Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-09-17
FROM JAPAN
Mr.. Curtis Tells of His Arri-
val at Tacoma.
RUNNING IN A FOG
HOW THE CAPTAIN WAS EN-
ABLED TO HIT THE MARK.
Great Increase in the Ocean Commerce
of Tacoma-Its Remarkable
Rise and Prosperity.
BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence Evening Star and
Chicago Record Herald.


| Special Correspondence or Inc Evening Star and
Chicago Record Herald.
| TACOMA Wash. August 16, 1904.
| We crossed the Pacific from Japan on
| the good steamer fremont of the Boston
| Steamship Company, which has a fleet of
| five fine new vessels sailing in connection
, with the Northern Pacific railroad. Two of
| them are of nearly 10000 tons burden and
| the remainder from 5000 to 5000 tons. They
were built at the Maryland steel works at
| Sparrow's Point. near Baltimore, during the
| last four years and represent the highest
| type of modern cargo carriers the two
| larger ones, the fremont and Shawmut,
| having a capacity of 15,GG0 tons. After
| they came out here to enter the Asiatic
and Philippine trade the company added
| accommodations for forty frst-class and
| forty Second-claSs passengers, and, although
| they are not so luxurious you may find
upon some of the transatlantic steamers,
| they are especially adapted to the hot
F.! weather of the tropics L would not rec
ommend the fremont for winter voyage
| because all her cabins are on the top deck
and open out into the weather, but for a
summer voyage her arrangements are
| ideal
Captain Garlick. the commander is a
Yankee who brought the fremont around
| from Boston four years ago and, as the
lrlShHan said. better sailor never trod
| the water. We had quiet uneventful Voy
| age. The fremont is 50 steady that nobody
| on board was seasick. although there was
an almost continuous fog, and during the
fifteen days We were sailing across 4,o00
miles of ocean the captain was able to get
| only one observation. During the last ten
days of the voyage he sailed through the
| fog without a glimpse of the sun or stars.
and so accurate where his calculations that
we arrived at the Straits of Fuca, the gate
to Puget sound, just when and where we
were expected.
Remarkable Feat of Navigation.
1t was a remarkable feat of navigation.
1t would not have been strange, considering
all the currents of wind and water, the va
riations of the compass and other pheno-
mena with which the navigator has to deal,
If we had been two or three hundred miles
north or south of our destination But
Capt: Garlick nit the bulrs-eye at range
OF 400 miles, and crept through the straits
during a dense fog by sounding.
On the coast charts, made for the Use of
navlSators, the bottom of the ocean is map
ped out just like the topography of the
earth the variations in soil being indicated.
by looking at chart you can ascertain the
depth of the water and the character of the
bottom OF the ocean, whether it is rock
clay. mud, gravel or sand. While he was
trying to ind his way into the straits the
only guide our captain had was these signs
upon the chart, and he kept dropping into
the water on both sides of the ship heavy
piummets of lead with iron rods projecting
root or eighteen inches from them These
rods We're covered with grease and the
weight of the lead was sufficient to drive
them into the bottom.
me soil stuck to the creased rod, ard
by tasting it, as the sailors say that is
by comparing it with the chart and taking
the depth of the water into calcula ton
the captain was able to make close guess
as to whether his ship was where it ought
n snail
gazing vessels on the coast in fogs but
as you may infer, it is attended with a
great deal of risk and requires skill md
Judgment. An ordinary captain might have
| bumped into the coast of Oregon or British
Columbia, but Captain Garlick brought rs
| directly and safely to our destination
Hence we are proud and grateful to have
sailed with him.
The other officers of the fremont were
| quite as admirable in their way The
| purser, who bears the appropriate name
| OF falrweather and may be considered
the mascot OF the ship, and all the rest
OF them did everything in their power to
| make 1T comfortable and agreeable for
| the passengers
| IheSe steamers are ALWAYS Ioada5 70
their utmost capacity, going and coming
| They bring hemp from Manila, tea and silk
! from China and Japan ana carry bacil
| hour, machinery and manufactured goods
or all kinds The fremont this time wa s
| loaded with the regular staples; 1900 tons
Oh tea: raw silk and merchandise in her
mold. including about 1900 tons of Japan
| ese curios and manufactured goods for the
| St Louis exposition The exhibitors in
Japan told us that the stocks which they
| sent over originally and hoped to dispose of
before the end of the exposition were solo
out the frSt week or ten days, and since
| then their representatives have been selling
| duplicates which are shipped from japan
| as rapidly as possible.
Ocean Commerce of Tacoma.
| The oriental trade carried on by the
Boston Steamship Company between Ia
coma and the orient is already very inn
portant and is growing very fast. Tacoma
! is becoming one of the most important ex-
port centers in the United States for which
it has many advantages. Few people know
| that there is a regular line of steamers be-
| tween Tacoma and Hamburg called the
| Cosmos line. Tacoma is its American
terminus, and it's steamers run down the
| coast of South America to the Straits of
| Magellan and then across to Germany.
| There is also a line by the same route to
| New York and two or three other lines
upon the Pacific ocean. When the fremont
| landed. at the big docks just ahead of us
was the steamer Rameses, which had just
| come all the way from Hamburg and be-
| hind us was tied up the Stentor, which
| belongs to a company operating between
| Tacoma and Liverpool by way of the Suez
| canal and carries wheat, flour and other
| agricultural produce. These are the most
| they do an enormous business.
| Last year the total ocean commerce of
| Tacoma was valued at s3J SJ4 ,o66; its ex-
| lots to foreign countries were valued at
| S13, 0SS, l02, and its imports at S7SI4391 In
| 1862 the foreign trade YVES even greater the
| exports reaching a total of $19,091 491 Most
| of these exports are four and lumber, the
| products of the state of Washington and
| the trade has grown UP during the last ten
| years. In 1894 the PugeI sound customs
| district stood twenty-jtrss in the list; last
| year it had -'isen to the rank of number
nine. measured by the value of it's i'm
ports from and exports to foreign coun-
tries. 1t stood number Cre in the exports
OF lumber and timber humber two in a
long list CT items, such as cotton, oats buck
wheat, sheep, cotton cloths canned salmon
hay. malt liquors and manufactures of tin;
third in the exports of Ger tain other prod
ucts, and fourth in wheat, flour, barley and
| other agricultural products.
The total foreign trade of Takoma for ten
years from July /. 1893, to June 30 1904
was S12l .G52,2S9. This includes only tbs
cargoes shipped to and landed from foreig 4
countries, and does not include imports val
ued at many millions that were landed here
and forwarded through this port in bond
and credited 10 the cities of their final des-
tnat.on