The San Francisco call., 1899-05-31
The Message Consigned to the Ocean in Bottle and
Which Went Ashore in Portage Bay Alaska

was received from Kodiak, Alaska, yes
terday by the Merchants Exchange. 1t
was memorandum from the chief officer,
stating that the vessel was sinking and
the crew was taking TO the boats. The
memorandum was put in a bottle some
time in October, 1897, and was picked up
on the 18th inst. on the beach at Portage
Bay. Alaska, by the master of the sealing
schooner Herman and sent to San Fran
CISCO
The memorandum was written on the
form used by Dodwell, Carill & Co. (now
Dodwen & Co, Ltd of Hongkong. agents
for the Northern Pacific Steamship Com
pany, and was as follows:
s. S. Pelican.
Latitude 50 north, longitude 10 west
The ship is sinking We are leaving her in
fFaii Ooa's Feqss PSfERsoN TfRasi SS Chief OFFICER
Port Townsend Wash, U. S. a.
The letter accompanying the above was
as follows:
KODIAK. Alaska, May Is, 1899
To Merchants Exchange, San Francisco:
Inclosed please find letter extracted from a
bottle and picked up the 18th of May on the
beach in Portage Bay, on the peninsula OF
Alaska. Latitude 81 degrees "a minutes north,
longitude l55 degrees 35 minutes west. II will
probably throw some light on the mystery of
a missing vessel, probably the Pelican;
Master American Schooner Sch el Herman. inia
The Pelican was an English tramp
steamer owned by f. S: Whealler of
Northern Pacific Steamship Company
She took a cargo of general merchandise
from Hongkong to Puget Sound and then
Taku, China. She sailed from Gamble
on October 8, 1897, and was never seen
again. On February 8, 1898, she was given
up as lost and Lloyds posted her as miss
after leaving the Sound. the captain
must have taken the great circle route
to China. The bottle that was thrown
overheard took northwest course and
after covering 400 miles of latitude and
1895 miles of longitude landed on the
beach in Portage Bay.
the Japanese steamer Kagoshuma Maru
the barkentne Skagit and schooner Ma
weema were out in a fearful storm off
her cargo shifted and nearly went down.
the barkentine was badly battered and
the Maweema had to send several of her
Tacoma, they having been injured during
the gale on March %, 1885, the British
ship Falkirk reached Tacoma from Shang
hal and Captain Hemes reported passing
a waterlogged lifeboat off the Aleutian ISL
ands. 1t was a lap-streaked boat and
was generally supposed to have belonged
Pacific people after looking into the mat
ter said it was not one of the Pelican 8
boats. The steamer carried a crew of
forty all told and Captain Cove was in
The Pelican was built in 1882 by Bar
clay, Curle & Co. of Glasgow for Scatter,
White & Co. of Leith She ran for a
number of years on the Atlantic and
then was Sold her new owners changing
her name to Anvers. She was again sold
to E. S. Whealler of Hongkong, who re-
named her the Pelican and placed her in
the China trade. She was 1888 tons gross
and 1889 tons net burden, 327 feet inches
long, sc feet 8 inches beam and 27 feet
deep.
AS a verification of the foregoing,
dispatch was received late last night
from Tacoma saying: IN. T. Patterson
was chief officer of the missing steamer
Pelican His family resides at Port
Townsend"
sailed for Manila yesterday with the Of
ficers and men Of the Sixteenth Infantry.
The vessel was ready to sail last Monday
night, but as the men had not received
any money for two months, the Govern