The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1904-10-19
ANCIENT PUMP
NEVER CEASES
Fighting Wind and Wave
Schooner Karl and Ella
Arrives From South Seas
LEAKED NIGHT AND DAY
Captain Beguhl, With Native
Crew, Has Hard Time to
Keep His Vessel Afioat

The story of a well-fought battle
with wind and wave is written in the
log of the little schooner Karl and
Ella, Captain Beguhl, just in from the
South Pacific. With an almost
useless pump, leaking ship, an
ignorant, timid. native crew, against
ceaseless gales and rolling seas,
the sturdy skipper worked his
water-logged craft up the lati-
tudes. He took passage through the
coral groups, running under short sail
to keep his schooner from laboring
over the swells and splitting wide
open, and then this follower of the
Vikings of the north kept on, dropping
the knots behind him-and he is here.
His vessel. as she now lies at an
Choir in the harbor, is leaking many
gallons every hour, and a tattooed de-
scendant of some long-forgotten can
nibal is dragging the crazy pump
handle up and down, UP and down, as
it has been going for weeks, never los
ing a stroke night or day.
There are two feet of water in the
hold, and the Caroline Islander, bend
ing his brown back over the pump
brake, can't make it any less.
LOG OF THE VESSEL.
The log of the schooner is not writ
ten very plainly. Captain Beguhl ex-
plains that he was too worn out try
ing to keep afioat and keep himself
and the eight islanders above the
sharks to turn to literature. However,
the record of grit and endeavor is
there. 1t saws the vessel left Ponape.
Caroline Islands, August II, with a
cargo of $500 pounds of copra. 223
pearl shells and $50 pounds of ivory
nuts consigned to 1. E. Thayer, San
Francisco. The vessel was in need
of repairs and leaked considerably,
and a strong southwest wind kicked
up a heavy sea and made matters
worse. To shorten the way the cap
tain cut through the Marshall and BIZ
KIM islands, and the continued gale
and high seas opened the seams of
the old hull more. and the ocean slip
ped in at every thump of the wave.
When the skipper could have put
on the canvas and sped harborward
he did not dare do so, as the increased
motion over the swells would be too
much for a pump such as was used in
the ships of Tyre. Then the rigging
carried away, first on one side and
then the other" says the log, with
only one sailor to help on repairs"
Shoppers were put on, and with block
and tackle the broken swifters were
hauled taut. The chain-plate bolts
drew out, but the rigging was fastened
to the rails and the pump and the
ON
The weather moderating the captain
and such of his men who could work
got at some of the leaks and stuffed
| between the pump and the, Pacific
slackened UP, and the log says the
/ schooner made less water.
PUMPS KEPT GOING.
A man was kept at the pump all
the time, and all went passably well
until the schooner got to the longitude
Of the Hawaiian Islands, when the
wind grew shifty and squally. Then the
wind and seas came from all direc-
tons. From every point of the COM
pass came a yelling blast of gale with
a swell that tried to lick the clouds
out of the sky. More water spouted
through tie OpSlllAl5 SSdIIlSs anu I1OT6
muscle was put at the pump. The
vessel labored fearfully, and on the
crest of some great sea it was feared
she would split in halves. The pump
choked up and the captain opened the
main hatch and got down among the
cargo and cleared the pipe. After
ward the crew took the pump out of
its place, put it down the main hatch
and succeeded in keeping the water at
safe level.
A shift of men went into the hold
and boarded up the cargo so it would
not shift. Had the schooner gone on
her beam ends she could not have
been righted. The skipper tried to
make one of the Hawaiian Islands.
but the wind shifted and Die was
forced to set a course for San Fran
cisco. Head winds were encountered
during the voyage here.
So. fathom by fathom. with the
crazy pump marking off the slow
knots, the Karl and Ella weathered
the storm, and Skipper Beguhl is here.
The vessel is now leaking at her an
cborage and the pump is still working
to keep the water down.