The Republican journal., 1898-09-29
The Luzon's Voyage.
From Honolulu Around Cape Horn to
New York.

From Honolulu Around Cape Horn to
New York.
After facing many perils-real and
imaginary-the American clipper ship
Luzon, 143 days from Kalului, in the
Hawaiian Islands, dropped her port
anchor off the quarantine station in New
York upper bay last weel and Capt
J. G. Park, ler handsome and stalwaIt
commander, heaved sigh of satisfaction.
The vessel, sugar laden had been at sea
more than four and one half months, had
half encilcled the globe and had weather.
ed four mighty tempests with ne more
serious result than the loss Of little of
her canvas.
But it was not the weather that both
cred Capt. Park and the company of the
Luzon ON this voyage, 1t was the pos
sibility that the vessel and all on
board might be taken captive by some
''snealling Spanish privateer as the
skipper put it. 1t was this that made
the long trip one of the most intense
anxiety to all on board the clipper, for
while the LuZop was battling with the
storms the United States had begun aud
finished a victorious war with Spain.
The Luzon, vessel of l 800 tons aud
manned by a crew of y, left lNahului,
the port of the island OF Maui, on the
morning of April Both last War was
actually in progress then, and the news of
it penetrated even to China, but it had
not reached Hawaii. Hence Capt. Park $
misgivings when the clipper LETT the port.
''It was the uncertainty that made the
trip bothersome," F." said Capt. Park yester-
day. 81 made up my mind, though, that
we should not be caught mapping, and had
| lookouts posted to watch for the least
sign of a sail from the moment we left
! kahului. For the first fifty days we had
| light winds and exasperating calms and
we reached latitude 40 degrees south be-
| fore we had any kind of decent wind.
| "Then it came with vengeance, and
up to the time we made SO south we got it
strong. Then it developed into regu ar
blizzard, with snow, sleet and hail. We
had to heave- to for forty eight hours, and
for thirty hours of that time the ship was
fairly buried. The waves swept the en-
tire length of the vessel For eighteen
hours we kept them in check with oil bags
over the bows,
''But it blew heavy all the way to the
Horn, and for at least forty days we never
saw the main deck except in patches when
the water left it for an instant to be re-
| placed by another enormous sea. OH the
Horn we got another ripper, this time
from the northeast, and we had to beat
our way around and under short clothes
at that. | saw whole fleet OF vessels
running free to the westward of the Horn.
''When we reached the south Atlantic
| began to look for Spanairds in earnest.
All this time | was in doubt as to whether
any war existed, but | took no chances.
Every morning man was sent to the mast
| head to scan the ocean for signs of Span
| iards. But off Platte we ran into one OF
those spamperos,' as they call the sudden
storms, and for twentyfour hours we lay
hove-to under reefed lower topsalls.
ut was not until August that | heard
of the war; Then we spoke the German
bark Thalia, which signaled: war be-
tween the United States and Spain. 1t
gave us sort of shock to learn what we
expected was really so, but when | looked
at the matter it was clear there was only
one thing to do-keep on for New York.
''We caught the northeast trades in lat
itude y degrees north, and we were bowl
ing along under full sail and heading about
nor nor west on August 20 when Doug
lass, the first mate, came to me and an
nounced solemnly that Spanish priva-
teer was after us at last. There, to the
northwest, sure enough, was big, black
hulled steamer, cutting through the water
at fourteen knots and apparently heading
directly for us. As she came nearer sa"
that her decks were fairly black with men.
was prepared to surrender, for the Lu-
zon wasn't making more than six knots
when the stranger veered more to the east
ward and crossed our bows half mile
ahead She was probably transport
taking home the defeated troops, but she
didn't show any flag, and neither did we. y