The San Francisco call., 1905-02-25
TIDE CARRIES
BOYS TO SEA
William and Charles Muller
Spend the Night Drifting
About in a Small Boat
PARENTS GROW ANXIOUS
Start for Sausalito to Tow
Home Skiff and Are Absent
for Twenty Four Hours

An acquaintance with the strength
and eccentricities of the tide is neces-
sary for those who would navigate the
waters of this harbor in small boats.
Experienced boatmen and fishermen
use the jiu jitsu method and utilize the
strength of their enemy, the tide, to
tighten their labors. William and
Charles Muller, who live at so6 Lom-
bard street, possessed only swimming
acquaintance with the greatest harbor
in the world, and when they under
took to visit Sausalito in a whitehall
boat they made trouble for themselves
and caused their parents an anxious
night.
The Muller boys bought skiff In
Sausalito. They borrowed a whitehall
boat and Thursday morning at
o'clock started in the borrowed boat
from Meiggs wharf intending to row
to Sausalito, get the skiff and tow 1t
to North Beach. The tide allowed
them to reach Sausalito in fairly good
time. After resting from their toll
with the oars, they started, Thursday
afternoon, to row home. There was a
strong ebb tide running and as soon
as the oarsmen cleared the land they
found it out.
Tug and struggle at the oars as they
would they made no headway against
the swift current, which soon had them
speeding seaward. They concluded
that the whitehall boat was too heavy
for them to row so they transferred
themselves and the oars to the skiff
and tried towing the larger boat.
They ran into a fog bank before
dark and when the fog lifted a little
darkness prevented their plight being
seen by passing vessels. Then the fog
settled down again. They think they
went outside the heads. They believe
they heard the people on the Faral-
lones calling the chickens for their
morning meal. Charles is certain he
heard a number of pilots arguing as to
whether straight flush beat four aces
and William tells of almost colliding
with the lightship.
AS the waves washed away their
tracks as fast as the boats slid by,
they will never know just where the
tide carried them. Daylight found
them still travelling. A heavy fog shut
them in and silence reigned on all
sides. They thought they must be
somewhere near Honolulu, when the
blast of a whistle told them they were
unpleasantly near the track of some
ferry boat. Then out came the Cali
fornia sunshine and drove away the
fog.
On Meiggs wharf the parents of the
boys were watching anxiously All
night long they had waited for the
boys to return. At daybreak they WIS.,
tied the water front, questioning fish
ermen and imploring boatmen to make
a search for the missing youngsters.
There they are said Michael Fitz-
gerald. the eagle-eyed lookout at
Meiggs wharf for the Merchants Ex-
change. In the field of Fitzgerald S
long telescope, what looked to the
naked eye like a tiny dot stood out
sharp and clear as the skiff, the white
hall and the missing Mullers. Still in
the clutches of the tide they were just
off Sausalito. A gasoline launch was
sent to their assistance, the long voy-
age ended in safety, and at the Null
Ter breakfast table the boys told the
story of their adventures with the tide
and of how it tried to run away with
them.