The San Francisco call., 1898-02-14
Five Sailors of the MOhi- can Got Drunk on
 Alcohol.
Four of the Naval Apprentices Have Deserted the Train
 ing Ship.
I.aroe Shipments of Opium and Oranges Arrived on the Gaelic
 From the Orient

States sloop of war Mohican are in disgrace, and the apprentice boys are not taking as kindly to discipline as was expected. The lads have not yet got used to confinement, and the sooner the vessel is got away on her cruise the better it will be for the boys. Five of the sailors, headed by the equipment yeoman. are in irons awaiting court martial, and four of the boys ran away the other day. A squad of marines Is now on their trail.
 Pure alcohol got the sailors into trouble. After shore leave they re- turned to the ship with a raging thirst which water could not quench. The alcohol for mixing the paint and gen. eral use on shipboard was handy. and the equipment yeoman had the key to the locker The drum in which 1t was kept was soon produced and two or three long swigs made the sailors feel at peace with all the world. Two or three more made them fighting drunk.
 AS a general rule they are the best behaved men in the crew, but the pure alcohol was too much for them and they raised such a disturbance that they finally had to be put in strait jackets. When they sobered up they were clapped into irons and are now in the brig cooling their heels, awaiting court-martial that will end in loss of pay and imprisonment.
 Since their advent on the old war ship the apprentice boys have been making things lively. Hammocks have been cut down when the persons oo- cupying them were in sound slumber; some of the crew were treated to a
 To1 { and pillow fights were of frequent oc- currence. The officers winked at many a breach of discipline among the boys, but when things began to go too far something had to be done In conse- quence some of the ringleaders were punished and assertions followed. Many of the lads who are joining as apprentices think their cruise on the Mohican will be a pleasure trip to the southern seas, and that they will have nothing to do but enjoy themselves. When they begin to find out their mis- take some of them begin to kick over the traces, but the big majority are settling down to their work and will be a credit to San Francisco. The officers of the Mohican have been chosen for their ability in handling boys, and it will not be their fault if every ap- prentice who sails away in the sloop of war does not return well verSed in Seamanship.
 Much has been written about the ad- vance in coal, and many people blame the dealers for the raise It is due however, mainly'to the fact that nearly all the coal carriers have been divert ed to the Klondike trade. The Wachu- sett and Invincible are making their last trips to the Sound, after which they will carry coal to Dutch Harbor. Nearly all the other colliers will follow suit in a month or so, and that will leave this market in a great degree de- pendent on the Australian supply When the last steamer left Sydney, N. s. w, there were three vessels loading at Newcastle, N. s. w, and ten on the way. The coal cargoes of the latter will aggregate about 27,000 tons. There are about forty vessels chartered to load at the same port, and they will bring about 100000 tons. but many of the vessels will not get here until the latter part of this year.
 Coal freights from Australia are firm at 15s. 6d., while last year at this time Is. Sd. was the ruling rate. It will thus be seen that what with the advance in freight and the scarcity of bottoms there is not much chance for cheap coal this year.
 The work of getting the Australia ready for the Klondike was being y useful only on tropical run were put on the wharf ready for transshipping to the Zealandia. Captain Charles Good all, Captain Bennett, superintendent of the Pacific Coast Steamship Company, and T. Turner, purchasing agent for the same line, went all over the ocean liner yesterday and noted everything which will be required to make her the finest vessel on the Dyea- -Skaguay route.
 The Zealandia will leave on the Aus tralias time for Honolulu next Thurs day and the Australia will get away for Puget Sound the latter part of this week. All of her crew with the excep- tion of Purser McCombe and pr. Soule will remain by the vessel. The Zea- landia will take new crew.
 The steam schooner Hermosa is the latest addition to the Klondike fleet She used to run between the Santa Catalina Islands and the mainland, but her owners thought there was more money in the Dyea-Skaguay trade so they have brought her to San Fran cisco to fit out. She will have some alterations made to her cabins and when all the repairs are completed she will have accommodations for over a hundred passengers.
 The steam schooner Alice Blanchard, en route from Port Los Angeles for Dyea and Skaguay. put in here last night to take on a number of passen- gers. She brought up ninety people, of whom four are women.
 The Occidental and Oriental Com panys steamer Gaelic arrived from Hongkong via Yokohama and Honolulu yesterday. She would have arrived in port last Saturday had it not been for the fog, which detained her outside thirty hours. The Gaelic brought out thirty-one cabin passengers and thirty one Chinese and five Japanese. Among her cargo is 462 cases of opium, valued at S2S7, ,000, the duty on which will be $110.SS0. This is the largest consign- ment of the drug which has come to this port for some time. There was also among the cargo 1924 boxes of oranges. all of which will have to be fumigated before they will be allowed to go into circulation.
 The schooner Sparrow arrived in port yesterday morning, eleven days from Eureka, under a jury rudder When off Cape Mendocino the vessel was caught in a gale and the rudder head carried away. A piece of spare timber was brought into use and the makeshift was made with which the schooner was steered into port.