The San Francisco call., 1899-07-24
GOLD HUNTERS
OF BOSTON HAD
A REAL HOODOO
That UnIuCky No. l3
Did 1t All.
SHIP LOST. MINERSSCATTERED
BRIG HARRIET G IS LOADING
e FOR NEW BRITAIN.
Mate of the Topgallant Minus Legs
From the Knees Down-Goes
Aloft Like the Best
Sailor Af1oat.
SHIP LOST. MINERS SCATTERED
BRIG HARRIET G IS LOADING
FOR NEW BRITAIN.

There was a remarkable coincidence
yesterday on the water front. Three ves-
sells that came here from the East with
gold hunters during the rush to the hlon-
dixie were all heard from at once, the
news from one bringing up the other two
and incidentally the whole fleet.
The schooner Rube L. Richardson, that
arrived here from Boston August l. 1898,
was the first to be heard from After
being provisioned here she sailed for
Resurrection Bay with her crew of gold
hunters but misfortune followed both
crew and vessel. The crew found no gold
and the vessel is buried under tons of
sand in Cooks Inlet. During the storms
of last winter she was driven on bar
and succeeding gales piled the sand
around and over her until now nothing
but her masts can be seem The news that
came from Cooks Inlet yesterday is 10
the effect that she is practically burieu,
and the schooner that cost the gold hunt
ers $4,000 in Boston was sold to a Cap
tain Newport for S1o0.
The number Is played a very i'm
portant part in the affairs of the Rube L.
Richardson and her crew. On August 2,
1898, The Call. in its account of the ar
rival of the schooner, said:
That unlucky number l3-it had no terrors
for the members OF the Commonwealth Mining
Company Of Boston. 1t Incorporated on the
18th, bought a schooner l3 years old started for
the voyage they killed 13 albatross caught lS
bonita, but the thirteenth member of the party
never reached San Francisco Nine days out
from Boston he was washed overheard during
a gale and his companions could do nothing
toward saving him. one moment they saw him
on the crest Of wave and the next he was
gone. Still they are full OF hope and every
man Of them expects 10 make a fortune in the
frozen north
Whether the number 13 has still
no terrors for them is hard to say, as
there are none of them here to answer.
Some are dead, some are still chasing that
will o the wisp, fortune, and all of the
living are broke.
gold hunters, but her passengers scat
tered soon after the vessel anchored off
Meiggs wharf. Since then the vessel has
been in the coaSung trade. Now, how
ever, she is loading at Hathaways wharf
for New Britain direct, the first vessel
that has eyer eyer cleared from San Fran
New Britain, is part of the German New
Guinea possessions, and is very sparSely
settled. German trading station is to
be established there and the Harriet @ is
taking down the lumber and supplies for
the place. She came here from Grays
HarbOr and discharged last week 40 900
feet OF lumber: a good deal of this was
taken out of the hold. and in the vacant
space all the merchandise will be slowed.
The matches viii then be battened down
and d deckoad of lumber taken aboard.
From New Britain the Harriet @ will go
TO Australia and there load coal for S-n
From the Harriet G it is only step to
the California drydock. and there the
bark Topgaliant is being sheathed and
painted. The vessel is in charge of the
mate Captain Hans J. Lunwaldt is
away on his honeymoon. Last Wednesday
Captain Hans asked for a holiday and
without saying a word TO his host of
friends on the water front quietly slipped
away and got married to Miss Louise
Gelmini.
The mate of the Topgallant is the man
q
and not Captain Lundwaldt. Mate Mich
olson came here as chief officer of the
schooner Mildred h. She also came from
Boston and carried party of gold hunt
ers. After arriving here on September l.
1898, the party broke up and some of them
went to the KIOndike via Puget Sound
and some Via St. Michael. The majority
OF them are now back in Boston, poorer
than they were year ago, but the mate
is still here.
Nicholson is the most remarkable man
that ever went before the mast to earn
d living. Both his legs are gone from d
little below the knees, and yet he can
climb the mast and take reef in sail
with the best sailor afiOat He is a first
class navigator, and a better seaman
never trod the quarter deck. He has cork
legs and feet, and. although he walks
little stiff, no one would ever know if not
told that there was anything the matter
When a lad of Z Nicholson was caught
in a disaster that resulted in the amputa-
ton Of both limbs below the knees He
had been brought up on the sea and did
not know where to earn a living if not
On shipboard The captain of the schooner
William Park took him with him as cabin
boy, and during his spare moments taught
him navigation. AS he got older the boy
went before the mast and soon could take
his trick al the wheel and go aloft with
the best OF them. When the Mildred
was fitted out to bring gold hunters to
California the party wanted a navigator
and Nicholson was engaged. Some terrible
weather was encountered during the voy-
age, but the schooner pulled through, and,
finally, after a passage OF 175 days from
Boston, San Francisco was reached
The Topgallant on the drydock towers
away up into the air. and it takes three
ladders spliced together to reach from the
floor of the dock 10 the vessels bulwarks
Yet the mate with his wooden legs went
up these swayng ladders as quickly as
a man with sound limbs could walk the
distance lnNel