New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-02-19
WALDERSEE FLOATS OUT.
STORY OF THE GROUNDING
TOLD BY THE PILOT.
THREE TUGS WENT DOWN THE BAY, BUT
THE SHIP WAS MOVING OUT
WHEN THEY CAME IN
SIGHT OF HER
SIGHT OF HER.

SIGHT OF HER
The Graf Waldersee. after a stormy night on
a sandbar within Sandy Hook. succeeded yester-
day morning a S:06 o'clock in safely reaching
the ocean. Three tugs, with Superintendent Ed
mund Bardenhauser, of the Hamburg American
Line, and his aboard, lay astern several
miles further up the bay-as near as they
able to get to her-waiting until there should be
no speck left on the horizon by the big ship.
Then. with the relief which comes with the as
surance of safety after night of uncertainty
and doubt the boats FASTENED back to the city.
Captain John Shocks, who pioted the Graf
Waldersee out to sea yesterday, was found by
a Tribune reporter at his home, at No. $50
Madson-st., Brooklyn. late last night Captain
Shocks was in bed when the reporter called.
Putting his head out of the window on the sec
ond floor of his home, the captain inquired who
there and when he was told that 1t was a
Tribune reporter he consented to down
and give the true story of the grounding of the
Waldersee to the Tribune Captain Shocks said
that after he had taken the vessel over the Bar
yesterday morning and out to sea he boarded
the pilot boat New-York and then transferred
to the tugboat Lawrence and came back to the
city about noon. He reported to the New-York
pilot office. in the Chesebrough Building,
where he left his oil clothes, and then returned
to his home in Brooklyn.
DRIFTED AGROUND, DID NOT RUN.
Captain Shocks said that the WaIdersee had
drifted and not aground. He declared that
on Saturday night very few of the passengers
knew that the vessel was aground. Continuing
the captain said that time had been lost in
the vessels trip, when the Waldersee had left
Hoboken it had been the intention to anchor
overnight at the Southwest Spit.
The grounding O the vessel the DilOt said was
due to the starboard screw catching the chain OF
the spindle buoy which marks Knickers Knoll
where the Swash Channel leaves the main chan
mel, proceeding to the Southwest Spit.
The narrative of Captain Shocks regarding the
grounding is as follows:
We started little after 10 o'clock Saturday
morning from Hoboken We calculated to
anchor at the Southwest Spit. When we reached
the Swash Channel the snowstorm was fierce.
1 stood out on the ships bridge in the binding
snOwstorm. l could not than two
lengths of the vessel ahead Near the Swash
Channel is marked by two buoys On the port
side is the red buoy-the spindle buoy with a
cage on top. The channel goes between this
buoy and Buoy No. 4 the larboard. Vessels
like the Graf Waldersee are compelled to keep
along the main channel and take southwest
| course from the spindle buoy which marks the
shaIoYLess in tie sea called Knici0er.s Knoll
| When the big vessels reach Southwest SPIT they
proceed east by north to Gedney's Strait. The
! Swash Channel cuts across this course. The
| Swash Channel is for vessels drawing about fif-
! teen or sixteen feet. The main channel is used
| by the larger vessels
We had got to the Swash Channel about noon
Saturday. We were going at half-rate proba-
bly, five or six knots. We made out the spindle
buoy ahead. We put the wheel hard aport.
stopped the starboard of the vessel and
went back at full speed, but the tide setting
eastward caused the port propeller to pick up
the spindle buoy. We caught the chain of the
buoy, and the wind blew hard the vessel
drifted to the west side of the channel and we
could not handle the ship as the chain was in
the propeller. We went to work and hoisted
the buoy alongside and unshackled the chain
and hove her overheard. Now, that happened
at noon Saturday.
LAY EASY ALL NIGHT.
We drifted in the mud and lay there very easy
all night. We thought we would lie there and
not try to "humbug" around. We were about
half a mile from Knicker's Knoll Hoffman ISL
and and Swnburne Island were about three
miles north of where we grounded
guess most of the passengers thought we
We're anchored we rested so easily In the mud
Captain Sullivan of the Government boat Or
dinance, came along. but we did not ask for any
assistance as we did not need any. This morn
ing we foated all right and proceeded to sea in
full speed and all in good order.
Captain Shocks said in conclusion:
have been pilot for thirty four years next
May, and this is the first time that vessel
which 1 piloted has gone aground. 1 only
account for it by the thick storm. I have
piloted hundreds of the Hamburg steamers and
the Bremen liners. The Graf Waldersee has
immense hull and draws 311a feet which is an
extremely great depth.
When the WaIdersee crept out of her berth in
Hoboken Saturday morning, Superintendent
Bardenhausen. in spite of the high wind and
the storm, felt that harm would come to the
new liner because of his faith in her pilot.
When late in the afternoon he received the news
of her grounding he ordered the tugs Pulver
Millard and America to get ready to go down
the Bay to the rescue. But the captains said
that craft like theirs could not live down there
! in tba erala hon nd hat
| could they surely would not be able TO do any
| good in the darkness and the binding snow SO
the tugs were held at the pier with steam up
ready to get under way as soon as the weather
| should lose a little of it's ferCeness
About o'clock in the morning. when the snow
| stopped falling, the night watchman called the
| superintendent and awoke the captains and
! crews aboard the tugs Mr.. Bardenhausen
! thought that the Waldersee must have got off
! in the night floated by the full tide, which in
! furnishing water must have been generally
! helped by the northeast wind blowing the waters
| toward the Hook. The dispatch from the oper-
| ator there, sent about o'clock saying that he
| could no longer see the vessel and that he
| thought she must have gone up the Bay to an
| chor made the superintendent the more con-
! hdent of his charge being then we'll out the
| ocean At 6 o'clock, however, he was Informed
by the Postal Telegraph Company that the Wal
| dersee was still in the Bay.
In half an hour the fleet of tugs. with Captain
! Philip Dick of the Pulver. in command, and ac-
/ companied by Superintendent Bardenhausen and
| a Tribune reporter, were pushing and pitching
their way toward Sandy Hook The sailors all
said that as soon they should make the en-
| trance TO the Lower Bay it could be seen in a
! second whether the liner was there or not. for
the big vessel, with her high sheer black hull