Fort Wrangel news., 1898-10-26
riia VICTORIAN
Inspector A. Fleming an her Convoy ths Alpha. uc rslks interestingly oi the trip Co st.
 l.haels.


 in prctar Fleming was passenger on the Cottage city ta Sitka and re turn He was formerly from Oregon and ia a good conscientious officer. The principle business of an inspector on an American boat Is to keep liquors away from the Indians Our seat at the table was behind that of Mir. Fleming and We kept him pretty busy answer ing our questions upon such matters as We thought Woald interest our read CTS. Mr. Fleming says that klllisnoo Is the hardest place in this part of Alaska for an inspector. The boat laid there all night and the Inspector dldn't sleep during that time and tue Indians stay ed with him from the time the boat tied up until she left. The Indians at that place have whistling signs, and from the description given Us, he must have had hard night of it. They must have wanted some whiskey pretty bad ly to stay up all night long But you ask, "who lets them have it?" Some of the employees are always willing to run the chances of letting them have it.
 Inspector Fleming was on the Alpha during the trip to St. Miehaels where she conveyed the Victorian up to that place It will be remembered how the morning the Victorian left Fort Wran- gel for the north in company with some other river boats, and what a noise she made. It was early in the morning and she beloved and blowed until she woke up everybody in the town. A few days afterward she returned to this city with her back bro ken and some supertluous holes in her bottom. After few weeks hard work the ship surgeon got her in repair, and on the 18th of last August, at Il a. m, she started second time for St. Mi chael.
 That was quite a trip you had to St. Michael Can't you give me some lit tie account of the voyage?n was asked of the Inspector
 "Oh yes, I enjoyed it very much and we had nice voyage. After leaving Fort Wrangel we passed through the narrows and reached Frederick's straits where the Victorian broke casting which was repaired in about two hours On the 18th and 10th of August We had fine weather and on the latter date went into Frederick bay to native village named Hoonae which was re- markable on account of the number of dogs it contained.
 "We reached the main ocean at Cross sound and ran along about twenty miles from the shore. On Sunday the 21st the weather was thick-a heavy fog-and we made for Yakutat bay for shelter. Yakutat is an Indian village with two stores run by white men. There were thirty disappointed miners there. They crossed the glacier near there. That took three weeks time. They had to carry fuel with them and after enduring untold hardships, found nothing.
 NC lcio ehdb HidSS oh " "SbhNTNahJ and on Friday the 26th we encountered bad weather and heavy fog, and ran into Port Dick. Leaving there we ar rived at Karluk on the 29th. On the 31st it sformed all night and the an chors were out. The Victorian kept up full head of steam, man at the wheel and the engineer at the throttle during the entire night.
 q forgot to say that Capt. York was in charge of the Victorian and Capt. Lewis is her river commander. While at that place the two captains went to visit steamer that was anchored in the bay. They went to her in a small Whitehall boat and while returning to the Victorian, the little thing capsized. Capt. York couldn't swim, but Capt. Lewis saved him although he went down three times. The two men were rescued by small boat from the steam CT, by men who saw the boat turn over. They put the cranky boat on the Victo. rian, but as soon as Capt. York got able to be about. he took an axe and made kindling wood of it.
 "On Sept. 1st we reached Eyak Bay which is fine harbor. A cannery is