The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1901-05-22
A sHIPLoAp OF TIFFY.
Curious transformation on IA vessel
During n Voyage.
Gondon Letter to the Cincinnati Enquirer.l

0ondon Letter to the Cincinnati Enquirer-)
The Charing Cross, from Rosario Ar
gentiue Republic, recently lanQed AT the
docks here with the strangest cargo ever
carried She started out originally with
81 900 bags of sugar and 5000 bags or IN
seed The vessel, however, was mystic
riOusIy converted into canGy factory
when at sea, and nobody knew any IfiilS
at ali about it
Her cargo was slowed away in four
different holds of the ship. and the work
of unloading commenced on the day fol-
lowing her arrival The snip ana dock
hands rapidly cleared the first, second,
and fourth holds without experiencing
any difficulty, but when they came to IN
load No 3 they found that the sugar there
had become one solid block of a dark
brown subStance-12000 bags, equal to J.
COS tons Of sugar, had been converted into
taffy- The mass was as hard as marble,
and il 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 en-
pIOyed in breaking up the Iaffy berg IN
the hold Of the ship, and after thirty-f1Ye
days labor the men at length succeeded
in clearing away the last bit Of tany-
It 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 nifty 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 congeaIed
mass to resist the onslaught OF the forty
men resulted in the breaking Of about
one ton Of iron tools OF all sorts, includ-
ing wedges measuring three feet long
which got twisted and bent like so many
wax candles. pichaXes, whose points got
ffattened out; chains. the strong iron
links of which snapped in two; great iron
bolts, that got spliutered like clothes
pegs. and huge CrOWbaTs that got bent
like hairpins. If those 1880 bags of su-
gar had not got converted by mysteFl-
Gus agency into taffy their removal from
the ship would have cost only $l6J, but in
the present instance the cost OF digging
out the hardened stuff cost $3.50.
The Sugar market has lost l2GJ0 bags
of "dv fancy as sugar is called at the
docks, but cO1feCtioneTs and bTeWeT1eS
have bought the taffy, giving 80 ton
for it. or less than half its original value.
Altogether the marking of that thousand
tons of tany means d loss of S5,0ge in the
aggregate, but the ship has become IA
nous. for the ChaTing Cross is now re-
ferred to as the ''taffy ship
The cause of the transformation cannot
be discovered The sugar was loaded IN
tropical weather. and those particular
bags which went wrong must hstNe con
tanned sugar which was in an abnormally
moist condition The hold in which it
was stored is jist abaft the engine room,
and ject to- great heat The SuDse-
quent change of temperature, from tor
rid to fTigid ATTITUDES, helped TO solIdIfy
the mass