Arizona republican., 1900-12-05
STRANGE FATE OF THE CAKES.
Posted at Lloyd's. She Turns Up After
 Nine Months Voyage.


 One or the most remarkable cases of a vessel bedng posted a, Lloyd s as mis- sing and linen turning up was that of the sky sail clipper T. F. Oakes, the first American iron square trigger ever launched. She left the port of Hong Kong on July 4th, 1896, for New York. Her usual time from China to Sandy Hook was about 120 days After she had been out about two hundred and fifty days, and was not re-insurab.e 1 she was posted. Her agents had given her up fer lost, and the relatives of t,1e l skipper, Capt. Edward. w. Reed, and his wife, who accompanied him on the voyage, had gone into mourning. The nautical world was startled when, 1n Monday, March p, 1897, the old iron i ship appeared in the port of New York, two hundred and sixty days out of Hong Kong. She brought as grewsome a yarn of storm and calm and sickness as was ever spun in forecastla or cab in. The missing snip came in tow of the oil-carrying steamship Kasbek, which sailed from Philadelphia on March 13, deep laden for Plume. When she was , about three hundred miles east from Sandy Hook one of her officers, who was on the bridge, saw a blue light gleaming through the frosty air. thick with spCondTift. The tank bore down , toward the signal, and when she was within Railing distance of the Oakes Captain Muir, who had b. en summon ed from his cabin, shouted across the troubled ssa: 'Heave to, you are moving too fast for us A feeble voice returned this strange answer:
 We can't do it. Send a boat to us
 "The Oakes was on the starboard tack. pitching into the swe!ls with on- ly her fore, main and mizzen lower top sails set. Captain Muir lowered a beat with three men, in charge of Chief Of ficer Helsham. The scant sail of the clipper forced her barnacled hull through the sea at less than two knots, and the muscular Carsnen of the tank, by hard rowing, were able to overhaul her within half an hour. Before dawn Helsham was alongside. A voice from the ship said: We want tow
 "'What do you want to pay?' Hell sham asked. Then the voice, which was that of Second Mate Abrams. re- sponded: Wen settle that by arbftra- ton. Six of our crew are dead, twelve are sick in the fok's'le, and only two of us can move about the ship Hedsham returned to the Kasbek, reported the clippers condition to Capt. Muir, who shouted to the Oakes: Wen stand by you.
 "The British sailors got out a nine inch manila hawser and bent it on two-and-a-h -half-inch line. The line WIS passed through a hawser pipe astern and got afoul of the propeller. About one hundred and fifty fathoms of it spun and lashed around the propeller blades and the outboard part of the tail shaft. The propeller was janmed and the engines came to a stop before Chief Engineer Stevens could shut off steam. The tank was to windward of the square riggsr, and drifted directly into her course. The chief engineer tried to start the ship again by using the auxiliary turning engine, which broke down. The iron prov of the Cakes would have pierced the hull of the Kasbek if h5r sailormsn had not hoisted on her three poe mae.s fore and-aft sails, which she used in emer gency. As it was. there was only boats length between the two ships when the Kasbek hacked out of the Oakes' course. The tank was helpless about eight hours. A westerly gale sprung up and the Cakes vanished be- low the horizon. The chief engineer uncoupled the proeller shaft and forced it aft until the propeller boss was clear of the stern post. He and his men had been unable to free from the tail shaft the two and one-half inch line, which had been jammed about it. After un- coupling the propeller shaft there was a space of about an inch between the separated flanges of the couplings, and into this space the engineer fitted piec- es of tough oak; the shaft was thus made an inch longer, and that inch was enough to losen the line on the tail shaft. It was practically adding a wooden section to the shaft. The en- zines were started and the Kasbek's captain decided to save the old clipper if he could. He camc in sight of her late in the afternoon. A gale permeat- ed with snow was h-Mling out of the north. It was too rough to launch a boat, and the Kasbek stood by the crip- pied ship nearly two days. The Sea had subs.ded somewhat and the port light boat was loaded with flour, tapI- oca, potatoes, lime juice, whisky and medicine, The Kas5eks steward gave up all his provisions. Captain Muir lad surnlised that there was scurvy cn the ship. and this prompted him to send the antidotes. As Chief Officer Hell sham said later, The only able seaman I found aboard rhe Cakes was Mrs. Reed, the wife of the captata.'
 Captain Reed said that every soul except his wife was sick with scurvy, of which five seamen had died.
 He himself was only slightly i'll. The second mates legs and feet were swollen nearly twice their normal size, and he and the third mate were unable to go aloft. The Chinese steward was