New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-10-14
A SHIP IN A CITY STREET.
SAN FRANCISCO HAS A WAREHOUSE
BUILT ON A STRANDED HULK.

The Front-st building which rests upon the
wreck of a beached ship may be the only one of
the sort in New York, but at least in one other
city there is similar structure, and locally a
better known one, for the reason that the build
ing preserves the name of the ship.
This is in San Francisco where none may
aspire to rank in the pioneer or "Forty-niner'
class unless he distinctly remember when
the water came up to Montgomery which
relatively to the present pier and bulkhead line
represents a distance much further inland than
tront-st in New-York At the time when
Montgomery-st had only one side. being in
reality the beach, the bay of San Francisco was
crowded with all sorts of ships lying idle for the
simple reason that all hands and the cook had
Skipped out for Suffers Fort and the mines. II
was impossible to get the ships discharged; men
"ouIo never consent to be stevedOres on the
oeach when they could be millionares at the
mines. That is why many of the cargoes were
never broached except when there was need of
something to fill up the mudholes on the beach
streets. No Argonaut would respect himself il
he could not tell of the time when he saw the
streets along the waterfront paved with plug
tobacco in boxes
One of this feet. abandoned and derelict af her
anchors. the good ship Mantle. parted her cables
IN one or the stiff winds for which the CoIden
6ate is notorious drifted ashore on the mud
nat at the foot of Clay-st.. and found a con-
Vehleht and sticky berth about hundred wards
of shore on the line of the present Sansome-st
me underwriters paid the loss for at the cir
rent rate of wages and the absence of labor il
would have cost half a dozen times her worth
TO get her off, and then she would he of no
use without sailors Having paid the loss. the
Underwriters In turn abandoned her and prob-
ably felt in luck that they were not called upon
by some owner of real estate to take the shin
away
The presence of the ship aided the sitting I'M Of
the mud Nat, and in short time it was awash
only at high tide. and finally dry all day long
Ihen II was recognized that this was a new adj
uItoh 10 the front OF the city, and some business
man TOOK possession of the ship and made it
over into warehouse. The vessel was sound in
every timber, spars all standing and sails on the
yards, the hold as tight as a drum. and if she
dld make as much as a foot a month n was
only a snort trick at the pumps to clear II out
In fact nothing could have been better for n
warehouse and general chandlery The hold
haue an excellent cellar. the floor of the second
story was supported by the lower masts at the
tops the roof was fixed at the crosstrees and
the royal masts left standing above the
roof. with the signal halyar1s ready rove. TO
serve for f1agstafs
Gradually the building was altered and
appeared from view, but the name Mantle was
MIXTURE and people entering the warehouse
continued to speak OF coming aboard or coming
over the side When the city decided To exnand
at the expense of the bay. and filled in the flats
ana formed Sansome and Battery and all the
other streets which have put the wreck of the
Mantle half a mile inland the filling in buried
out of sight the hull and channel plates of the
snip, and 1t ceased to resemble anything that
mad ever hOated When this first building went
into decay and was condemned, the old ship was
found to be the soundest part of it all. But it
was buried still deeper by the foundations of the
large and for that time modern building that
took it's place. Now there is nothing of the shin
left except the name of the building and the
old mainmast, which runs up from story to
story. and is used to support it's due share of the
weight. Some of the pioneers stOutIy aver that
the mainmast of the Mantle prophesies the COM
ing of gales upon the bay by the way 1t creaks
for two or three days before the wind comes and
that these forecasts are much more to he relied
on than the guesses of the Weather Bureau
CHINESE "NERTEI