Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1922-07-21
Copyright by Edwin Balmer
CHAPTER XX-Continued.


| Sheriff. asked.
What were the relations between
Benjamin Coryet and Captain Stat
| fordr
Sheriff. thought moment.
"Corvet," he replied, twas a very
able man; he had insight and mental
! grasp-and he had the fault which
sometimes goes with those, a hesitancy
of action. Stafford was an able man.
too, considerably younger than Corvet
Twenty years ago, when the conflict
of competing interests was at its
height, .Corvet was the head of one
line, Stafford was head of another, and
the two lines had very much the same
connections and competed for the same
cargoes.r
Il begin to eel" Father Perron ex-
claimed. please go on"
I'm the early nlneties both lines still
were young; Stafford had, I believe,
| two ships; Corvet had three"
80 few? Yes; it grows palmer !"
I'm 1894, Stafford managed stroke
which, If fate had not interviewed, must
have assured the ultimate extinction
of Corvet's line or It's absorption into
Stafford's. Stafford gained as his part
ner Franklin Ramsdell, wealthy man
whom he had convinced that the lake
traffic offered chances of great profit;
and this connection supplied him with
the capital whose lack had been ham,
pering him, as 1t was still hampering
Corvet. THE new firm-Stafford and
Ramsdeil-projected the construction,
with Ramsdell's money, of a number
of great steel freighters. The first of
these-the Miwaka. a test ship whose
experience was to guide them IN the
construction of the rest-was launched
in the fall of 1895, and was lost on its
maiden trip with both Stafford and
Ramsdell aboard The Stafford and
Ramsdell interests could not survive
the death of both owners and disap-
peared from the lakes. Is this what
you wanted to know"
The priest nodded. Alan leaned
tensely forward, watching; what he
had heard seemed to have increased
and deepened the priests feeling over
what he had TO tell and to have aided
his comprehension of it.
His name was Caleb Stafford" Fa-
Their Perron began. "(This is what
Benjamin Corvet told to me when he
was dying under the wreckage on the
ferry) He was as fair and able a
man as the lakes ever knew. I had
my will of most men In the lake trade
in those days; but l could not have
my will of him. With all the lakes to
trade in, he had to pick out for his that
traffic which l already had chosen for
my own. But / fought him fair, Fa
ther-I fought him fair, and 1 would
have continued to do that to the end.
81 was at Manistee, Father, in the
end Of the season-December fifth of
1885, The ice had begun to form very
early that year and was already bad;
there was cold and high gale. I had
laid up one of my ships at Manistee, !
and 1 was crossing that night upon a
tug to Manitowoc. where another was |
to be laid up. l had still q third one |
loading up on the northern peninsula at |
Manistique for last trip which, if it |
could be made, would mean a good |
profit from a season which so far, be-
cause OF Stafford's competition. had
been only fair. After leaving Manis-
tee, it grew still more cold, and was
afraid the ice would close in on her
and keep her where she was, so deter
mined to go north that night and see
that she got out. None knew, Father,
except those aboard the tug, that had
made that change.
cat midnight, Father, to westward
of the Foxes, we heard the four blasts
of steamer in distress-the four long
blasts which have sounded in my soul
ever SINCE We turned toward where
we saw the steamers lights; we went
nearer and, Father, IT was his great
shlp-the Miwaka We had heard two
days before that she had passed the
500; we had not known more than that
Of where she was. She had broken her
new shaft, Father, and was intact ex-
cept for that, but helpless in the rising
sea
The priest broke of. 1.-THE Miwaka
| did not understand all that that had
meant 10 him until just now-the new
ship Of the rival line, whose building
meant for him failure and defeat
There Is no higher duty than the
'escue Of those In peril az sea. He
8enjamin coryei who told me this
iWore 10 me rhnt, az the beginning
zone upon ihe rug had any thought ex-
'opf 10 give aid a small line VAS
lrfied down fo the rug and % ihis q
inNsor was attached Which ihey
iaulod aboard There happened tnen
me- nrsl 0f those events which led
hose up0n me- fug nfo doing p Rrea !
,rOng. 10 lipuIamln t0rYpl hui 3
AXIOM ohnrge NJ ine Nheol az ihe ius
llee mrn nfre NnnilNg iho hnAhef p
b NJ a0l washing Naier pa lnf stern.
mi phsll0 accidentally n'eN NNl'h q
i0.a nu NM MiNaNa HNiHalNnl NJ 4