The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1905-01-20
BIG SHIPS WILL NOT WAIT.
Leave Their Docks on the Minute
Whether Passengers Are
Aboard or Not.

wait for no man will have to be changed
to include steamships remarked an
old seafarer a few days ago, after
young couple had been placed aboard
tugboat for a chase down the harbor to
catch vessel for which they had bought
tickets and which they had missed, re-
lates the Pittsburg Dispatch. Every
minute counts nowadays with steam
ship captain, and he has orders not to
hold his ship even for the president OF
the United States.
people are not generally aware OF
this rule, and so passengers are fire.
quently left on the pier. II they are
lucky they may secure fast tug and
catch the boat before she has passed out
side Of Sandy Hook, but more often they
have to accommodate themselves with
later passage on another vessel:
whenever a steamship is scheduled
to sail at ten o'clock in the morning, it
means that everything must be in read
mess for her to leave promptly at that
time. Her fires must be started in time to
have full head of steam, and tugbOats
are chartered to help her out of her pier
on the stroke of the hour. To hold the
ship for a time after she is ready means
a great expense to the company. There
is the price of coal, which is not a small
item, and when five or six tugs are char
tered at $12 an hour to swing the vessel
out, the extra cost begins to mount up.
Just suppose each steamship was held
mi hor fi,,oo
and you can see that the companies
would lose thousands of dollars in a
year.
"Chases down the bay after steam
ships are always exciting. If the steam
ship has not gone too far, or if she has
senger has some chance, but otherwise
be might as we'll save his money.
Several years ago coaster, I'think
it was the Yucatan, sailed for Havana
and Mexico. There had been floods all
through the southwest, stalling the
trains for weeks, and young man who
had very important business to transact
in Mexico had raced to New York with
the hope of reaching Vera Cruz by the
Yucatan.
He appeared at the pier about 20
minutes after the vessel had sailed. He
pulled and fumed for moment, unit!
some one advised him to try tugboat
Accepting the suggestion, he rushed to
nearby pier, where several big fell
lows were tied up. To the captain of one
of them he offered $3.50 if he caught the
steamship.
The captain accepted and the chase
began. The tug swept down the bay
giving forth the greatest cloud of black
smoke and showing the water up in huge
punches OF spray SO that her upper
works were all wet. The day was rather
nasty. The clouds hung low, and a sea
breeze brought in the fog gradually. The
further down the tug went the thicker
became the weather. At last the steam
ship disappeared in the fog bank, but the
captain of the tug continued the chase,
not willing to lose the amount offered if
he succeeded.
Finally, just off the Atlantic high
lands, the fog became so bad that he was
compelled to quit the chase and turn in
to shore. The, young man was disap-
pointed, and he asked if there was no
other way of catching the vessel. The
captain thought for moment.
You 60 ashore he said, and get a
train down to Atlantic City. If the Yu-
catan has not passed before you get
there, you may be able to get another tug
to take Won ont ~ her.,
L learned later that his having been
20 minutes late at the pier in New York
had cost him more than the amount of
his passage money on the Yucatan."