Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1911-03-04

Of King Patrick. Porter made the islands
his Headquarters while he made raids on
British whaling ships during the war. The
ships we're accustomed to put in there Tor
water and fresh vegetables and fell an
easy prey TO the Americans.
David Glasgow Farragut was MD
shipman on the Essex, and he described
the sea post office as 1t then existed IN a
journal he kept of the cruise. In telling
of one Of the expeditions he wrote IN 1913;
1--WE then separated, our ship gong TO
Charles island to examine the postotnce
a letter box nailed to a tree, in which
whaIers and other visitors deposited
records of their movements. Found moth
ing new but some fresh tracks OF men
A Sea POstOffice.
A man who visited the island in 1884 de-
scribed this sea postoffice as consisting
then Of a candle box nailed to tree and
said that It looked old enough to be the
same box found by Farragut.
In the early 9Os the British warship
AmphIon visited the Galapagos and erected
a new postoffice to commemorate It's WISH
The crew of the warship put new poH
on top Of a post on the beach above high
water and cut the name Of their ship IN
Il. Since then II has been the custom OF
callers at the postoffice to inscribe their
names on the post as sort OF postmark'
There is no telling how often the post
office is visited, and people deposiung let
| ters have TO take chances. Some OF the
letters put there have taken queer travels
before reaching their destination. Two let
ters deposited there in 1905 reached the ad-
dresses in May, 1907, and then only after
some hard work done by the experts in
/ VFTn- III Inc fnT
These letters were found by resident
Of Guayaquil and forwarded by him to
washington. The addresses were all but
undecipherable. one was addressed to a
mother in Missouri by her sailor son and
another TO a woman In California whose
! son was a member Of a scientific expedi-
ton which had touched at the islands.
! Uncle Sam once before the present time
had his attention called to the Galapagos.
That was when an expedition was sent
there TO rescue Frederick Jeffs an Amer
lean seaman who was reported as ma
/ rooned there as the result OF a shipwreck.
II was In February, 1903, that the Navy
department was asked TO send ship TO
look for Jeffs after word had been re-
| ceived here from the coast OF Ecuador
that the crew OF Norwegian vessel, which
had been wrecked there, had been rescued
with the exception Of Jeffs, who had
wandered away. The whole world in
stantly began TO take interest in this case
OF a Robinson Cruso.
The gunboat Yankton, detailed from the
battleship fleet, then on its way around
the coast, reached the islands In March,
1905 and made a careful search OF hide
fatigable island. one OF the smallest IN
the group and the one from which the
other shipwrecked sailors had been res
cued. Though they searched hard and
long, the only trace OF the missing sailoI
the exploring party could find was sig
nal pole erected by him AZ a spring ter
miles from the spot where the other sailor
had been found and a rusty razor bearing
his name.
A little over a year ago a report CANT
20 the State department from the Pacific
that q body OF a sailor supposed 10 b
Jeffs had been found and buried on a lttl'
island not far from Colon. Whether thii
really was the body Of the missing sailol
was never definitely established. and thu
story Of Jeffs has remained one Of thi