Turner County herald. (Hurley, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1912-05-30

COAL ana, Wnen tne vessel
reached Cape Horn, the Bates hoo
doo'-as sailors always called it-got
In Its work again and the ship went up
IN flames. Mrs. Bates and the others
ON the ship were compelled to take to
the small boats.
The Liverpool ship Symmetry, bound
to Acapulco, rescued them 1t was
learned that the Symmetry was laden
with coal, as the other two ships had
been, and Mrs. Bates and the sailors
gathered On deck and offered up pray
er that the Bates hoodoo" would pass
them by this time
During the first three hours that
Mrs. Bates was aboard nothing hap
pened. But the crew OF the Symmetry
were so positive in their superstition
that a fire would surely break out if
she remained on the vessel, that Mrs.
Bates and her husband We're persuad-
ed to transfer themselves to the Fan
chon, that passed the Symmetry on
its course to San Francisco The Fan
chon, Mrs. Bates learned to her hor-
ror, was also laden with coal
later, when the Fanchon was twelve
hundred miles from land, the usual
hoodoo-fire came about as sure as fate.
Half of the crew was quickly ordered
to go below and fight the flames and
Mrs. Bates, donEsng sailors clothes,
gave the men her assistance, remain
ing below on watch for two days aft
er the fire had been extinguished Five
days later the Fanchon struck the
rocks of the Galapagos islands and
Mrs. Bates was one Of those who was
hurled overheard by the shock OF col
! lision. Three hours after she reached
| the shore-her life having been saved
| by the merest chance-the flames
| burst out on the Fanchon once more
and one hour later the vessel was a
| black ruin
After living for weeks as Crusoes on
| the island, the shipwrecked colony was
rescued by a passing bark. Mrs. Bates
was then transferred to the steamship
!, Republic. carrying four hundred pas
sengers. Five days out, the old hoo
doc again asserted itself Another
fierce flight with fire was in order, but
this time with little damage.
In short, fire followed Mrs. Bates
as shadow, not only for years on sea,
but on land as well. Shortly after her
arrival in San Francisco that city suf-
fered one its greatest confiagrations.
Six months later the hotel in which
Mrs. Bates was stopping in Marysville
was destroyed by fire and Mrs Bates
narrowly escaped death. The records
even show that in 1890, in Plymouth,
Mass the house in which she was iv-
ing burned and Mrs. Bates was nearly
killed.
Mrs Bates, "the fire woman of the
sea-" is regarded by American sailors
as the most extraordinary escaper
from death that they have ever en-.
countered
Four Strange Tales of the Sea.
The sailors and records reveal hun
fact that vie with the fiction book
shelves.
For instance, there is the story of g
pitched battle that occurred in 1855
aboard one of the convict sailing ships
bound for England to Australia, a bat
tie that lasted two whole days.
There is the story of the captain
OF the bark l. A. Van Romondt, bound
for Cuba from Nova Scotia The cap
tain had just married young girl il
Nova Scotia and thought the voyage
to China would be his honeymoon trip
Before that honeymoon trip was ended
; twenty-six days later, wrecks ant
transfers had placed the bride success
sively on vessels carrying the Dutch
Cuban, Norwegian, American, Mexical
| and Italian flags.
Then there is the story of the strand
} ing of the q. s. S. Wateree, Captain
L. G. Billings, U. 8. N. on August s
1868, by Chilian earthquake; of tn
: J frightful battle with the huge gun
} that broke loose in the storm pre-
! ceding the stranding and crashed bacI
and forth across the decks; of tn
= subsequent fight on the part of tn
= officers to bring the panicky crew t
! discipline; and of the final carrying G
3 the ship by the earthquake two mile
9 inland and the depositing Of the vesse
at the base of a coast range of tn
! Andes.
4 AS the sailors say, "All truth ma
q not be stranger than fiction, but 20
can bet your marlin spike sea trut
a Isl"
Y What would you say7