New-York tribune., 1909-10-10
SHANGHAlED TO ARCTIC
70 HO HO! AND Il BOTTLE
OF RUMP
Murder 1cith a Delaying Pin the
MiLdest Incident of This Trip
Ice Sinks Ship.

Few days ago a young marine derelict named
Otto Hermstorf. who spun a yarn that made "au
hands" sit UP and take notice 1t was q tale
that would put poor old Reuben Ranzo. of
"cnan'y fame in the shade. The "chanty" runs:
RanZo was no saior-Ranzo. boys: Ranzo!
But ne shipped on board of a whaler-Ranzo bovsl
Ranzo! '''S'
Otto was no sailor-he was a machinist-but
he was shanghaied on board OF whaler. the
steam bark William Baylies of New Bedford.
one dark night in San Francisco harbor. and he
didn't sign articles with Captain Cutie until
that ship had been a month on her way to the
Arctic Ocean. One cold forenoon, off Point
Barrow, Alaska in latitude 71:24 longitude 1856 20
west, the bark was crushed between two ice
bergs and sank in seven minutes so Otto says,
and all hands and the cook had to climb out on
the lcebergs until they were rescued by another
whaling bark like the Baylies, named the Bow
head. Captain Tilden was her skipper
But this is anticipating. J. Barrett Mugford
superintendent of the society's institute at No
5o7 West street. having supplied Otto with a
brand new rig, according to Instructions from
headquarters, told him to respin his yarn for
the benefit Of Tribune readers, which he did.
showing good memory for details
LOST JOB AFTER EARTHQUAKE.
Otto. who is bright looking German born in
Dresden and twenty-seven years old, said he
Works, San Francisco, helping to build the
United States warships Milwaukee and Cali
fornia, when the earthquake came along and
shook him out Of job His fare was paid to
New York. and he came on here. going soon
after, to Panama, where he worked on the canal
for eleven months and then returned to San
Francisco.
On March 1. 1907, while looking for work there
8 man greeted him with. Hello Shorty. want
to go a-11shing?" When he said Yes" he was
taken out in a launch to visit a friend on board
a vessel in the harbor. The man asked Otto 70
go into the 'fosle" and wait a short time while
he went to another ship. Needless TO say, the
runner" never came back Otto found the
"fo'csle" Of the Baylies-for it was the whaIer-
filled with drunken. lighting crew They gave
him some whislEey. and he fell asleep TO wake in
the morning with the bark under full sail out
side the Golden Gate. bound on a whaling trtp
TO the Arctic
The Baylies was lost. as stated, and Otto
badly injured by falling from the main rovaI
yard. landed in San Francisco twenty months
later, with SIS in his pocket, he and the other
forty-one men composing the barl's crew hs1-
ing shipped on sharing terms and that beng
his share rae bones Of the four whales they
caught-which bring from IS TO ss Mound
were lost with the ship
MET DIR. COOK, HE SAYS
Young Hermstorf said that the bark. after
rounding Point Barrow, where she was lost
nearly a year later on the return trip, pro
ceeded in search of whales through the Beau
fort Sea 10 Prince of Wales Sound and through
it to Melville Sound thence through Barrow
Strait into Lancaster Sound. where. he says,
some time in the winter OF 1907. DR.. Frederick
A. Cook went on board the BayIies and bought
some three hundred pounds Of sealskins which
hat ri fba OH
clothes for his party. who it is now known
soon TO start for the North Pole Neither
Captain Cutie nor his crew. however. knew at
that time that DR.. Cook was bound for the polar
regions.
Otto HermstQrf, according to his story, was
gone twenty months from San Francisco Ian
caster Sound. where it enters Baf1n's Bay is
only $500 miles from San Francisco so that the
Baylies, under steam and SAIL allowing for ice
encountered in her cruise, had ample time to
cover the distance and TO return to the spot of
Point Barrow where she was crushed. The
Bowhead was short of coal he said so it took
her two months TO reach San Francisco from
Point Barrow
Lawrence Island is the first place we stopped
at outward bound trip" he said Then
We anchored of Indian Point, and the next time
at the Big and Little Diomede Islands, opposite
Cape Prince of Wales, the most western point of
America, in the Bering Strait. Then we called
at North Head and Tellar City, where we coaled.
Going north all the time, we stopped at Port
Hope and Cape Smith.
The thermometer was down TO so degrees be-
low zero the day our ship was lost We had
been steaming through the ice pack all night
with two men at the wheel. when in the fore
noon she got between two big bergs. which
crushed her quickly that she sank in seven
minutes.
a Portuguese boat steerer was killed by a
sailor board the Bowhead in a fight over
cards in the forecastle.' continued Otto. He
hit him with an iron Delaying pin. Captain TIL
den handcuffed the who did it TO a spar on
deck in zero weather. TO make him confess, and
he kept the crew locked in the forehOId for a
time to make them tell They Sc fire TO the ship
before he released them"
Hermstorf -opped here to remark that the
trial in San Francisco Of the alleged murderer
was still pending. Some OF the crew. he said
wrote to Washington. telling of the brutality of
the Bowhead's skipper. with the result that he
is unable to get command OF another ship On
the return trip. Otto says. the men were COM
PEELED to eat bear liver and walrus liver They
expected to go to Cape Nome. Alaska for pro-
visions but they continued on to San Francisco
touching at Dutch Harbor on the way
otto has been treated at the Eclectic College.
No 239 East 14th street. for injuries, and
the doctors say he may go TO work If he can
find job where he does not have TO lift any
thing He spent six months in the Marine Hos
pital at San Francisco, where he was treated
for the injuries received when he fell from the
main royal yard
-ApuApD crrS vorrHrcpcn cmr,r-,,-r,