The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-02-24
FROM KEEL TO
TRUCK SHE IS
ALL AMERICAN
=:
I he Erskine NJ. Phelps
Is a Beauty.
OREGON RACES TO HAWAII
SUPPLY SHIPS BREAK DOWN
IN MIDoCEAN.
OREGON RACES TO HAWAII
Trouble on the Cruiser Philadelphia.
Five of the Cruisers Crew Are
Sent Home From Honolulu
in Irons.

The four-masted steel bark Erskine NJ.
Phelps, the first sailing vessel ever built
In the United States of American STEEL
arrived from Baltimore yesterday on her
maiden voyage. The Phelps is Ameri-
can from keel to truck. jibboom to span
ker boom, and a more handsome craft
never sailed into the bay of San Fran
cisco. She made perfect picture as she
sailed up the bay with her snow white
canvas and black hull showing up in bold
relief against Marin's green hills.
A full description of the Erskine NJ.
Phelps was given exclusively in The Call
of August 80 last. Captain Graham, for
merly of the ship w. F. Babcock, is in
command of her, and he says a better or
faster ship was never launched. With
strong free wind she logs fourteen and on
the wind twelve knots an hour. She is
particularly good in light winds and to
every vessel met during the passage she
showed her heels.
1T was a disappointing voyage said
Captain Graham yesterday. In the At
lantic the prevailing winds were from the
north and southwest, but directly we got
into the Pacific the breezes came from
the north and the northwest Had L
been in the Babcock and encountered the
same weather we would not have reached
port TOT another month: on Staten Island
we had hard time Of 1t. Storm after
storm came down upon. us and when
calm followed | counted UP the damage
done. The fore royal mast was carried
away, the fore topgallant and skysail
yards were gone and the main royal mast
sprung. Besides this, we lost number
of the Horn we had another hard
time OF 1t. During snowstorm we lost
: Jan Lazinsky fell overheard from the
. miZZen topgallant sail and was drowned
When the man fell l at once luffed up
and lowered boat, but it was without
avail Lazinsky was heavily clothed on
account of the snowstorm and sank at
once.
I'm the Pacific we had to beat from so
to 80. In January we had remarkable
. experience. In latitude 2.34 south longi-
= tude lola west there was a violent dis
turbance in the bed of the ocean. 1t
seemed like an earthquake shock and the
Phelps seemed TO be humping over a
shOal of rocks. l was below at the time
and at once rushed on deck. Then I heard
loud rumbling noise and for a few min
% utes none of US knew what was going to
happen. It all passed away, however,
= and in few minutes you would not
know there had been a disturbance.
We spoke the Chilean ship Temuco
hfty-two days out from Iquique for Brit
ish Columbia, and after passing her 1t
was almost a continuous beat to port
From north we met nothing but north
winds and it took US ten days to make
port"
The cabin accommodations on the
Phelps cannot be surpassed. The cap
tain's quarters consist of a sitting room,
spare bedroom. Besides these, there are
six staterooms, the equal of any ocean
going steamer. They are fitted out in
q most tasteful manner and are sure to
. be occupied when the vessel sails again,
as she is going from here to Honolulu
=, to load sugar for New York.
Erskine N. Phe4Ds, after whom the YES
sci was named is an old friend of Ar
. thur NJ Sewail, owner and builder of the
. snip. After she was fitted out he pre-
sented Captain Graham for use on the
: ship magnificent dinner service, all the
necessary silverware and cut glass and
frrn oil tor
The Pacific Mail Company's City of Pc
king arrived from the Orient yesterday.
the japanese gunboat Amagi Kan. The
Picking lost thirty feet Of her port rail
and one of her lifeboats, while three of
her plates were dented. Repairs were
made at Hongkong and the mail boat is
now as good as ever. A very handsome
testimonial was presented to Captain ].
; GOODNESS and skill with which he handled
his vessel during the collision. The Jap
. anese warship did not wait to see what
damage she had done, but hurried away
under full head of steam.
The Picking brought up eighteen cabin,
thirty-four second cabin and forty-three
Chinese steerage passengers Among
. those IN the cabin were Lieutenant Con-
rad, John D. Williams and Colonel W. S.
ton Mansfield S. G. Magii and II. NJ. Jen-
sen, U. S. N. Mr.. Mansfield was one of
the engineers on the supply ship Iris and
The battleship Oregon arrived at Homo
lulu from Callao on February s. but it was
six days later before her supply boats
made port. The Iris and Scindia had
hard time of it. When the Galapagos
were reached it was found that the Iris
boilers were leaking and that very little
steam could be made. The captain of the
battleship came to the conclusion that
the best thing he could do was to make
for Honolulu at full speed and leave the
Scindia to take care of the Iris. All went
we'll with the supply ships for twenty
four hours after the Oregon had raced
away and then the crown sheets of the
Scandals boilers gave way. The two
boats made their way TO Honolulu like
ducks with broken wings to find that the
. oregon was in port six days ahead of
them The battleship was almost clean
out of coal when she arrived and had to
take on supply at once, as she could not
take chances on the arrival of the Scfn-
dia.
The cruiser Philadelphia arrived at
Honolulu on February II from San Diego.
She was expected to remain a week in
port and then proceed to Samoa. There
Was considerable dsaffection among
the cruisers crew and five of the ringlead-
ers were sent back here in irons aboard
the Picking. They will be taken to Mare
Island to-day and court-martialed
The British ship Inchcape Rock arrived
from Cardiff yesterday. During the pas
sage J. S. Outbridge, one of the crew