The San Francisco call., 1904-07-05
WITHIN SIGHT OF PORT
AND DRIVEN BACK TO SEA
Bark HoIIiswood From Newcastle, Australia, At
ter Voyage of Almost Constant Fierce Gales
and High Seas Comes Into Bay PartIyWrecked

Like page out Of some sea tale Of
Stevenson or Clark Russell runs the
story Of the bark Holliswood, which the
strong tug Dauntless yesterday hauled
into port. Foretop mast, foretopgallant
mast, foreroyal mast, jib boom, flying
jib boom and spanker boom. with their
standing rigging, were carried away in
the seventeen days of fierce gales that
battered her even as she struggled
within sight of the lights inviting her
to safe anchorage. The storm that
finally dismasted her and almost COM
pleted her undoing was the last effort
Of the strong winds and rolling seas
that had met and worried her almost
constantly since she left the Australian
port ninety-eight days before.
This final effort Of wind and wave
was on the night of June 2, when the
bark made Point Bonita, at the en-
trance to the Golden Gate. The light
on the head shone clearly but neither
tug nor pilot could be raised to the re-
lief Of the helpless vessel A thick mist
came down on her and a stiff breeze
away from the harbor she was striving
to enter. Then came the seventeen days
of struggle with gale and sea, her spars
going over one by one and taking with
them all the head sails, all the canvas
on the fore except the foresail, main
topgallant sail, royal and sky sail. This
left her the fore. main. main top sail
and fore staysail. 1t was then the
%1ao ,,-iy1
pied Holliswood limped into San Pedro
harbor.
She left Newcastle February 81. and
two days out ran into her first heavy
gale. The bark labored over the high
cross-seas until she sprung a leak,
which the steam pump succeeded in
keeping down. For twenty-one days
she fought her way over stormy ocean,
crossing the equator at $50 degrees 40
minutes west. She spoke the ship Prus-
sia on May &c, and received certain
stores from her and the schooner Tran
sit on June 13. She made San Pedro
June "a. She was then under her own
sail-what was left of it.
Aboard the bark with Captain Davis
are Mrs. Davis and their infant daugh-
ter Eileen, eighteen months old. Mrs.
Davis has been accompanying her hus-
band to sea for the last five years. Her
other voyages have been quiet ones
and she now feels that all the storms
she missed in the five previous trips
have been crowded into this last one.
About all 1 did, Mrs. Davis said
yesterday, during our seige of twen-
! ty-one DAYS in the South Pacific and
! during the seventy days off this coast
was to sit in the far corner of my berth
and hold babv. 0, but the bark did
roll. And what awful laundering
noises were made when the spars and
sails broke away from the vessel! But
1 suppose l shall have it over again
sometime, as l cannot content myself
to live ashore when my husband is
at sea-
In the cozy cabin of the Holliswood
is an oil painting of the bark dismasted
ten years ago off the Horn. 1t was her
/ first voyage and she lost her main and
miZzen top masts and sails.
Captain Davis denies the reports that
the bark was out of food and her peo-
pie suffering for the necessaries of life.
He received from the Prussia sugar
and few articles for his wife and
child. He accuses the cook of being
wasteful and disobedient and of origi-
mating the starvation story. The cap
| tain was formerly an officer on the
| steamers Nebraska and Alaska of
| the Hawaiian line, running be-
tween this port and Honolulu. He
| first took command of the Hollis
wood in Hongkong, succeeding his ia
| ther who died aboard the bark in
that port. Captain Davis is a young
man, almost boyish in appearance, but
the manner in which he has brought
/ his vessel with her sixteen hundred
/ tons of coal through one hundred and
| thirty-two days of almost constant
storm stamps him every inch a sailor