The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-10-13

and nInety-one passengers aboard.
When she left her wharf the bay was
clear. Off Meiggs wharf she epcoun-
tered a wall of fog drifting inward
from the sea. This had settled over
the channel and choked the Golden
Gate, shutting out of view the two
inner headlands and all the landmarks
and beacons used by mariners for their
guidance in laying their courses when
outward bound. The pilot in charge
and the captain in command, both of
whom were on the bridge, were forced
to rely upon the compass and their es-
innate of the speed of the vessel under
half steam, the strength of the outgo-
ing tide, the course of the bay currents
and the assistance they expected to get
from the fog signal station at Lime
Point and the bell beacon located on
the opposite shore at Fort Point. No
help could be obtained from the use of
the log to measure the speed, for the
course to be covered before entering
the Gate was too short for that. No
effort seems to have been made to
"heave the lead'' for soundings, al
though the ships position could have
been fairly determined and her entry
into the zone of danger revealed proba-
bly, in time to avert the disaster. No
war vessel would nave ventured out I'M
der similar conditions without bringing
the lead into play.
From all accounts pilot and captain
were trusting to the signals of the fog
siren at Lime Point, as they mistakenly
supposed that they were approaching
that headland Both officers report
that they did not hear the signals they
Lo+
to the Lime Point station bears cor
roborative testimony to the siren s
silence. which did not begin to blow its
alarm notes until 1920 p. m. The Ala
media was then hard aground on Fort
Point rocks. By one of those peculiar
fatanties which accompany an error of
Judgment and which pass all rational
explanation, to avoid the enormously
suspected danger from Lime Point, the
course of the vessel was changed at the
critical moment and set so that she
steamed direct to her destruction on
the reef which pilot and captain be-
lieved to lie safely a half mile to port.
The soldiers at the fort testify that the
fog bell at Fort Point was ringing
when the steamships fog whistle was
first heard before she came ashore,
which exonerates the keeper of that
beacon.
Whether the disaster was due to
faulty seamanship and bad Judgment,
or to the neglect of the keeper OF the
signal station at Lime Point to per-
form it's duties, it's effect upon the rep
utation of this port abroad will doubt
less be damaging, although its naviga-
ton under ordinary conditions Is abso-
lutely free from danger. The board or
United States inspectors of steam yes
sells will make a searching inquiry IN
order to fix the responsibility where 1T
belongs. The wreck can not DE classed
among those so-called facts of God -
which in maritime law exempt ship
masters and others from the penalties
of disasters at sea- If the channel
is not sufficiently well beaconed to in
sure safety to shipping passing IN and
out under all conditions OF light and
weather. the defects should be pointed
out and remedied. If the light and
fog stations are carelessly handled, that
fact should be pointed out and the
lighthouse board should be called upon
to enforce discipline. If shipmasters
outward bound are in the habit of hug
ging too closely to the Preside shore
rather than taking the middle of the
channel. for reasons of their own, the
practice should be openly condemned
bv the board of inquiry. The reputa-
ton of the port for safety is too pre-
cious TO be triled with.
I.arned of England walked eight