Evening star., 1923-12-31
81 SHIPS IN YEAR
+ GO DOWN IN PACIFIC
Heroism Marks 1923 at Sea When
l45 Lives Are Lost in
Wrecks.
HONDA TRAGEDY WORST
One Vessel Vanished With Sixty,
EIGHT nm Roard
A TRAGEDY WORST

Special Dispatch to, The star
SAN FRANCISCO, December 81
The year just ending will live long in
the memories of seafaring men on
this coast as a year of many turbu-
lent storms and an unusual number
of marine disasters with heavy death
tolls. In the last twelve months the
Pacific. belying its name, has rolled
up a total of 238 major accidents. In
thirty-seven of them vessels have
been sent to the bottom or dashed to
bits on Jagged rocks. The death toll
was 145
Included in the lOEg list was almost
every variety of sea calamity that has
ever been recorded. Big liners have
collfded far from land; cargo fires
have ragged for days between. decks
while vessels sped for ports some
times a thousand miles away; wind
TANNERS and Number schooners have
had sails, rigging and masts swept
away by bowling gales: even huge
passenger ships, supposedly safe in
the worst of storms, have come limp
ing into port with steering gear or
propellers shattered by terrific seas.
Record OF HerOfsm.
Almost every disaster recorded has
been productive OF it's featS of hero
ism. The immutable law of the sea,
women and children f1rst," has been
enforced a score of times. Some time
there Will be written into classic of
the sea the story Of the American
captain OF the Japanese liner Shin
kuku Maru, who, with a ninety-mile
gale raging off the coast of Alaska
on November "a, managed to save all
fore he finally quit his vessel as it
was being pounded to death on the
rocks
Material for another such classic is
provided by the ten members of the
crew of the schooner c. A. Smith,
wrecked off Coos Bay. Ore, December
II, who refused to leave their DOOM
ed vessel because a crippled radio
operator could not go with them. and
who perished in a futile effort to
rescue him.
The most spectacular wreck of the
year occurred at La Honda on Sep
tember when seven American de-
stroyers. steaming at full speed in
dense fog. crashed onto the sub
merged reefs which have claimed
many vessels in the last two decades.
Twenty-nine enlisted men paid the
forfeit of somebody's blunder. and
all seven destroyers were rendered
total wrecks
ON the same night the captain of
the liner Cuba, which smashed on to
the same reefs with 16S passengers.
performed such feat as is usually
encountered only in fiction, when he
landed pa assengers and crew safely
amid giant combers, and then refused
for forty-eight hours to leave his
vessel
vanishes at Sea.
One of the mysteries of the sea
was the loss of the steamer Swift
Star last August. somewhere between
Los Angeles and Colon. All that
passenger and crew list of sixty
eight was an ice box with a dead sea-
man still clinging to it.
A somewhat similar tragedy was the
laundering Of the barkentine Amy
Turner in mid Pacific during typhoon
nine members of the crew perished.
Four others, who put off in the vessels
only lifebat. were picked up a week
later-aH raging maniacs.
One of the most spectacular. but not
most danger-fraught, of collisions at
sea was the crash off the Canadian
coast last July between The Shipping
Board steamer Henderson, carrying the
late President Harding and his party.
and naval destroyer. The Henderson
was practically uninjured, but the de-
stroyer had a hard time making port.
Accidents Of Year.
Other outstanding sea accidents of
the year included:
Ramming of the steamer Rainier. off
Port Angeles, Wash, by the Japanese
liner Mandason Maru. The Japanese
commander towed the Rainier to safety,
although his own vessel had been badly
damaged and was leaking.
Disabling of the steamer Bessie
Dollar during a heavy gale. The
steamer Pomona went to. her aid and
held her fhead into the storm until
she could be repaired.
Sinking of the tug Tyee with four
of her crew off Everett, wash, the
night of December "a Heroic figure
in more than a score of ship rescues,
she went down with a loss of four
while speeding to a disabled vessel
Grounding Of the big steamer Pres
ident jackson during a typhoon off
the Philippines last June; vessel and
1900 passengers saved.
On August 10 the Shipping Board
steamer President Grant raced into
San Francisco port with q fire raging
in her hold. The flames had been dis
covered four days before, and her
crew fought them as she sped for
shore. On September IL the steam
ship American rushed back to San
Pedro harber with a two-day-old fire
in her hold 1t did $4,000 damage
in iSIn