The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1913-01-10
BOAT S|NKS;32 Lost
ROSECRANS GOES ASHORE WHILE
CROSSING INTO THE CO.
LUMBIA RIVER.
55-MILE GALE BLOWING.
Four Men Rescued After Clingirg to
Rigging For Hours-Craft
Had Unfortunate
Career.

Astoria, OFe., Jan. 9.-lne OIL TANK
steamship ROsecrans, bound from
Monterey, Cal, for Portland, Ore, ran
aground near here on Peacock Split
while crossing into the Columbia river
during a 55-mile gale and was lost
with 81 members of her crew of 35..
f'tr~H Four Are Saved. n #>#f
One survivor of the wreck was re-
ported to have reached shore at Tioga,
Wash, six miles from the scene of
the disaster and the Point Adams life
saving crew rescued three other men.
The men had taken refuge in the
rigging of one of the masts when the
ship went down. For many hours
they chung there, the waves breaking
over them repeatedly. Two of the
men were taken from their perch,
while the third, who had leaped into
the sea when the lifeboat neared the
spot was taken from the water.
The Rosecrans was hurled upon the
rocks of Peacock Point at the same
place where the steamship General
Washington went aground a year ago
Owing to the thick weather, the plight
several hours. When her, perilous po-
sition became known tugs and the
Fort Candy and Point Adams life
saving crews hurried to her aid
When the tugs reached the neigh
borhood of the tanker she was found
to be hard aground, the high seas and
driving winds making near approach
shifted and began to break up, and
before the tugs and lifesavers could
get near enough to put a line aboard
she slipped off the rocks and sank
until only her mastS and the funnel
appeared above the water, with three
men of the crew clinging to the rig
ging.
Steamer Unfortunate.
San Francisco.-Trouble perched on
the forefoot of the Rosecrans when
she was launched as the Methven
Castle in Glasgow, 80 years ago and
never left her.
Captain l.. F. Johnson, her master,
went down with her after three wrecks
within a year, for none of which he
was responsible. On an early voyage,
Carey, one of the, Phoenix Park muir
derers, who surrendered his confeder-
ates in the assassination at Dublin of
Lord Charles Frederick Cavendish and
Thomas Burke, was tracked half
around the world to Cape Town, South
Africa, and shot down on her decks
by avengers. For time she did duty
as an American army transport, but
the government was dissatisfied and
sold her.
Scooped out and converted into a
tanker, she became more actively I'M
fortunate. On March IL, 1912, after
fighting terrific gale all night, she
became unmanageable and was tossed
broadside on the rocks at Alcatraz, 20
miles north of Santa Barbara
The ships carpenter and quarter.
master were washed overheard and
drowned. With a hole 20 feet wide
in her plates and spiked firmly on the
rocks, the Rosecrans was given up for
lost, the weather moderated and it
was seen that she could be saved.
Pitched up and put to work again,
the steamer caught fire five months
later while taking in oil at Gayiota
and burned to the waters edge.
Name Not Known.
The owners put another handful of
thousands into her in repairs and sent
her to sea again. This time she made
a complete job of it on the rocks of
Peacock Split, taking her stout-heated
master and 81 men with her.
The names of the sailors may never
be known. This being the first trip
of the steamer since she was repaired
after the fire, the delegate sheet"
containing the names of the seamen
for the records of the sailors union,
was lost with the ship.