Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1907-07-14

TINE recent passing away of Captain
Hiram Morse and Dennis Kearney
4 was the ultimate in two of the most
powerful factors In the formative period
of Calfornias history.
Capt Morse, in 1879, in command of
the old sidewheel steamship Colorado,
brought to San Francisco the first large
batch of Chinese coolies. and Dennis
Kearney arose, about the same time, to
cry: 1.-THE Chinese must go!'' The sec
ond officer of the Colorado, on that his
tory making trip, is now a resident Of
Los Angeles. and tells the following story
concerning It:
"The Colorado was bark-rigged steam
ship with great side wheels, and of some
1000 tons displacement, having huge
walking beam engine, with a cylinder LIZ
inches in diameter and II feet In stroke
We were loaded to the guards with gen.
eral cargo, and carried some 200 passen-
gers In the saloon and $50 coolies, in all
stages of i'll health. in the steerage.
'The boxes of trade dollars-the savings
Of Chinamen-were slowed; the cattle on
the hoof-no cold storage then-were duly
dashed to iron jackstays, and all was in
readiness for the command to Let go!
Capt. Morse came down, the dock accom-
panied by the agent and some friends, and
| his genial, hearty laugh could be heard
as he told some good yarn of the sea.
! ~ was on the dock experimenting the
covering of baled hay with gunny cloth
when the party approached, and just as
Morse was stepping over the ships lines
he tripped on them and fell headlong on
the dock.
Rising hastily, his manner changed to
seriousness, he remarked: Gentlemen,
something unusual will happen on this
voyage; l feel it. His companions made
light of his fears and sailor superstition,
and soon he passed up the gangway and
ordered the lines off.
"A 1O-pound howitzer was part of the
ships equipment and this was loaded by
son of a sea cook who claimed to know
how, who placed a solid wad of rope
yarn In 1t for a corker so hard and heavy
that when the gun was fired to announce
our farewell, just as we swung clear of
the dock, the wad caromed on the piling,
stove huge hole in the side of the shed,
knocked down the stevedore foreman,
breaking his leg, and landed on the back
of horse in a freight truck, causing the
team to run away and create general hob
oil over the dock
Morse, Delaying pin in hand, chased
the saltwater gunner all over the ship
intent on numbering him, and returned
breathless to the bridge to tell the pilot:
Didn't I tell you something would hap
pen on this trip?
Rounding Black Point, where the Rio
Janeiro went down some years ago, the
tide being at strong flood, the ship lee
bowed the current and narrowly missed
going ashore, and again Morse called the
pilots attention to the unlucky omen of
his fall, only to be laughed at for his
pains
when we had good offng the pilot
boat ranged under our lee and sent
yawl to take our pilot off. Capt. Morse
looked from the side down to the rope
ladder on which the pilot descended to his
boat, and thinking all was SAFE rang one
bell and the great wheels threw tons of
water on the boat. pilot and oarsmen, and
all of them had to swim till the pilotboat
came up and rescued them. AS a parting
shot Morse yelled: Didn't tell you so?
and the voyage began.
In the early days of the China trade
that country was an unknown land, and
her people were strange even to the cas-
ual tourist, and when the main deck
Waterman came to report "A pigtail stiff
in the dope box, sirr the passengers
crowded to that deck to see him.
For safety from chance fire from opi-
UNI pipes, the ship had a canvas booth on
the main deck, and Cinnamon who smoked
they all did-were forced to smoke there
All of the remaining 'chinks' had vari-
GUS sums of money sewed in belts about
their bodies, and many and cute were
the tricks played to rob the dying man
by his compatriots. It was news even to
US who were well acquainted with Chi
nese ways that a Chinaman could not be
induced to take diamonds or gold from
the dead body of a countryman, and so
all effort was made to get the Doodle
while life was yet in the man.
"Under a contract with the Six compa-
Mes bn6V MIGHT ha ntiri cd OF
so Chinese coffin made of a split log,
both halves dug out, was coated with coal
tar-the body embalmed, placed therein,
and the coffin strapped about with hoop
iron, was placed in the lower hold for
delivery to the regular consignee.
Capt. Morse~resented a death on the
first day out. and used the fact to for
tify his fear that something awful
would happen this voyage.
CLOSING on the meridian we ran into
a typhoon and had dirty weather for a
week, during which several steers were
trampled to death or drowned on the
guards, and the greatest care was
necessary to keep the great unwieldy
ship from broaching to in the heavy
sea. Those were the days of Drawn and
muscle at the hand wheel steering gear
and Capt. Morse never left the pilot
house for more than an hour in all that
time. The passengers of this day, who
complain of great vibration of the
newer screw engines would be sorely
affrighted then, to see the pondrous
thtrty-ton walking beam, forty feet
above water. carry it's massive support
ing frame a foot out of perpendicular
every revolution, as the ship settled in
a thirty-foot sea and grind the shaft
bearings till even the engineers found
they had nerves.
THE Colorado was heavily spared
and carried a big spread of canvas, her
foresail being eighty feet in the head
with twenty-foot drop, and on this
occasion I had a chance to see the
superstitious terror of Cinnamon.
Our crew, excepting quartermasters,
were Cinnamon, and it became neces
sary to take in the foresail early in the
storm. 1 had 1t we'll hauled up and
some fifty Cinnamon went aloft to stow
it.
1--WE were in the humid atmosphere
common to that latitude and longi
tude, and great balls of incandescent
fire formed and rolled from point to
point on all the spars, harmless but