The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1897-01-17
AN OPPOSITION
TOWBOAT LINE
Whitelaw's Old Wrecker Is
Doing Considerable
Work.
Has Brought in Four Vessels
During the Past Week
or Ten Days.
The Schooner Allen A Under Sail
Beat the Wrecker and Her Tow
in From the Heads

The wrecking steamer Whitelaw is be-
coming big factor in the towboat bust
ness. Friday last she brought in the Guy
c. Goss and yesterday the Forest Queen
was picked up near the Farallones. There
is no chance to do any work on the various
wrecks along the coast for the present, so
the owner of the vessel is determined to
do something. Rates have been slashed
and the red stack and black stack COM
panies do not like it. Whitelaw asserts
that he only lows in vessel when he can
not work on the wreck of the City of New
York, but as the Forest Queen makes the
fourth vessel he has brought in within a
week the tugboat captains are beginning
to get suspicious.
The Forest Queen from Tacoma and the
Allen from Tahiti were both outside
yesterday morning. The Queen accepted
the services of the Whitelaw and the Allen
A sailed in. Both vessels reached an
anchorage about the same time.
Chief Engineer Martin of the Corona is
a very sick man. He was seized with an
attack of the grip some days ago, and is
now confined to his bed. His place has
been taken temporarily by Chief Engineer
Robinson of the Pomona.
There is probably no man on the water
front doing more for the good Of the State
than Professor Craw, head of the Horti-
cultural Bureaus quarantine station at
the foot Of Clay street. Not a steamer
from a foreign port escapes him, and
every plant and every shipment of fruit is
examined before it is allowed to land. On
the Monowai, that got in Thursday night
from Australasia, there were eight crates
q AOv fran a Of NH Joh in
tested with the scale. They were dumped
overheard. On the Walla Walla there
was a large shipment of oranges which
had come from japan via Vancouver,
B. z. Before allowing them to land Pro-
lessor Craw determined to disinfect them
in order to make sure that none OF the
pests so fatal to orange groves got in with
the fruit.
Everything was ready with the excep-
ton Of putting the acids into the recepta-
Gle, when it was discovered that at least
twenty more boxes of fruit could be put
under the cover. By the time this was
done Professor Craw saw that the cyanides
in the Jar had settled down. He did not
want TO waste the precious stuff and de-
termIned to try how it would work. He
poured in the acids and the compound at
once boiled up and spurted all over him.
His clothes were burned in at least twenty
places and his hat was one mass of brown
patches, but strange to say neither his
face nor hands were injured. Had one
drop as big as a pinhead got into either
eve his sight would have been destroyed
forever. The disinfecting of the fruit was
finally accomplished, and the professor
had had until he examined his clothes an
hour later.
The reiuvenated Queen went out in
the place of the Santa Rosa yesterday.
The latter will go on the Union Iron
Works drydock for thorough overhaul
ing. In the spring the Queen will take
her old place on the Alaska excursion
route.
The Occidental and Oriental Steamship
Companys Coptic sailed for the Orie MT
yesterday with the largest shipment of
cotton that has ever gone out of the
Golden Gate. A belated lot of fifteen
bales got to the wharf a couple of hours be-
fore sailing Time but there was not
enough room anywhere in which to stow
have to wait for the Rio de Janeiro.
The Coptic also took away a large
quantity of flour, so that outside of few
tons of general merchandise the big
steamer was full of cotton and -four.
There was also full passenger list, the
majority of the travellers being for
Honolulu. Among the latter was Mrs.
w. w. Dimond, the observed of all 3D.
servers Quite numbe of her friends
were down 10 see her off, and when say
ing good by to them she asserted that she
would return thoroughly indicated and
triumphant within six weeks.
The steamer Empire has been sold to
Goodail, Perkins 81 Co.. and in future will
run between here and Coos Bay in con-
junction with the Arcata in the coal trade.
The Empire WAS sold by r. D. Chandler
to the North Pacific Steamship Company
and for some time has been running be-
tween Astoria and Coos Bay. Now that
she has been absorbed by Goodall, Per-
kins 81 Co., one of the lines that has been
diverting trade from this port 10 Oregon
will go out of existence. The Empire will
take the place OF the steel steamer Arago
that was lost some months ago.