Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1922-08-18
Copyrights By Edwin Balmer
CHAPTER xx-ccntinued.

what is It you want to known
Sheriff. asked.
What were the relations between
Benjamin Coryet and Captain Stat
ford?"
Sheriff. thought moment.
"Corvet," he replied, twas q very
able man; he had insight and mental
grasp--and he had the fault which
sometimes goes with those, 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."
u begin to see |" Father perron ex-
claimed. please 80 on"
I'm the early nineties both lines still
We're young; Stafford had, believe,
two ships: Coryet had three
so fewf Yes; 1t grows palnerp
in 1894, Stafford managed stroke
which, II fate had not interviewed, must
have assured the ultimate extinction
Of Corve's line or Its absorption into
Statford's Stafford gained as his part
ner Franklin Ramsdell, a 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
perlng him, as II was still hampering
Goryet. The new firm Stafford and
Ramsdell--projected the construction,
with Ramsdell's money, of number
OF great steel freighters The first of
these--the Mlwaka, 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
tSHSSiS AotHAiu, WaLLiiHSs Wndt 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 1t.
"Iiis 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 q
man rs the lakes ever knew. had
my Will Of most men In the lake trade
In those days: but | could not have
my win Of him. With all the lakes to
trade In, he had to pick out for his that
traffic which already had chosen for
my own. But / fought him fair, Fa-
ther--I fought him fair. and would
have continued to do that to the end.
:" i was at Manistee, Father, In the
end of the acknowledgements fifth OF
1895. The Ice had begun to form very
early that year and was already bad;
there was cold and a high gale. l had
laid mp one of my ships at Manistee,
and | was crossing that night upon a
tug TO Manitow0c. where another was |
to be laid up. / had still third one |
loading up on the northern peninsula at !
Manistique for last trip which, If II
could be made, would mean good !
roft from a season which so far. be- ,
ause of Stafford's competition, had
cen only fair. After leaving Manis-
&C. Il grew still more cold, and was /
,frald the Ice would close In on her i
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. n
"'At midnight, Father, to westward t
Of the Foxes, we heard the four blasts 4
Of a steamer In distress--the four long h
blasts which have sounded In my soul
ever since! We turned toward where a
we saw the steamers lights; we went S
nearer and. Father, II was his great S
ship--the Miwaka We had heard two t
lays before that she had passed the
500. We had not known more than that o
If where she was. She had broken her a
lew shaft, Father, and was intact ex- Il
,ept for that, but helpless In the rising C
Tea =" q
The priest broke off. "The Miwaka t,
did not understand all that that had h
pant to him until just now--the new S
hip OF the RIVAL line, whose building o
meant for him failure and defeat il
There Is no higher duty than the |
'escue OF those In peril at sea. He d
benjamin Corvet, who told me this h
wore to me that, at the beginning h
lone ppon the tug had any thought ex- Fl
ept to give aid. small line was f,
lrified down to the tug and to this a a
'awser was attached which they ii
Iauled aboard. There happened then d
rs =sirst Of ti.ose events which led Il
aose upon the tug into doing a great h
grong. Hs-Benjamln Corvet--had q
aiken charge OF the wheel of the tug; S
hree men were handling the hawser IL
d Ice and washing water at the stern. $,
he whistle accidentally blew, which b
hose ON the Miwata understood to Il
lean that the hawser had been Sc on
ur2c - they drew Ia the slack; the "