The San Francisco call., 1898-03-05
New York Party Known to Have Been Aboard the
 Vessel.
THE WHITELAW ASHORE.
In the NsrrOvvs Nine Miles From Juneau.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

JUNEAU, Alaska, March 1 (by steamship City of Seattle. via Victoria, B. C.. March 4).-Another searching party which went to the scene of the awful wreck of the Clara Nevada has returned without results. AS previous ly predicted, it Is now certain beyond the possibility of hope that not a soul survived this. the worst disaster of the Klondike rush.
 Attorney A. Nj. Reed of Portland, ~ Or, arrived here last Thursday to make as thorough an investigation as possible in the interest of insurance companies and also to look for bodies. He chartered the small steamer Rust Ter, which carried the previous search ing expedition and after nearly three days spent in the vicinity of the wreck returned without a word to add to the information already known. Not corpse was found. It is the rule that bodies of people drowned in Alaska seas are never recovered. Once drowned they never rise to the surface. . It is impossible to tell into what sub terranean caverns the deep undertow and currents carry them; and then the waters are filled with sharks. which swim In both depths and shadows.
 The wreck is still on the reef on Eldredge Point and is rapidly break ing up. The sides are going to pieces and part of the main deck Is gone. In the next hard blow all of the wreckage will disappear.
 It is now known that a New York party. which was returning to Seattle to advise friends by wire which of the Lynn Canal passes to take to the Yu- kon was aboard, but as usual names are wanting. The life insurance com panfesaare in luck, because it will be hardly possible to prove who the dead are. Hundreds of Klondikers have ta- ken out some kind of an insurance pol icy. Life and accident insurance agents are aboard many of the larger steam ships bound north.
 This morning at o'clock, in a dense fog, the well-known wrecker. White law went ashore on the Sheep Creek sand spit, about ten miles below Ju- neau. She had a narrow escape from destruction, and is not safe yet. A heavy sea was running. The sand spit, instead of a reef of rocks. is the White laws salvation if she is pulled off to- night at extreme high tide The weather is unusually clear to-day, and she can be seen from the Juneau docks well in shore, with bad list to port. The ship was noticed early this morn ing from the Treadwell Mines.
 There being no small boat at Juneau to-day which could be chartered for a short trip, the identity of the stranded ship was not known till late this aft ernoon. At that time the Douglas Isl- and ferry brought over several pas sengers who had left the ship and made the island in a small boat. They told Captain Yorke of the ferry that the Whitelaw was not considered in a pre- cariOus position unless a high wind rises so as to blow her harder on the shore. She is right in the path of winds. than which there are no harder in Alaska-near Taku Inlet. The Taku winds are known and feared by every old Alaska sea captain. Captain Car roll once said that they would blow the buttons off a mans duster, but as high tide Is coming on at this writing 6 p. m.) and there Is no wind it is prob able that the Whitelaw will not be compelled to assist at the wrecking of herself, but may live to reap salvage from other wrecks as well known as the Columbia a1 Pigeon Point, the St Paul in Monterey Bay and the collier San Benito at Point Arena.
 The passengers are not mary and were not greatly alarmed. Taa cap tain of the Whitelaw thinks he can draw her off himself at high tide.
 The Whitelaw is bound from San Francisco and Seattle with a heavy Klondike cargo for Dyea and Skaguay
 Last week as she was coming into Ju- neau channel during a hard blow the steamship Oregon was lifted bodily by wind and sea and deposited on the sloping shore of Douglas Island She got off next day without serious in- jury. The bark Canada was also ashore at Skaguay, but was saved by the little steamship Coleman.
 John Housted. passenger aboard kA ffala fal, fr1I+ the passengers on the Whitelaw. fear ing that the crew lacked experience, signed a petition asking Captain Lock- : tiere to put into Seattle, Port Town send or Port Angeles for a pilot and take the inside passage
 He said there was much confusion among the crew aboard the ship on the trip up; that the water barrels were left open, and the sea coming aboard off Cape Flattery spoiled the water. A pilot was taken aboard at Port An geles
 In coming through Wrangel Mar rows yesterday morning with the ship -' drawing only thirteen feet of water and the buoys in plain sight, the ship ran aground and tore off her shoe. She drew off successfully, but on the voy- age up she lay over every night in safe waters.
 The Whitelaw left San Francisco on February r with IA people aboard including the crew. Housted, who is a Scotch sailor bound for the Klon- dike, said that instead of trying to make headway this morning in the fog the ship should have hove to until the weather cleared. The Whitelaw was several miles out of her course. She should have been close to Douglas Island. whereas she was over on the main land side, whence projected the sand spit Housted said it was lucky for the ship that she ran on sand in stead of rocks He thinks there is no doubt that she can draw off all right.
 At 10 o'clock tonight the wind be- gan to rise and the Whitelaw had not aDnaarad fy1 nOrt