The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-09-09
FRIETsCH's LONG VOYAGE.
AFTER Passing Seven Years at Sea.
he Lands at New Orleans.

NNeW orleans Cor. New York SUM-
After seven years voyaging on nearly
eVeryoce an, the only occupant of the
little vessel which he himself built.
Captain Adolphus Frietsch landed
mere this week from his last solitary
cruise, met his family which had
come all the way from Milwaukee to
see him, and announced his deternniu-
alton to sell his boat, retire from his
solitary sea life and spend the re-
nalnder of his years in Pensacola on
the proceeds of his voyages and specu-
atoms.
Captain Frietsch is a Finn. only Al
years old, but has been at sea for
twenty-four years. Seven years ago.
when he was living in Milwaukee,
engaged in the schooner trade there,
the viking spirit seized him and he
determined to travel over the world
and visit all her seas. He himself
Quilt little vessel. the Nina. with a
forty-foot keel. He left Milwaukee
in 1894 for Liverpool, passing through
the Great Lakes by way of Buffalo.
His little vessel aroused some inter
est at the time and thousands came to
see her. He set sail from New York
Tor Europe, and for most of the world
that was the last heard of Captain
Frietsch and his Nina. That was
seven years ago. The solitary mariner
has been blowing the ocean waves"
ever since. The Nina has long since
gone the way of all such tiny vessels.
and the captain comes to New Orleans
in a new vessel. the Anna F., also
built by him, and a trifie larger than
the Nina, having a forty-foot keel
and twelve-foot beam. He comes here
from a cruise along the coast of South
and Central America and the tropics
with the little vessel stocked with
shells. cOralS and other marine curioSi-
ties. all collected by himself. for
whenever he saw coral or shells that
pleased his fancy be dived overheard
to collect them.
Seven years in a hermitage at the
sea is remarkable. and it seemed
strange that Captain FrietSch. should
have escaped all its dangers-but very
narrowly at times, for when the frs
vessel, the Nina, was wrecked off ths
reef in iKlorennan sound the captain
just missed going with her to destruc-
ton by a few seconds.
To navigate a vessel without a crew
is a difficult matter. for there is tn
question of the watches. Who ar
going to look after the Nina or the
Anna F. when the captain. boatswain.
chief mariner. al rolled in one. were
asleep? OvSr tbs apparently insuper
able difficulty Captain Frietsch tri-
umphed by a lesson he learned in the
matter OF sleep, which he says any one
can learn who will make the proper
trial-the ability to sleep for fixed
time, an hour, two hours or three
hours. as the sleeper might desire
This enabled the captain to rest dur
ing Gains and when there was no
danger to fear to be awake and ready
to attend to his boat when danger
threatened. He naturally slept mos
of the day, because there was less
danger of his little vessel being run
into, as it could be seen, whereas
night he had to be more particula
and keep a watch for vessels. In
rowded places like the British chan
mel he denied himself all sleep, and
when he was on the route Of vessels
he seldom allowed himself more than
two hours rest, making a good eX-
animation of the horizon before retir-
ing to rest, to make sure that there
were no vessels within reach which
might run him down. He timed him.
self carefully and gagged his rest by
the character OF the water in which
he was and the outlook for the wealth
er. He also so trained himself to the
slightest luffing in the wind or differ
ent rolling Of the vessel
So accustomed did he become in time
to the system of voluntary sleeping
and waking at 4 fixed time that when
the Nina was wrecked, when IL was
evident that she would go on the iIK-
brennan reefs he timed the hour at
which the wreck was to occur, and
having made all necessary ARA Tlsre-
ments what he would do when his lit
tie vessel went to pieces. and finding
that this could nOat occur before an
hour, he lay down and took good
hours sleep, so that he would be rest
ed and invigorated when the wreck
came. TIE Nina was wrecked at the
appointed time, and it was only by
Superhuman efforts that CAPTAIN
F'rietsch was rescued. But, however
pleasant it may be. and full of ad-
venture, an ocean hermitage becomes
tireSOme in time; and so CAPTAIN
Frietsch has concluded after having
been tossed about in his two little
boats for seven years, that he will re-
turn to the domestic life of a land
ubber''