The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-12
AWOODPILE ROUNDS THE HORN
-FOUR MASTER WIN. NOTTINGHAM
HERE, I6J DAYS OUT.
sticks OF oregon Pine. SOme OF Them 100
Feet Long and = Feet Through. Piled
"a Feet High on Deck Pumps Going
for Months Ran Into an Iceberg.

Effl bsODN ~ - FttN InFDuBU, MNIeu
"a Feet Hlgh on Deck Pumps Going
for Months Kan Into an Iceberg.
A big four masted schooner, the William
Nottingham, 10Y a month or more overdue
at Boston, having sailed for that port from
Port Townsend. Wash. on June "a, came to
anchor of ~Stapleton, Staten Island. yester-
day afternoon. having put in here with a
crew weary " pumping and most Of her
fresh water gone TO drive the donkey engine.
The Nottingham had been leaking for more
than three months, and though the engine
had kept her hold pretty well free for the
last two weeks. because OF heavy winds and
gales she counter along the coast the
men had been at the hand pumps most Of
the time before that.
All hands except the skipper turned in
yesterday afternoon as soon as the vessel
came to anchor and will get a good sleep
before the schooner is taken in tow to-day.
She will complete her voyage to Boston by
way of Long Island Sound. Capt. Austin
Keegan came ashore to telegraph to his
agents in Boston. A SUN reporter found
the first mate aboard last night.
The Nottingham came around the Horn
with the biggest deckload OF timber ever
DlHCth On a. cdltu8 bcrScI anu Dtthure Vi
that fact there has been much uneasiness
regarding her safety.
-She would have had a damn hard time Of
It il those sticks of timber hadn't been
dashed as they were" said the first mate.
And as it was | shouldn't care to go around
Che Horn again like that. When a schooner
under ordinary circumstances should come
around in four months and it takes her
i05 days she is going slow. But we ouldn
do any better with the load we had and the
head seas and gales and hurricanes and
Che ice we met around the Horn"
II was nc easy matter getting from the
deck of a tug TO the deck Of the Noting
ham, for Oregon pine sticks, some of them
i0l feet long and three feet in diameter,
were piled on the s~chooner's deck to the
height of fourteen feet.
Pretty awkward working a vessel loaded
BIKE that, especially in a blow and at night"
Commented the mate. Not much fun
finding those chain lashings with your feet
when you are in a hurry in the dark. Damn
sight worse than barking your shins against
q rocking chair while you're looking for the
baby's paregoric at night, and then there
weren't no women around to blame il all
on. We all lost the skin of the forward
side of our legs against those chains and
hawsers and stubbed more toes than we
had ever thought we had.
why, the captain OF the tug that took
us In tow off the Hook this morning thought
that our skipper was joking when he said
the Nottingham brou ght that load around
the Horn, and the shippers of several
schooners we passed coming up the Bay
that had heard we were overdue at Boston
called out TO the old man that they would
70 to hell before they would sail for Nor
folk in a schooner loaded like that. We
never would have made it had the Noting
ham been built as they build some schOoners
these days.
But we got around without any big
accidents barring a collision with an ice
berg off the Falkland Islands, when We
lost our foreyard and the jibboom. We
never lost a sail and not a man was injured,
though the waves swept clean over us at
times.
while we we're loading at Port Townsend
one of the crew, a seaman Of the name of
Carroll, stabbed the captain in the back
four times, but the old man wasn't badly
hurt-he is only 20 years old and spry-
30 he was out OF the hospital in a few days
and Carroll was in Jail.
After we had put 700 OF those big pine
sticks into her hold and on deck, filling in
the spaces with lumber, we went to sea.
The flashing was lone when We got outside
n we had TO keep tightening the ~lashings
all the way because she rolled so in a sea-
way that the timbers loosened. A month
after we left Port Townsend We spoke
the steamship Crown OF Germany and that
was the last time we got in hailing distance
Of any vessel until a tug picked us up near
the Scotland Lightship.
Sixty DAYS after We had sailed we sprung
o leak in a southwest gale of the coast
bf South America. She didn't make much
water at first the donkey kept her dry
enough-but as we got nearer to the Horn
end the gales came faster her seams opened
more.
-She went down the Pacific side in seventy
six days and on September "a ran into
The ice fields. / have made many voyages
10 the northward, but l never saw ice like
that we struck down there. We found our
selves in 1t early in the morning, and as
we went ahead it looked as though 1t would
newer end. Maybe o will think that | am
lying, but some OF the / ebergs we saw
were ten miles long. Solid ice without a
break, except here and there a little patch
Of blue water. The worst OF 1t was you
couldn't see the icebergs In the nighttime.
and so we Just had to shorten sail and go
around without knowing where We we're
br what would happen next.
st was the berg we ran into that first
gave us the knowledge Of the presence of
the ice. l was on deck at the time. First
there was a Jolt when the jibboom went
against the ice and as the schooner scraped
along the foreyard went by the board.
Then tons Of ice came tumbling on the deck
load-and for a time il looked az though
she would go down by the head so far that
her bows would be under water. But the
larger pieces of ice rolled into the sea and
we freed her Of the rest. After that we ran
into no more icebergs, but the three days
we we're in the ice fields we were uneasy.
The ground swell kept the ice grinding
all the time, and the noise was enough TO
scare you out Of a years growth. There
IL nothing quite 20 helpless as a sailing
vessel in an ice pack, n there was always
the fear OF having our sides torn open by
the ice.
AT last we got through. But We were
leaking badly. Once We let the donkey
stop work for six hours and found that
there was three and a half feet of water
in the hold. After that the donkey worked
all the time. She din't leak 80 badly when
we we're in the doldrums, but every gale
we got into kept the men at the pumps.
Coming around Hatteras we had rough
weather, and since then for the past week
there was rough weather every day except
last Sunday. The men have been at the
pumps all the time since we passed Hatteras
eight dava AFRO. We have plenty of food