The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-10-30


proud ship project grimIy from white
sands or lie curiously among black
lrockS along the west coast of this con-
ltinent, the east shore of the Pacific
t1nnumerable disasters have occurred
zone company alone in the course of its
IeXistence has suffered the loss of thirty
vessels which bore down with them tc
1.-The place of drowned men" more than
Fifteen hundred souls. Tall, white
Isailed ships; black, swift, steel passen-
ger steamers; iron freight vessels heav-
lily laden; little, unhonored, steam
Icoasting schooners with crews of two OF
lthree-vessls, in short, of every sort
lhave been sent to their doom at the
lsoft, treacherous hands of the clinging
lfog, by disastrous currents, or hidden
irocks that lay in wait. Indeed, the list
Iof lost ships, even an incomplete list,
is appalling in its extent. Very few
ships there are which had the fortune
lof the Alameda, which has been got
safely off the rocks upon which she lay
off Fort Point for a week, and now
lilies safely in her berth. The City of
New York had no such luck. This
Igreat steamer on the afternoon of Oc-
itober 81 1898, struck on the reef at the
Tip of Point Bonita. She was outward
bound, having just left the Pacific Mail
docks, and like the Alameda, lost her
bearings in a thick fog which settled
down. The passengers were all landed
safely in tugs, and most of the cargo
was also removed, but the steamer
stuck fast on the rocks. and gradually
went to pieces.
| The wreck of the Pacific Mail Steam
ship Company's Rio de Janeiro on Fri
day morning, February %, 1901, when
over one hundred and thirty-one out of
. two hundred and eleven on board were
drowned, is too fresh in peoples minds
to require other than mere mention.
The vessel was entering the Golden
Gate at four o'clock in the morning
through a heavy fog, and struck a
rock a few hundred feet from Fort
Point, going down in less than fifteen
minutes. The master of the ship, Cap
tain Ward, made no attempt to save
himself, bit went down with the ship.
His body was found months later. The
ship itself sank in deep water, and it's
position has never been determined.
though innumerable attempts so TO do
have been made.
On the morning of January % 1908.
the steamship Walla Walla, bound from
San Francisco to Seattle, with one hun
dred and forty-four souls on board, col
lided with the sailing ship Max, off
Cape MendocinO, and sank in less than
an hour. The steamschooner Dispatch
picked up RATS and boats containing
sixty-two people, and other RATS went
ashore. Only thirty-eight of the one
hundred and forty-four passengers were
lost. The sailing ship escaped with
only a slight injury.
Among the more remarkable disasters
was the loss of the Pacific Mail steam
ich at oicrI1t or och n
the morning of May q. 1895. was
struck by a gale in latitude eighteen
degrees and thirty-eight minutes and
longitude one hundred and four de-
grees and fourteen minutes west, off
the coast of Manzanlllo, Mexico, and
sent upon her beam-ends, going down
in one hundred and thirty fathoms of
water within a few minutes. One hum
dred and eighty-one persons We're
drowned and thirty-two swan ashore
or We're picked up. The loss of the
Colfma is generally believed to have
been due to bad stowage. She was
heavily laden above decks with lum-
Der and petroleum, so that when her
captain attempted to put her about she
went upon her beam
Another wreck which occurred almost
in the same place as the wreck Of the
Colima was the disaster to the Guate-
mala She also was carried out of her
course by a heavy southeasterly gale
and swift-running current, and was
driven upon the rocks about sixty miles
southeast of Manzanillo. 1t was the
Guatemala's one hundred and first trip
to Panama, and her second voyage
under her then master, Captain I. r.
Deering. Fortunately, no lives We're
lost in this disaster. the steamer Clyde
INrN-I M
The Guatemala, however, could not be
pulled off the rocks, and finally broke
up, and was total loss.
The City of Toxic was wrecked off
the harbor of Yokohama on June %,
1885 The vessel grounded in the fog.
The cargo was jettisoned and the pas
sengers taken off, but the ship stuck
fast A week later furious typho0n
arose and the vessel was destroyed in
a short space of time. The City of To-
kio was a sister ship to the City of
Picking. which still plies between San
Francisco and Oriental ports.
Another Pacific Mail Steamship Com
pany's steamer, the Georgia, sank in
October. 1873. off Punta Arenas. Costa
Rica. The passengers and crew were
saved The vessel, worth about s40O,-
co., was a complete loss
The City of San Francisco is another
vessel that met disaster. On the morn
ing of May Is. 1871, when approaching
the Mexican port of Acapulco, she
struck a sunken reef, and sank in deep
water within an hour. The passengers
and crew were all saved.
The Costa Rica was also lost by the
Pacific Mail Steamship Company
through wreck. The date of her dis
aster was September II, 1879 as she
was entering this harbor under full
steam during fog. The passengers
were all saved. though with great diff
hculty.
Other early losses of the Pacific Mail
Steamship Company were the Golden
CITY. valued at $1,000. 900 wrecked on
February %, 1870 near Point st. Lazaro,
in Southern California. without loss OF
life: the America, which was burned
to the waters edge off Yokohama Har-
Dor on August "a, 1872, the pecuniary
loss being a million and a-half.
shortly after the loss of the America,