Waterbury Democrat., 1901-06-29
CARGO TURNED TO TAFFY.

Here is the story. of ship that started with a cargo of sugar and reached her port with a cargo of taffy. The sea has no other story like 1t or none that has ever been recorded. The ship was the Charing Cross from Rosa rio, Argentine Republic, and the strange metamorphosls in her hold was not discovered until she arrived at her dock i'll London. v
 The cargo-32, GOO bags of sugar. was slowed away in four different compartments of the Ship and the work of unloading commenced on the day following her arrival. The ship and dock hands rapidly cleared the first, second and fourth holds without ex- periencing any difficulty, but when they came to unload No 3 they found that the sugar there had become one solid block of d dark brown substance --12,O00 bags, equal to thousand tons of sugar, had been converted into taffy. The mass was as hard as mar ble and it was found impossible to un- load it In the usual way. The hard substance was firmly attached to the sides of the vessel and had encom- passed everything else in it's grip, as nothing could be done but dig the stuif out.
 | A shovels was employed in breaking up tho taffy berg i'll the hold of the ship. and after thirty days labor the men at | length succeeded in clearing away the l last bit of taffy.
 1t had taken eight men only nine days to unload the other three hatch. 1 ways, containing the major balance or | the cargo, the minimum rate at winch l shipload of sugar can be discharged | being fifty tons per day per eight men. l But the combined efforts of forty men l engaged in clearing out the taffy pit ln l the ships hold could not turn out more than five tons q day.
 | The determination of the congealed l mass to resist the onslaught of the for | ty men resulted in the breaking of Il about one ton of iron tools of all sorts, I including wedges measuring three feet I long. which got twisted and bent like I So many limp candles; pickaxes, whose
 strong points got. fattened out; chains I the strong links of which snapped il l two; great iron bolts that got splin l tered like clothes pegs. and huge crow
 bars that got bent like hairpins. Il these 120O0 bags of sugar had got con I yerted by a mysterious agency into
 taffy their removal from the shiI would have cost only $f65, but in tht present instance the cost of digging out the hardened stuff cost $2,350.
 The sugar market has lost 12,00t
 bags of 'fy fancy" as sugar is calico
 at the docks, but the confectioners ant
 brewers have bought the taffy, giving
 $35 a ton for it, or less than half its
 original value; altogether the making .I of that thousand tons of taffy means
 q loss of $5,000 in the aggregate, bu
 the ship has become famous, for th' I Charing Cross is now referred to as th'
 "taffy ship.".
 l The cause of the transformation can
 not be discovered. The sugar Wal
 loaded in tropical weather, and thos'
 particular bags which went wrons
 must have contained sugar which wa
 in au abnormally moist condition. Tn
 hold in which 1t was stored was jus
 abaft the engine room and subject t.
 great heat. The subsequent change O temperature, from torrid to frigid lati
 tudes, helped to solidify the mass.- | Toledo Bee. NaF