Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-09-16

" into the little port of Mollendo
| "A on the Peruvian coast, exciting
1 \ so much wonder and curiosity
in the breasts of the local resi-
dents that they f1ocked down to the
water front by the score to watch her
come alongside the wharf. And this
Notwithstanding the fact that they
were we'll accustomed to the sight OF
| all manner of ShipS-large and small,
good. bad and Mollendo
being a famous nitrate port for the
last of the wind TANNERS"
This particular vessel was the three
maSted, full -rigged ship Denbigh Castle,
comparatively modern product of her
kind, and very fine craft. in fact. On
this occasion. however she presented a
most dilapidated. battered and worn
appearance.
Her topsides were so red with rust,
which even diScolored the water in her
wake, that you could not tell what color
| or in what manner she had originally
| been painted. The plates under water,
which lifted to view as the ship rolled
sluggishly in the Pacific swell, were COW
cred with long weeds and grass that
chung to the ships bottom in thick,
Shiny mass and f1oated around her like
heavy baize fringe.
and tackle, groaned and creaked and
jolted with every heave of the vessel,
as though the whole box of tricks was
on the point of collapsing.
The crew of this strange craft were
in keeping. in appearance with every
thing else about her Gaunt and hag-
gard, they lay listlessly over the rail,
gazing down indifferently at the specta-
tors with red-rimmed, lusterless eyes,
The officers seemed as weary and dis
spirited as the rest of the crew. In fact,
the vessel looked for all the world as If
she had just come from the grave-a
veritable skeleton ship manned by
skeleton crew.
What sort of trip have youe had,
Jack?" asked some one on the quayside.
WONDERFUL" replied the man adj
dressed, amid an ironical burst of harsh
laughter from his shipmates.
AS q matter of fact, it had been a
wonderful trip in one respect-an i'm
mortal exhibition of endurance and
perseverance in face of persistent and
crushing adversely.
The Denbigh Castle had taken exact
ly 407 days to reach Mollendo from
England-some 800 days longer than
the passage usually occupied. She was
given up as lost, indeed. until one day
in June. 1909, she hove in sight of
Fremantle. Australia.
"Fremantle?" hear the reader echo
What on earth was she doing there
on O. voyage from England to the west
coast of South American
Well, her trip to Australia was part
of most remarkable voyage, one that
will live forever in the annals of SAIL
ing ships. Here is the full story of it,
as I cleaned it from members of the
crew. was on the west coast of
South America at the time, and was
able to get the facts at first hand
while they were fresh In their mar
rators' minds.
The Denbigh Castle cleared the Eng
lish Channel in the second week of
october, 1908, and had an uneventful
run down to the Equator and through
the southeast trades. A pampero en-
countered of Montevideo warmed
things up for day or two, and gave
the crew q taste of what was in store
for them, but this was merely a breeze
sequence of head-winds with which she
had to contend soon afterward.
THE ship got down to the Horn in
= the early days of January, 1909.
She was then three months out from
home. While the weather was still
fine all preparations had been made
for the coming tussle. Storm canvas
had been bent in place of the fine
weather sails, the life-boats strapped
down with extra lashings, and life
lines stretched along the decks. Oil
skins and sea boots had been we'll tall
lowed and oiled to withstand the damp.
- kA
those leading into the saloon at the
break of the poop had been barricaded
with weather boards" to keep out as
much water as possible.
In word all that was humanity pos
sible had been done to prepare ship
and crew for the coming ordeal. And
now, with Staten Island, which lies
just to the eastward of the Horn,
looming up on the bow, the men went
into standby Watches" to keep handy
for whatever demand was made on
them while their ship staggered up to
meet the shock and onset of the tower
ing seas and furious winds that bar
red her way.
Days passed--dull, gray days. which
seemed only partly to emerge from the
blackness Of highland the ship Jared
no farther Her yards braced UP sharp
on the backstays, she would stand to
the northward on the port tack, labor
ing and straining for every inch OF
Roadway, until compelled to 60 around
on the other tack through dread of the
Diego Ramirez-that deadly cluster OF
rocks of the Horn, which, year in and
year out, is pounded by huge seas:
On the starboard tack, standing down
to the southwark, she would battle her
way over the very threshold of the
Antarctic. down past the parallel OF
the sixtieth latitude, where bitter winds
dashed her numerically with sheets OF
driving sleet and spray which froze on
ropes, yards and rigging, and chilled
the seamen to the marrow.
Regardless of the railing temperature
and ice-encrusted decks, the DenbighS
captain stood on to the southwark, hop
ing for a favorable slant on the next
leg-up-until the luminous blink" OF
| great berg warned him to venture no
farther. Then it would be, "All hands
| wear ship" and up to the northWard
agair-until that cluster of unlit, rocky
pinnacles would turn the laboring ship
back to the southwark once more. And
| so the battle went on through long
days and nights, which dragged into
weeks, with no gain to show for such
strenuous and unremitting toll.
BY a succession Of short tacks of the
pitch of the Horn, wearing ship every
| four hours, the captain tried desperate
ly to urge his ship to the westward by
sheer jockeying. Every evening at SUM-
| set his eyes would search the northern
horizon for some sign of that proverbial
yet elusive land-breeze which Is reputed
to have carried SO many ships around
the dreaded promontory. There was
! never a sign of it! No break app
| peared in the leaden, lowering sky to
raise his hopes. The wind blew omi-
nously true from the westward, whence
/ a neVer-ending succession of somber