Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-26

ship from the start. At her launching
the daughter of the president of the
company that had built her swung at
- her stem the bottle of champagne
s,spended from a wide blue ribbon and 1t went
in a Jerking arc that sent the stout bottom OF
the container glancing against the prov 1t
failed to break. The girl was obliged TO take
the bottle by its neck and smash it, More OF
the sparkling wine splashed upon her new gown
running it-than on the ocean Queen, and
tears OF modification ran over her lashes.
The ocean Queen had been christened with
tears and, KIN to brine though they might be.
they made the wiseacres shake their heads when
they talked it over later.
On her initial trip, narrowly missing the bulk
Of an iceberg in the blink" she smashed her
rudder on a submerged buttress of the mass and
came limping into port
Next she ran down a Gloucester fishing
schooner. There were men lost dispute about
fog signals and an official inquiry.
The third trip she crossed the path Of
hurricane of Cuba, sprung her foresail yard
and the mizzenmast shifted in its step.
BY this time she was known as the Hoodoo
She was sold to a concern on the Pacific Coast
Fog and current set her ashore not far from
of at high tide she was strained so badly that
she had to go into dry dock.
TWENTY miles out from Iquique, Chile, the
lookout blinded with horizontal spume on a
dark and dirty night failed to see a nearly sub
merged mass of wreckage until she smashed
into it. Salvaged, repaired and once more OUT
fitted, the Ocean Queen set out for Sydney with
q mixed cargo, prepared to bring back another
in exchange
Submarine quakes had raised an uncharted
reef on the line west of the Galapagos, and she
put back to South American port. There was
plague in the port, though the authorities had
not Oficially recognized that fart
There were seven men down, besides the first
mate, when they crossed the path of the
typhoon-and the cargo shifted The Ocean
Queen went into quarantine at Sydney with her
skipper dying, the second mate trying to carry
on with the terror-stricken remnant Of the
crew. The sick were taken to hospitals the
dead buried.
Back in Seattle the owners were jammed in a
shipping slump, and she lay at the Sydney
mooring with Waterman aboard who took out
his unpaid wages in hope and the meager credit
he could obtain at the store The Ocean Queen
was brought in a doubtful asset of the bank
rupt company, her record against her. The
acquiring concern was prosperous, well capital
lied, well managed. They sent over Capt. Hol-
liday-"Four Bells" Holiday, nicknamed be-
cause OF his habit of turning out eli hands at
untimely hours whenever he thought he could
get an extra half knot out Of his vessel by
bracing yards.
He had instructions to hire a crew and bring
the Ocean Queen back to the port of San Fran
cisco
The old hands had been sent home-those
who survived-by consular charity and Holiday
mad hard time OF 1t getting officers and men.
The name, the Hoodoo, had been revived and
was not forgotten. He more fortunate with
ms mates. Sullivan was a good man. an EN-
Gent navigator. The second, Brookes held a
masters papers. and his one fault was rum
There would be little chance Of tipping aboard.
Holiday would see to that, stern, unsparing
oisciplnarian that he was
The crew was riffraf, wharf sweepings and
COCK scourings, most Of them; rapScallions who
pore the earmarks of prison lodgment.
orunkards; men worn out and diseased. the
sorry best the boarding house keepers could
supply shipped drunken on the "Hoodoo" shin
they would have avoided: American. British
scandinavian, Slavic, Finnish, Negro, Malayan.
hyorids OF two hemispheres, hoboes of the sea.
Holiday and Sullivan surveyed them critically
rs they picked watches
That man Wilson, he's an A. B. all riett.
Been SICK ashore with the fiu, but he's fit nov.
Got wife an kids in the States. New kid IN
this time. he says. Crazy to git back"
III take him." said the skipper
III take the Negro" Husky. and he's a
chantey man. The one with the gray whiskeIA
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