The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1905-06-01
$4,000 MILE VOYAGE
Remarkable Trip With Many
Tales of Adventure.
ONE OF THE CREW LOST.
Eight thousand Miles Sailed Without
Canvas on Mainmast After
Typhoon. - Csstaways Rescued.
The Ship Spreads 5000 Yards o.
Canvas.

teen months before, the Bathbult
clipper Roanoke lay off Staplcton.
Staten Island, recently with force OF
riggers sending down the tophamper
of the towering fabric, so that she
could pass under the Brooklyn bridge
to her berth, near the foot of Grand
street, whore she landed three thou
sand tons of cargo which she took on
board at Shanghai. Nearly 1000 tons
OF mating. which had been shipped
at Hong-Kong, was landed at Bald
more.
In a voyage which consumes six
teen months and which is extended
over $4,000 miles OF blue water many
strange adventures may come It is
interesting to note that this one more
than rounds out her masters million
miles at sea-four times the span
from earth to moon.
He Is Captain Amesbury, who nearly
thirty years ago started on his we'd
ding trip from this port in a little
two-masted schooner, OF which he was
master. He is now master of a clip
per owning four masts, though one of
these was so badly sprung in a
typhoon In the China seas that the
captain was afraid to trust any sail
on it during the journey was stretch
ed out to the extraordinary length
which has made this round trip nota-
BILE in marine annals, and almost, If
not quite, a proftess one.
There was a big fleet OF sailing
ships riding in the Narrows, but only
one showed such Matterhorn altitude
rs did this glantess. and after a long,
hard pull the rowboat came bobblng
alongside.
Captain not on board" First Mate
Mcdonald explained. I'VE had hardly
got in," the mate continued in voice
like foghorn, before he gets word
that his son, who Is master of the
bark Adolph Obrig, and whom he
hasn't seen for ten years, is in port,
having arrived from Singapore the
day before the Roanoke gets here.
so he unmoors from the Roanoke
and sets out looking for the son. No;
cant say where they be now. But
wherever they be you can bet they are
having some long yarns to unreef.
Ten years O. sea and yen find much
to tell.
Tell about these sixteen months?
oh, yes. | can do that. No, | don't
have no call to look at the log for
dates. You see, sailormen don't have
SO much to think about or talk about
once we get started on one Of these
deep-sea trips. and we remember all
that happens and the time it happens,
too
I'VE sail from here on December %.
1902. bound for Shanghai and with
$4,000 cases of oil below.
''SiX days out from here and we
meets gale-a regular buster 1t was,
too. We had shipped a young New
York chap, William Hayden his
name was. as likely lad as ever went
to sea. Well, sir, he was on that
poop ladder there when a sea cores
over the side, and he goes with it We
hove her TO, but couldn't rescue the
lad. and when the gale blows itself
nut, we go on our way and rounds
the Cape of Good Hope-we were go
ing that route-and reach Java Head
104 days later
There we gets the sort OF weather
that makes us sometimes think we
was another Flying Dutchman, though
what We should be doing up there in
the Sunda Straits, providing we was
Flying Dutchman, yes what we
couldn't figure out seefbg that his
cruising around is down by the cape.
But there we stuck for more than a
month, and we was all Of sixty-two
days making the run through the
China seas.
We'll, we arrive at Shanghai, dis
charge our oil, take on about 5000
tons Of general cargo and go to Hong
Kong, where we gets the mating be-
low there, ships a Japanese crew and
sets sail for home"
The mate here interrupted his mar
rative to tell how amazed the Japanese
were to hear that war had been de-
clared and of their ecitement when
they heard Of the Japanese successes.
@They were mighty good sailormen,"
ne added, and they all left us at
Baltimore, probably looking for some
way of getting back and helping out
their folks"
I'VE made a rescue Of some cast
aways," the mate resumed, three of
them adrift in boat, and it was
about time somebody picked them up,
as in little while more they would
have been dead or drowned. They
were eighty miles south Of Borneo
when we rescued them. Their
schooner had founded and they had
been floating about for ten days when
we gets them on board. gives them
nourishment and then transfers them
to a steamer.
We got another gale in the Straits
"a monsoon that keeps us there
twenty-seven days. Then we clears
the straits and hits a dead calm, and
StFaiphtawnV pnp nf pilr man Fol