The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-02-13
A PHILADELPHIA SHIP NEWS MAN.
Episodes of Life Spent in Lying Abou
Caves and Reaches of Sandy Beaches.

PHILADELPHIA SHIP NEWS MAN.
Episodes of Life Spent in Lying Abou
Caves and Reaches of Sandy Beaches.
When there isn't a jolly crowd on board
the day of the trial trip, the boat that is
to make the trial might just as well turn
back to her pier and wait for more au-
spicious day. Any old sailor will vouch
for that. A big steamship started out for
her speed trial from the yard in Philadel-
phia the other day and there was a jolly
crowd aboard, and that is why--so the old
heads said-she made her II or IS knots so
easily and came back to her pier safe.
The jolliest, best-natured man in the
Philadelphia characters: he was a ship
news reporter or a ship news editor, for
he acted in the capacity of reporter, edi-
tor, advertising agent and everything else
at one time. There is no need of giving
his name here.
What that ship news man didn't know
about shipping interests in general and
Philadelphia ship news in particular
wasn't worth knowing.
Say, boys" he remarked, as the ship
was going down the Delaware, that
clear of it. That's the town which has
whipping post and uses 1t every Saturday,
If any one is fool enough to get caught
in a misdemeanor in the place. I went
down there in palace car one time to
report prizefght and the sheriff was
there to stop the fight. a.jF'r
YOU'RE a fool to stop this said to
him. It's money out of my pocket if this
doesn't come off,
m he ie
whipping post. You have probably heard
of 1t. You are an enemy to the morals of
this town, and I'll give you "a hours to
get out
There was a crowd of church people
around and they looked really wicked so
1 concluded I'd start at once. I ran down
to the nearest pier. jumped into a leaky
rowboat and boarded an inbound tug. 1t
took me just two minutes and 45 seconds
to leave"
Then the ship news man bit off some
deep sea tobacco and thought awhile.
'These trial trips are great thing;
they have saved my life many times" he
continued MANY a time when know I'd
have to go home in tipsy condition and
meet my wife I'd write myself postal
card something like this, but in another
mans handwriting:
Dear Blank: There is to be trial
trip of the schooner Prickly Heat to-day.
Come with US.
"'CAPT. WIN. H. SCRATCH
std show the card to my wife and she'd
say, All right; suppose there has to be
little liquor on every trial trip And
that would end it.
This ship news reporting Is a great
thing. 1 used to go down the river every
morning in a rowboat, getting a lift on
any outbound boat. and then catch those
that came in. One day I saw an old
schooner coming in and l got over the
rail-
'Mornin'.' said to the captain. and he
said 'Mornin'.'
"'This is the ship Sarah B., isn't it?' I
asked, and he said it was.
"'Where from-Rockland, Me?
Eyes he answered. with a cargo of
lime Nobody ever heard of anything
else coming from Rockland).
"'Where you consigned to?' l asked.
Baltimore Company
"'Never heard of that company here
remarked.
"Waal. young man, there's lots of
things you amt heard of. Now. here's
this darn old pesky river Been ashore 16
times in IL hours. Sometimes wrong with
this pesky chart or your darn old river I
began to think I wuz drivin mules in
stead of steerin' a boat
"Let's see your chart, said I. and we
went below I'll be swigged If that old
fool wasn't steering up the Delaware by
a chart of the Chesapeake. He thought
he was coming into Baltimore. Say, how's
that?"
The crowd all said it was all right. 1t
had surely been tod plausibly
cover there" said the ship news man,
pointing with his finger, sis the Blank
line pier. That lines got the greatest
boat in the country. She's been over her
route SO many times that she doesn't need
a crew any longer Why, one night some
boys cut her adrift for fun and she made
the whole trip without break-19 stops in
all-and turned up at her pier the next
day.
you people evidently don't believe that
story, do you? Well, it's gospel truth.
Why, one night this same boat was going
up the river and she kept running on
shoals and rocks on every turn or bend
Whoa, there! yelled the first officer
to the captain If she runs over another
rock like that she'll scrape her whole
burned bottom OFF,
Bottom. nothin', yelled the captain.
She amt had no bottom for seven years
And that wasn't far off, either" con-
cluded the ship news man. Now, let's
all go into the life-saving station"
And they did. An odd thing was that
all the corks were out of the "preserv-
rs."-New York Sun.