The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1908-07-07
VOICE FROM
ONE LONG DEAD

Fourteen years after the steam collier
Montserrat foundered off the entrance
to the straits, bottle message has just
been given TO the United States hydro
graphic office by the lifesavers at Yam
quina Bay, Ore purporting to be from
Captain Blackburn of the Montserrat.
All that the message states is that the
Montserrat went down December @,
1894, at $3.50 p. m. That bottle, which
was covered with barnacles, was found
by Frederick Butterfeld, a settler, in a
cove two miles from Yanquina Bay and
was referred by him to the lifesavers,
who in turn sent it to the photographic
office at Washington, D. q.
| The Montserrat and a sister collier,
the Keweena, and the ship Ivanhoe were
all lost in the closing days of 1894, with
eighty people. Wreckage of the three
vessels was found on the Vancouver is
land coast. The Montserrat, to which
the bottle message refers, left Nanaimo
on December g. in the evening, and If
the message is genuine the writer must
have erred day in the date. The Ke-
weena left Comox the following morn.
ing, and there was theory that the
two golfers might have collided in the
storm encountered soon after leaving
the straits. The steamer was command
ed by Captain David o. Blackburn, a
Nova Scotian, who was in command OF
the Umatilla, Walla Walla and other
the Gilbert Islands on "black birding
expeditions, and was known ON the
waterfront as Lucky Blackburn, owing
to his good fortune in earning several
large salvage fees for towing disabled
vessels into North Pacific ports.
The last seen of either the Montserrai
or Keweena was on the afternoon OF
December Z, 1894, when the observer
at Tatoosh sighted the vessels, the for
mer leading by about half mile, buck
ing into heavy head sea. A heav!
storm was prevailing and the Keweent
was seen shipping some heavy seas. TIL,
storm lasted a week and, following thu
abatement of the heavy weather, thu
Montserrat and Keweena were overdue
Hope was maintained for over a month
medicine chest of the Montserrat wa
found on February 2S on the beach n
the south end of Etalin island. In May
, 1895, when the late Captain McKiel
s who died a few weeks ago, took tn
sealing schooner Maud S. into Ros
=, u Harbor, Queen Charlotte islands, b
!. found that the Indians had recovere
d wreckage from both the Montserra
n and Keweena which the currents ha
y drifted north. On the walls of one q
!. the huts were the nameboards of bot
v vessels.
Many theories were held concernin
:. the loss of the two steamers. One tn,
DRY was that the Keweena, not so we
l. adapted to stand rough weather as til
e Montserrat, broke down, and in a
= tempting to give the same company
{. steamer line the Montserrat had co
10 lided with her and both vessels fount
II cred. If the bottle message is genuin
"a it would dispose of this theory an
prove that more generally held that til
o heavily-loaded collier had foundere'
3 Both vessels were known to be too muc
~ loaded to withstand such weather 9
" prevailed at the time.
IS The Keweena and Montserrat belong
u ed to the same feet as the ill-fate
- Leelanaw, lost in collision with I'll
ID British warship Condor off the cape OIL
lie winter a few years ago.
-s-4-s---