The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-02-17
OIL WELL OUT AT SEA.
MADE A SAFE HARBOR 1WO MILES
FROM 4 ROCKY SHORE.
Queer Entural Wonder OF the Cali
fornia Coast, Where u ship Anchored
During Severe Storm ana safeiy
Rodely Rode Out the Gale.

fornia Coast, Where ship Anchored
During Severe storm and Safely
Rodcly Rode Out the Gale.
mo, I've never seen a sea serpent,
but I've seen things more curious" said
an old sea captain.
what was the curiousest thing l
ever see? Wal, that's hard to say, but
there's the cruise / made from san d.
ego to Monterey with the yacht Foam
I'll never forget it, though it was years
ago.
II was in San Diego at the tlme'
waitin' for a job, when man came to
me and asked If I would take yacht
up to Monterey, deliver her there, anu
take twenty men who wanted to go up.
II said would the terms bein' good,
and I found l could charge the laborers
a decent price and make something out
of it, so off we started one bright morn
ing.
"The laborers were railroad men, &C.
in IN TO work on new road, ana the
second day out were al! SO SICK that
they swore they would run the yacht
inshore-anything to get out of 1t.
IT finally put in at San Pedro and let
those go that wanted to, ana put out
again with about six.
IT had never been up the coast, ana
so left matters in the hands OF my
mate, whom l had shipped for the pur-
pose--a bright Norwegian.
I'VE reached Ventura the second day,
hi q -
creased; but we kept at it, passed Ana
capa, and right in the Santa Barbara
channel caught 1t for all 1t was worth.
1t blew so that we got all sail Off the
schooner but enough to keep her to the
wind and the men-the landlubpers--
We're beside themselves with fear.
'All this seemed to set the mate era
w and he drove them to the ropes and
made every man stand and take 1t. l
felt that there was no danger, but the
wind suddenly picked up and blew IN
shore, and the sea rose so that ! finally
made UP my mind that the yacht
couldn't stand it; she took so many seas
that she nearly turned over.
II had talk with the mate. who said
he could put us in smooth water in
, swamp if he put her before it. I told
him I'd take the chance. Then ne
shouted, Rig on the extra hawser to
the chain down below!
IT saw that it was done and then we
gradually got before the wind.
ut was awful and I thought we'd go
down a dozen times but she seemed to
get over it, yet we headed directly in
shore the mate in the riggin' givin'
directions to me at the wheel.
suddenly he cried, 'Luff bring her
up!' and up she came into the wind, and
If it hadn't been that my man was
dashed to the riggin' we'd have all gone,
as a big green wave swept clean over,
three feet deep.
1.-THE moment she got ahead to the sea
he let go the anchor-the Lord knows
how deep it was-out went the chain,
then the hawser, and we began to drift
astern.
II began to think we'd have to cut
away when what was next to miracle
happened. The sea went down like
magic. We We're still in heavy sea,
but the surface for one hundred feet
about us was as smooth as glass, and
there we lay as comfortable and dry as
you please while on each side were ter
rife waves.
oval said the old captain, pausing
a moment at the recollection, 1T scared
the men half to death; they all thought
there was something uncanny about 1t;
but finally when everything had been
made snug the mate came down below,
laughing over what he called his snug
harbor out to sea.
"'We're all right If the anchor holds,
he said, and it's pretty sure to, as it's
rock bottom
tive known this for long time he
continued. You see, this is great OIL
country, and right here. two miles Off
shore, is an oil spring that would be
fortune to some one ashore. 1t Is prob
ably a fresh-water stream that rusnes
upward, bringing oil with it, which
spreads out over the surface, at times
covering four or five hundred feet or
course, the oil keeps the sea down-sim-
pie enough when you know it,
"And so it was" said the skipper.
give visited the place several times,
and some days you see the water rising
up so hard that the surface looked
higher than the rest, and the oil would
cover the water for two or three hun
bred feet around, changing with the
days and. seasons seemingly; sometimes
bein' very small, again large, but al
ways maxim a perfectly smooth spot
in which a boat could lie in storm II
she could be kept in it.
TITS about two miles off shore, as
near as can judge, and on line with
the Santa Barbara point north of the
city and San Miguel island All this
country is underlaid With oil and as
phaltum, and they are boring wells as
far out into the water as they can get.
1--WE lay in that floating oil patch all
night, then the wind let up and we got
sail on her and went on
Old sailors on the Atlantic, especial
" those on the south coast east Off
Florida, know similar spring that has
often surprised seamen.
1t Is told that smack which had
| sailed from Mystic, Conn, for Florida,
had been beaten back by the heavy
winds so long that the water casks gave
out, and they were in bad shape. But
one day the skipper ran inshore about
mile or two from the reef, and lowering
keg into a small boat rowed to spot
in the open ocean, which he found by
certain points on shore. and told the
men to fill the key. They thought the
old man was daft, but when they saw
him drink some of the water, dipping