The Hattiesburg news., 1910-01-04
TRIPS AROUND HORN |
Capt. Goodwin Has Made Last
Voyage Past Headland.
Veteran Navlgator's Last Log 10 REQ
ord Of Fierce Storms, Terrifying
Thunderbolts and Narrow
Escapes from Death.

Escapes from Death.
San Francisco.-After having made
Sc Cape Horn passages, Capt. George
Goodwin of the American ship Dirigo
declares he has completed his last
voyage around the historic headland.
where terrific gales forever tear the
sails of ships, where thunderbolts
rend spars into splinters and noun
famous seas leap to the yardarms.
The Dirigo arrived several weeks
ago at Honolulu at the end of one of
the most thrilling Cape Horn runs on
record, and it was when he had pilot
ed his command into a safe haven
that the well-known skipper, who has
followed the sea for nearly half a
century. said he would never again
take the chances which resulted in his
undergoing such an experience as the
Dirigo passed through.
Lightning, which shattered the fore
skysail mast like pipe stem. Hurri-
canes that stripped the stocks of their
canvas, seas that doomed from every
point of the compass and a dangerous
leak below the water line, that finally
compelled the good ship to seek
refuge In South American port, are
recorded in the log of the Dirigo's
eventful passage.
The Dirigo sailed from Baltimore
October 26, 1908, laden with coal for
the United States government at
Honolulu. Owing to a heavy gale
which was blowing from the east
ward the ship was compelled to an
chor off Cape Henry and did not
square away for sea until the fol-
lowing Friday.
The Dirigo soon fell in with the
ship Acme, bound for this port, and
was in her company for some time,
each vessel piling on canvas and try
ing to outsail the other. For several
days the Dirigo and the Acme were
together, with strong west and north
west winds blowing all the time.
On November 6 a heavy gale from
southeast to southwest was raging
and in the weather the two vessels
parted. And here the Dirigo's trou-
bles began with the loss of several
sails.
After that" as Capt. Goodwin ex-
pressed it, things came in lunches"
"At the height of the terrific wind"
said the skipper, "the ship rolled from
side to side, groaning in every timber,
shipping seas fore and aft as well as
taking them from the northwest and
the southwest over the BEAM"
= On the afternoon of November 6,
the carpenter. staggering aft on the
pitching ship. reported to the master
that the vessel was leaking. No more
startling information can come to
a shippers ears on the high seas when
the nearest port lies hundreds of
miles away over the threatening waste
of ocean.
Capt Goodwin acted quickly. The
leak was discovered to be below the
water line. The water rushed in
through crack in a plate 12 feet
under the sea. To stop the flow of
the water, which was rapidly flooding
the hold with sickening gurgle,
Capt. Goodwin made a pad out of cot.
ton batting. soaked it in white lead
and placed it over the crack. Then
over this was fastened a plank.
There was no water in the hold
when the pumps were sounded at
eight o'clock that morning, but when
the lead had been stayed it was found
that the hold contained two and one
half feet of the brine
I'VE pumped out as much water as
we could" continues Capt Goodwin,
land then ! took up the floor and
hoisted the rest through the
lazaret hatch, using big oil drums We
were two days getting all of that
water out.
las the leak was SO far aft thought
at first that / could build a bulkhead.
fill 1t with cement, stop the leak and
keep on my voyage. / worked on this
scheme for several days, but in spite
of all that we could do the water con-
tinued to force its way in and wash
the cement away. We had to hoist
from forty to fifty barrels of water
out of the hold every day.
so it seemed that could do moth.
ing and l decided to 60 into Rio for
repairs. Two days after the gale we
sighted the Acme, with her foretop.
gallant mast gone. She, too, had had
a taste of the medicine which the ele-
ments had been giving u.s."
The following Friday after the
Dirigo sprang leak she ran into an.
other gale, which was accompanied by
thunder and lightning. One bolt de-
scended on the foreskysail mast, rend. !
ing it to splinters on the heayine
decks below. but the crew considered
themselves lucky in not suffering any
worse.
"On the evening of November a."
Capt. Goodwin relates, we saw an
unusually large comet. which seemed
40 be standing on its head. It had
the longest tail of any comet | ever
saw and it was in sight for two eve-
nings."
The Dirigo finally numbered into the
harbor of Rio Janeiro. where she re.
mained long enough to make rena;r. |