The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-06-17
SUGAR TURNED TO TAFFY.
Heat of the Engine Room and
Change of Climate Caused All
Sorts of Trouble.

From the Chicago Inter Ocean.
Hele 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 quite like it, or none that
has ever been recorded. The ship was the
Charing Cross. from Rosario. Argentine
Republic, and the strange metamorphosis
in her hold was not discovered until she
errived at her dock In London.
The cargo-31, 900 bags of sugar-was
slowed away in four different compart-
ments of the ship, and the work of I'M
loading commenced on the day Following
her arrival. The ship and deck hands
rapidly cleared the first. second and
fourth holds without experiencing any
difficulty, but when they came to unload
No. they found that the sugar there
had become one solid block of a dark
brown substance-12.OO0 bags. equal to 1000
tons of sugar, had been converted into
taffy. The mass was as hard as marble,
and it was found impossible to unload 1t
in the usual way. The hard substance
was firmly attached to the sides OF the
vessel, and had encompassed everything
else in its grip, so nothing could be done
but dig the stuff out.
A body OF forty men, using picks and
shovels. was employed in breaking up the
LEHy DtTB III the HOlu VI TIE sup, anu,
after thirty-hve days labor. the men at
length succeeded in clearing away the
last bit of taffy.
1t had taken eight men only nine days
to unload the other three hatchways. con-
tanning the major balance of the cargo,
the minimum rate at which a shipload OF
sugar can be discharged being fifty tons
per day per eight men. But the combined
efforts OF forty men engaged in clearing
out the taffy pit in the ships hold could
not turn out more than five tons a day.
The determination OF the CONCEALED
mass 70 resist the onslaught Of the forty
men resulted in the breaking of about one
ton of iron tools Of all sorts, including
wedges measuring three feet long. which
got twisted and bent like so many limp
wax candles. pickaxes, whose points got
fattened out; chains, the strong iron links
OF which snapped in two; great iron bolts
that got splintered like clothes pegs, and
huge crowbars that got bent like hair
pins. II those 1900 bsges Of sugar had
not got converted by a mysterious agen-
cy into taffy their removal from the ship
would have cost only Si65. but In the
present instance the cost OF digging out
the hardened stuff cost s2,35O
Tint sugar market has lost 1900 bags OF
Fly fancy" as sugar is called at the
docks but confectloners and breweries
have bought the taffy, giving $40 ton
for II. or less than half It's original value
Altogether the making Of that thousand
tons Of taffy means a loss of 5000 in the
aggregate. but the ship has become IA
nous, for the CharinR Cross Is now re-
ferred to as the "tany ship"
The cause Of tho Transformation cannot
be discovered. The sugar was loaded In
tropical weather and those particular
bags which went wrong must have con
tslned sugar which was IN an abnormally
moist condition. The hold IN which IL
was stored u just abaft tho engine room,
and subject 10 great heat The aubse-
quent change Of temperature, from tor
rid 70 frigid ATTITUDES, helped soldify the
roaaa