The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-01-15
Will Alternate With
the Mail Boats.
TERN OF HIS NATURAL LIFE"
SENTENCE GIVEN AN AMERI-
CAN CAPTAIN IN CHINA.
British Ship Troop Set on Fire in
Yokohama Harbor = Narrow
Escape of the Coquille
River.

The Togo Kisen Kaisha Oriental Steam
ship Companys) fine new steamer Nippon
Maru arrived in port yesterday morning
on her initial voyage. A description of
the vessel and her sister ships, the Amer
lea Maru and Hongkong Maru, was pub
lished exclusively in The Call three
months ago. The Togo Kisen Kaisha, the
Pacific Mail and the o. and 0 companies
have joined issues in the trade with
Japan and China, and in future each con-
Germ will run three steamers on a COM
bined schedule.
The Nippon Maru is not a very hand
some boat, but her officers say she is fast
and very comfortable. AS told exclusively
in The Call last month, she has two sets
of officers Captain f. r. Evans is in su-
preme command, but under him are three
European and three Japanese officers,
while a similar state of affairs exists in
the engine room. Captain Evans holds
a Japanese as we'll as an English certifi-
>cate. but the engineers and other white
officers do not. When the Nippon Maru
went into commission in England her
crew was shipped for year. Now the
Japanese law provides that a vessel fly
ing the Japanese flag must be differed
by men having a japanese certificate. The
Englishmen would not pass the Japanese
examination, the company could not dis
charge them and so in order to comply
with the law officers with Japanese IL
censes had to be added to the crew. And
that is how the Nippon Maru carries two
sets of officers on deck and two in the en-
glne room.
+. The Nippon Maru brought up 60 cabin
and II second-class passengers, besides
10 Japs and II Chinese in the Storage.
After leaving Yokohama a northeast
storm was run into that tested the
sea-going qualities of the vessel to the
utmost For thirty-six hours it blew a
hurricane and the ship was hove to. The
cargo shifted, and when the gale was over
the crew was called in to trim ship. The
men refused, because 1t was Sunday, and
they were not called upon to work that
Gay Finally the officers persuaded them
to trim the cargo on a promise Of extra
pay 1t took the Nippon Maru II days
and hours to make the run from Yoke
hama to Honolulu. For fourteen days
Purser w Magee was down with a fever,
but is now on the road to recovery.
Among the. passengers by the Nippon
Marie. agents of Aguinaldo, who are on
their way to Washington. They took
passage on the steamer at Yokohama, and
are in hurry. A Secret Service Agent
of the Treasury took considerable inter-
cts in their arrival yesterday.
The Nippon Maru brings the news OF
the firing of the British ship Troop IN
Yokohama harbor. The vessel arrived
from New York early in December and
on the night of the 14th she was found
TO be on fire. AS her cargo consisted OF
coal oil there was a wild scramble among
the shipping to get out of the way Sew
eral of the English ships sent assistance,
and crews from the men-of-war in port
rendered valuable aid. After the fire had
been put out an examination showed that
some of the cans of oil had been opened
with II knife and lot of sails in the laza-
rette saturated with oil and fired. Emil
Gorig, who had been shipped in New York
as an able seaman but had been pro-
NOTED to boatswain during the passage,
was suspected. He was seen going down
the ventilator into the hold. and the blade
of his jackknife just fitted the holes in
the oil cans. He was arrested, and on a