New-York tribune., 1921-12-11
@HE s,0oo-ton United States-Australia
Line freighter West Wind, Captain
Charles A. Abbott, sixty days out from

Charles A. Abbott, sixty days out from
Brisbane, N S. W., arrived in New
xo-k Harbor last week and tied up at the
.-nv base wharf, foot of Fifty-ninth Street
crn,klvn, listing to port and rusty from
sselson to funnel cap. The ships log tells
ssse;nating tale of adventure in the South
Pacific. her o'heefs say she Is iucky TO DC
afost.
The West Wind steamed 700 miles with
lar hunkers afre, the record shows, drove
,r;4hin three cable lengths of the rocks after
:, all-night struggle, when her anchors
araoged in q typhoon off Newcastle, N. S. W.,
,,owed out of Brisbane Harbor half an hour
shead of 8 quarantine proclamation for bu-
bonc plague and had to shift cargo in mid
pacific to tinker her tail shaft All this, to
s.v naught OF being laid up two weeks for
boiler repairs at Panama.
An entry in the log dated August ! re-
cords that the ship was joined that day at
pnlpit Point. Sydney, by one Sinbad. An
elaboration of this entry reveals that Sinhad
is tabby tom cat. formerly ships mascot and
sunercargo of the S,500-ton freighter Canas-
tosa also flying the U. S. & A. house flag,
which mysteriously vanished with all hands be-
tween Sydney and Wellington the last week
in June.
The advent of this feline marine adven-
turer out of vast and mysterious void en-
shrouding the fate Of fifty men and officers
who constituted the Canastota's complement
appeared TO have been considered an event of
rare significance. The crew say he's the lucki-
est cat ahoat. Hundreds of good seamen
are ashore in worlds ports because of hard
times in the ocean carrying trade, but Sinbad,
rover of the Seven Seas, can sign on any
minute anywhere. All he's got to do is walk
aboard.
Both the Canastota and West Wind piled
petween New Zealand and New South Wales
ports, carrying benzine for the Vacuum Oil
Company of New Jersey. The Canastota had
$4,000 cases aboard when she left Sydney
bound for Wellington to take on more cargo.
This vessel was spoken of up and down the
Australian and New Zealand coasts as "the
bomb ship Her commander, Captain A W
Locke, capable officer, was well known in
New York, Montreal, Harve and up the Mer-
sey he ran the submarine blockade between
Montreal and French ports through the war
The West Wind, probably in recognition of
hazards inseparable from the benzine carrying
trade, is referred to alongshore in Sydney,
Newcastle, Wellington and Auckland as "the
coffin box Her commander Captain Abbott.
halls from New York. His home is at 996
Simpson Street, the Bronx.
Among officers and men of the West Wind
few are without mementos, such as burns and
bruises, OF terrific hurricane that kept the
vessel steaming full speed ahead into her an
cher chains during thirty-hour fight to pre-
Blight, Newcastle, July "a. During that storm
everything loose on deck went oversize. When
day dawned the West Wind was close enough
to have tossed biscuit ashore, with only three
fathoms Of water under her keel The typhoon
had blown itself out
Since the Canastota signaled "All clear off
Sydney Harbor that June afternoon no trace
Of her has been found. What happened the
vessel will probably never be known. Austria
han sea lawyers hold that benzine from pune
tured containers leaked into her bige, mixed
with the water there, forming an explosive gas
and blew her sky high when lantern was
carried into the hold by an oiler at work on
shaft bearings. 1t is sufficiently reasonable
hypothesis, but that is all. Whatever happened
must have taken the ships company unawares,
because, although equipped with modern wire
less outfits, the Canastota sent no calls for aid
All any one really knows is that she vanished
-spuros versenkt.
Far out at sea the West Wind picked up