The San Francisco call., 1898-12-01
THROUGH .|CE
 AND SNOW AND
 FALLING STARS Hard Luck Voyages of Four Big Vessels. HAYDN BROWNS CLOSE CALL VERY NEARLY WENT ASHORE
 ON POINT DIABLo. Shenandoah Just Escaped Meteor. Afon Alaw in the Ice-Scottish
 Hills Forced to Come
 Via Good Hope.
HAYDN BROWNS CLOSE CALL
VERY NEARLY WENT ASHORE
 ON POINT DIABLO.

Four deep-water vessels reached port yesterday with tales of many perils es- caped. The bark Haydn Brown made a good run from Departure Bay only to narrowly escape destruction on Point Di- ablo. The Scottish Hills encountered such a succession of gales off the Horn that Captain Blackmore gave up the attempt to round it and squared away for the Cape of Good Hope. The Shenandoah had a narrow escape from an iceberg and was nearly struck by meteor, while the Afon Alaw had time that Captain Thomas is not likely to forget in a hurry.
 The British ship Eton Hall left Swan sea two days before the Afon Alaw and on September she had to put into Rio de Janeiro with her decks badly damaged and her boats gone. The Routenburn left Swansea four days after the Afon Alaw and on September she also put into Rio de Janeiro with her cargo shift ed and some damage to the ship.
 In talking about the voyage of the Afon Alaw Captain Thomas said: "We had bad weather from the start. Off the River Platte we had two strong gales with a very high cross-sea. The wind in one of them shifted suddenly from southwest to southeast without any warning or moder- ation of the gale. This put the ship broadside on, and 1t being very dark it was impossible to wear the ship around until daylight. In the meantime heavy sea struck her and threw the cargo over to leeward, giving the ship very heavy list to port, although shifting-b boards were fixed the same as for wheat cargo. The next morning the weather moderated, the ship was wore and put on the port tack. Part of this day and the next day the crew was employed in trimming the cargo"
 The captains log continues as follows:
 On approaching the cape the wind strong from west-southwest, we kept to the south ward. In latitude 59 south wind fresh from east with blinding snow when the lookout the ship up starboard tack, with her head about north. When it cleared up we found the icebergs reported were small ice floes but i'm mediately after found we were almost hem med in by pack ice. Got canvas reduced as soon as possible to three lower topsails and foresails. From the topgallant yard pack or field ice reported all around as far as could be seen from the northwest by southwest to southeast. There were several sruall fields. which passed through, none of these being solid enough to damage the ship;
 At midnight a fearful blizzard came down of wind, snow and sleet. Got the foresail hauled up but could but partly furl 1t, 1t frostbitten. At daylight some large icebergs were sighted our lee bow, on which we were drifting. To make sail on the ship frozen up so that in some cases the ropes and blocks seemed to be all one. The brace bump
 
 main rail belaying pins and ropes one solid of ice, Decks had cover of ice which in places was over a foot thick The ice on deck had forced out the ports on each side, so instead of ports large lump of ice filled the space and stood out of the side a couple of feet By the of capstan' bars and other things were able to clear away three staysails and set then and by that means got a little headway on her and passed to the windward of the largest berg, which was about 300 feet high and a mile from end to end. We kept drifting all night through the only passage visible. the. pack ice was to the west and south and icebergs to the northeast and north Next day the wind came from the Mauls, handspikes and crowbars were used to cat up the ice on deck.
 In conclusion Captain Thomas said tl.at in all his experience of twenty-four pas sages to the westward around Cape Horn he had never before met pack ice, nor had he ever before seen the blocks, rails and ropes frozen so as to be unfit for use.
 The Shenandoah from Baltimore had a similar experience to the Afon Allow off Cape Horn. Her most exciting experi- ence was with a meteor, however "I never saw such a meteor before,'' said Captain Starkey yesterday, and at one time it looked as though 1t was going to strike the Shenandoah. It came sailing through the heavens. great big green ball with long trail of fire behind 1t. Had 1t struck the ship it would have been all. day with us and another vessel would have been posted at Lloyds as missing It sailed over our head. however, and exploded before striking the water some distance away. We saw the fragments as they scattered, but we did not hear any sound.
 Tt was most beautiful and yet fear