Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1901-04-08
FATE OF THE I. F. OAKES
POSTED AS LOST THE SHIP TURNS
UP AFTER HlNE MONTHS.

| Heroic leeds of the skipper's Wife,
One of the Iaost remarkable cases
OF vessel being posted at Lloyd's as
missing and then turning up was that
OF the Sky sail clipper T. f. Oakes. the
| first American iron square-rigger ever
launched. She left the port of Hong
Kong on July 4, 1896, for New York.
Her usual time from China to Sandy
Hook was about 125 days. After she
had been out about $50 days, and was
not reinsurable, she was posted Her
agents had given her up as lost. and
| the relatives of her skipper, Captain
| Edward w. Reed, and his wife, who
accompanied him on the voyage, had
gone into mourning. The nautical
world was startled when, on Monday,
March %, 1897, the old iron ship ap-
peared in the port of New York. 260
days out of Hong Kong. She brought
as grewsome q yard of storm and calm
and sickness as was ever spun in fore
castle or cabin. The missing shin
came in tow of the oil-carrying steam
ship Kasbek, which sailed from Phil
adelphia on March 13 deep laden for
Flume. When she was about three
hunNed miles southeast of Sandy
Hook one of her officers who was on
the bridge, saw blue light cleaning
through the frosty air, thick with
spoondrift, The tank bore down to-
ward the signal, and when she was
within hailing distance of the Cakes,
Captain Muir, who had been sum
moned from his cabin, shouted across
the troubled sea: 'Heave to, you are
moving too fast for us!' A feeble
| voice returned this strange answer:
We can't Go it; send boat to us
THE Oakes was on the starboard
tack, pitching into the swells with
only her fore, main and mizzen lower
| topsails set. Captain Muir lowered IA
boat with three men, in charge of
| Chief Officer Heisham. The scant
sail of the clipper forced her bar
nacled hull through the seas at less
than two knots, and the muscular
oarsmen of the tank, by hard rowing
were able to overhaul her within half
an hour. Before dawn Helsham was
alongside. A voice from the sniii said:
| We want u tow
"'What do you want to pay?' Hell
sham asked. Then the voice, which
was that of Second Mate Abrams, re-
| sponded, Well settle that by arbitra-
ton; six of our crew are dead, twelve
are sick in the fok's'le and only two
of us can move about ship Helsham
returned to the Kasbek. reported the
| c1innnr'c condition tn M,tit
who shouted to the Oakes Well
stand by you
1.-THE British sailors got out a nine
inch manila hawsor and bent it on a
two-and-a-half-inch line. The line was
! passed through a hawser pipe astern
and got afowl of the propeller. About
125 fathoms of it spun and slashed
around the propeller blades, and the
| outboard part of the tail shaft. The
propeller was jammed and the engine
came to a stop before Chief Engineer
| Stevens could shut off steam. The
! tank was to windward of the square
rigger and drifted directly into her
| course, The chief engineer tried to
start the ship again by using the aux
iliary turning engine, which broke
down. The iron PROV of the Oakes
would have pierced the hull of the
Kasbek il her sailormen had not
hoisted on her three pole masts fore
and-aft sails which she used in emer-
gency. AS it was, there was only a
boats length between the two ships
when the Kasbek backed out of the
| Cakes course. The tank was helpless
about eight hours. A westerly gale
sprang up and the Oakes vanished be-
low the horizon. The chief engineer
uncoupled the propeller 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 uncoupling the pro-
| peller shaft there was space of about
an inch between the separate fanges
of the couplings, and into this space
the chief engineer fitted pieces of
tough oak; the shaft was thus made
an inch longer, and that inch was
enough to loosen the line on the tail
shaft. 1t was practically adding a
wooden section to the shaft. The en-
| gines We're started, and the Kasbek's
captain decided to save the old clip
| per if he could. He came in sight of
| her late in the afternoon. A gale per-
meated with snow was bowling out of
the north. 1t wds too rough to launch
a boat, and the Kasbek stood by the
/ crippled ship nearly two days. The sea
| had subsided somewhat and the port
life boat was loaded with flour. tap
ioca, potatoes, lime juice, whisky and
medicine The Kasbek steward gave
! up all his provisions. Captain Muir
had surmised that there was scurvy
on the ship, and this prompted him to
send the antidotes. AS Chief Officer
Helsham said later, The only able
seaman found aboard the Oakes was
I Mrs. Reed, the wife OF the captain
1