Los Angeles herald., 1907-07-31
GIVES LIE TO
HIS ACCUSER.
CAPTAIN OF SAN PEDRO ANSWERS
UGLY CHARGES
GREAT SPEED REQUIRED TO
MAINTAIN SCHEDULES
Third Officer Hawse, Who Accused
Skipper, Is on Verge Of Madness
and May Be Examined as
to His Sanity
BY Associated Press.

1
SAN FRANCISCO, July SO.-The testi-
mony of the officers of the steam schooner
San Pedro, before Capt John Berming-
ham today, demonstrated clearly that the
| habit of coast shippers, said to be practi-
cally universal, of running their vessels
| at full speed regardless of the fog, was
mainly responsible for the wreck of the
Columbia and its terrible consequences.
| Capt. Hansen fatty denied the story
that he inhumanely refused to save the
Columbias passengers.
| Chief Mate B. Hendrickson, who was
| in charge of the San Pedro at the time
of the collision, testified that when he
first heard the fog signals of the Colum-
bia he did not slow down and that when
the passenger vessel loomed out of the
| fog 1t was too late to do anything but
try to make the collision as light as pos
sible
He appears to have acted with dispatch
and good judgment when he sighted the
Columbia, but at that time, according to
| his testimony, the ships were not more
than boats length apart and not much
was possible. There was no time to go to
starboard. He therefore blew the danger
signal, four short blasts, ordered the en-
| gines stopped and threw the helm hard
aport. t.'
| He did not order the engines reversed,
| he explained because hoped to throw the
| San Pedro around so as to strike only a
| glancing blow and In order to do this 1t
was necessary to keep sufficient way on
her. The San Pedro had been making
about eight knots and was probably
making five when she struck the Column
| bia.
The mate said, in answer to question
that when the fog signals were heard
close by 1t was the custom to slow down,
but that the Columbia's signals seemed
far away.
Mate Confused
The question of passing signals seemed
very uncertain in the chief mates mind
Close cross examination by Attorney
George A. Knight brought out only one
thing clearly, that the mate did not know
whether the last signal he blew, preced-
| ing the Columbias starboard passing sig
nal, was a fog signal or a signal blast to
go to port.
Capt Birmingham was most interested
in the mates explanation of his failure to
slow down when he first heard the Co
lumbia.
| "Why didn't you slow down when you
heard the fog signal?' he asked over and
over again, and the answer each time was
| Because she seemed so far away
The witness testified that he had been
1 a seaman on the coast for twenty-four
years, ana tNaL ne IldQ Ileiu d IiidSISA
| license for two years.
The testimony of Capt. Hansen and Sec
ond Mate A. J.. Shaube corroborated that
| of the chief mate as to the direction from
which the Columbia's first whistles
sounded, but as they were below at the
time they could throw little light on the
events leading up to the collision.
Capt Hansen testified in the afternoon
and told in detail everything that trans
pired after he reached the deck of the
San Pedro and while the Columbia was
sinking. He was asleep In his cabin
when the collision occurred, reused by
the shock hurried to the deck. There he
found the Columbia wallowing to her
last plunge and the San Pedro so badly
crippled that she was kept af1oat only by
the load of lumber she carried.
Capt. Hansen said
1--WE launched our deckload in about
two and a half hours after the collision.
The lashings were not cut until the san
Pedro had a starboard list of about 45
degree, when the top of the upper house
touched the water.
'The mainmast carried away on level
with the top of the smokestack.
THE pressure of the deckload on the
rigging caused the mast to go over.
"The San Pedro took about an hour and
a quarter to fill. At that time the main
deck was under about a foot of water,
which reached the top of the main deck
house and swept the rooms.
"Lifeboats Had Room"
zone of the lifeboats from the Colum-
bia containing about nine people pulled
up near us. There was an officer in the
stern, his hat and coat on, VINO asked
that we take his passengers aboard.
refused. There have been statements IN
the press that had 1 taken the passen-
gers from the lifeboat the boat could nave
saved more people. The boat could easily
have held twenty-five, but there were only
nine in 1t. At the same time there was
another of the Columbia's boats nearby
containing only four people.
''I thought the commander of the boat
containing nine was the captain. L asked
him who he was and found that he was
the third mate. Among other things he
asked for my first mate, saying that ne
wanted to get to Shelter Cove and would
get war ship to the scene in six hours.
He spoke very peculiarly and l was going
to send my first mate with him when we
sighted a northbound steamer about two
or three miles away, and the hrst mate
tried to chase her in the boat, but he
could not attract her attention.
81 believe the boat was the Watson. l
do not understand why she did not sight
us, as she showed up very plainly to us.
The skipper defended himself vigorously
against the charges brought against him
by Third officer Hawse of the Columbia,
and declared that he had done everything
in his power to rescue the victims OF the
wreck He took aboard all that his little
craft would hold, and while he admitted
that he had warned off one of the life
boats he only did so for fear that II
would be STAYED in by floating lumber II
it approached nearer.
"Did you refuse to take more people on
board?" asked Capt Birmingham,
Safer In Boats
II did refuse" Hansen replied, but
told them l thought they were safer in
the boats than on the upper decks of the
San Pedro. There was danger that the
metal boats would be stove in If they came
too near the floating lumber, and was
afraid my ship might turn over
Second Mate Schaube of the San Pedro
created some amusement by insisting
that he was instrumental in saving only
forty-one persons, refusing to take credit
for the nine he took from the Columbia S
boat.
They had already been saved" he
said deprecatingly when Captain Ber-
mingham was trying to count how many
lives he had TO his credit
'I saw a statement in the press" said