong
current which was not noted on the
chart II was ON watch when We sight
ed the llghtship. but seeing no pilot
or tugbaat we did not dare to sail in,
but stood OF at what We thought 90 be
safe distance. When | went below
and Captain Hellwege took the deck.
everything seemed TO be In good order.
but we got into the strong current and
while our lead and chronometer calcu-
lations showed that We were safe dis
tance on shore. before We could realize
out situation the breakers loomed up
in the fog. II was then impossible to
wear ship and get out OF danger. The
next big swell carried us on the sands
The rest OF the story you know. By
careful management succeeded in
lowering a boat and putting of before
It was smashed against the sides OF
the ship | carried with me line and
thus established connections between
the ship and the shore All hands were
safely landed | went to the life-savlng
station and procured their aid, but
there was nothing that could be done
After the crew struck on us we decided
to pay them off and let them go.
attribute the whole Of our trouble to
the fact that no sailing directions ap-
pear on the chart concerning the strong
current which prevails under certain
conditions off the Washington coast.
The German ship Carl very narrowly
escaped the same trouble We had"