From John VonderlinEm
Email John ([email protected]
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Hi June,
This is pretty clean, but is not a Corrected Text version yet. But it’s generally readable. I’ve got the ScreenShots and will correct it soon. Reading this ship’s history I can see why they might have felt it was cursed. Enjoy. John
WRECK OF THE
SHIP NEW YORK Continued from First Page. and 10 feet of water in her hold. Her plates are considerably sprung. She is lying in a bed of quicksand and may at any minute turn over. I do not think it possible for the tugs to get her off. The beach of Half-moon Bay will in all probability be her graveyard.” The crew of the New York is being cared for at the hotel in Halfmoon Bay proper. Captain Peabody, his wife and child are staying in a private house. The captain says that he will not go to San Francisco until some dis position has been made of the ship and cargo. Several underwriters and in surance adjusters arrived at the scene of the wreck to-night to see if there is any possibility of either floating the vessel or having her hauled off the beach by tugs. A heavy sea was break in? over her at tho time and it became dark before they had an opportunity of getting a good view of the surround ings. Thoy will go down to the beach to morrow morning to make another sur vey of the situation. They fear that j a heavy northerly gale, such as was j experienced last week, will mean the ! total breaking-up of the vessel. NOTED FOR DISASTER, MUTINY AND MURDER. Thrilling and Unlucky Career of the Iron Ship That Is Ashore in Halfmoon Bay. “The New York is hard and fast on the beach at Halfmoon Bay,” said Captain Gilbert Brokaw of the. tug Re liance last night. “As soon as I got there yesterday morning I saw there was no chance of saving the vessel. She ( ivas sunk eight feet in the sand, there : ■was nine feet of water in her hold and the sandbar is being formed outside the i vessel that will do away with any chance of ever getting her into deep water again. “When the Xew York went ashore Bhe was under a jib and foretopmast staysail, foresail, lower foretopsail, up per and lower jnain topsail and mizzen lower topsail. “When the Reliance got there the jib and foretopmast staysail had been run down, the mainsail was half set and the sheets and tacks of the foresail had broken and that sail was flying out to the wind. The vessel must have teen driven ashore bow on and then turned broadside to the shore by the force of the wind and the waves. Both the anchors were at the bow so there was either no time or probably no thought of dropping either of them. “The crew had run a line from the I ship to the beach when I got ashore, and they were working one of the ships boats between the wreck and the shore by means of it. It was calm between the ship and the beach, but the waves which swept around the bow and th«» stern made a very strong current which sometimes capsized the boat during its journey backward and forward. Dur ing one trip with Captain Peabody the boat capsized and the great bulk of the captain’s effects, including his wife’s Bewing machine, was dumped Into the water. The men that were in the boat were saved, but at one time it looked as if the boat would drift out to sea. One of the crew, a big Kanaka, took a rope, however, and swam out to the boat. He made the rope fast to it, and then getting astride the half-submerged craft was pulled ashore. All Spanish town took a holiday to view the wreck. The school children were marched down to the beach in a body, and after gazing on the scene for a couple of hours were marched back to school again. “Captain Peabody was very reticent as to the cause of the disaster, but the men say that Mate Kerr, who was on watch, called the captain half an hour before he showed up on deck. From what I cc-uld gather the ship had been on and off Halfmoon Bay for three days and once had been very close in shore. She stood off ten or twleve miles, but in spite of the northwest wind that was blowing she came right back to her old stamping ground and, much to the surprise of everybody, went ashore. Captain Peabody blames the strong currents. He says there should be a light on Pillar Point. “The British ship Clan Galbraith, from San Francisco for Cork with a cargo of wheat, had a narrow escape of laying her bones alongside the New York. She was within three miles of the beach and just when in the most danger she managed to head off on a starboard tack and just cleared Pigeon Point by a hair’s breadth. For half an hour it was touch and go with her, and I delayed my departure for San Fran cisco, thinking that ‘every minute it would require my assistance. Captain Hodgman of the Life-saving Station at Fort Point did every thing he possibly could for the crew of the New York. He took all kinds of chances in saving the men’s kits and was time and again up to his waist in water while paving stuff from the wreck.” The American ship New York, late the T. F. Oakes, has been one of the most unfortunate vessels that ever left the stocks. Misfortune followed her from ths day she was launched in Phil adelphia, until she laid her bones on the beach at HaTfmoon Bay. When she was loaded and ready to sail from Phil
adelphia for Port Townsend on her maiden voyage old sailors said that she would have a terrible time of it round , ing the Horn. At that time she was | the loftiest sparred ship in the world I and the aid sailors’ predictions came i true. She was dismasted on that voy j age and put into Valparaiso in dis- I tress. She was repaired and started | again for Puget Sound, but again the ! masts were blown out of her and she was towed back to Valparaiso for the ; second time. On her third attempt she got well up the Pacific coast, but was i caught in another gale off Columbia ! River and finally had to be tawed to i Port Townsend in distress. On her second voyage she was sent ! out to China and was caught in a ty i phoon and nearly wrecked. She was i thrown on her beam ends, and a ! steamer picked her up and towed her into Hongkong. The latter part of 1896 she started I from China for New York, and was 864 I days making the trip. She was so j long overdue that she was given up for lost, and 80 guineas per cent rein surance was paid on her. During that voyage some of the crew died from j scurvy, and nearly all the others were kslck from the disease that they Id not work the ship, and had to driven to their stations with ropes s and belaying pins. It is as a rd ship,” therefore, that the New k is best known. She never made an American port without the captain or mate be\ng arrested for beating the men. As a- general rule they got off, but the trip from Hongkong set tled the captain and the mate, both of whom were punished by the Federal Court of New York. In May, 1893, Captain Reid and First Mate McKay of the Oakes (now the New York) were arrested on twenty eight charges in San Francisco. Six seamen gave evidence and showed the wounds inflicted by the officers, but both of them got off on a technicality. In February. 1895. Captain Reid and Second Mate Ross were arrested in San Francisco on a charge of extreme cruelty and murder. Frederick Owens, able seaman, was assaulted, dragged out of the forecastle and compelled to work during the very cold weather off Cape Horn, notwithstanding that he complained of sickness. Owens couldn’t work, but was ordered to “walk the deck.” He was given no medical aid, except a dose of salts and a mustard | plaster. Two days later he died. Later i”a simple minded Swede” named J. ; Johnson failed to address the second mate as “sir,” and was knocked down and kicked in the eye by Captain Id. The second mate ran away to ape trial, and the captain was .in acquitted on a technicality, fter that the ship went to Na mo, B. C, to load coal for Santa Rosalia, and four crews deserted one after the other before she could get away. Then came the fearful voyage from China, and that sickened even the owners. The name of the ship was changed to New York, and an entire new crew, with Captain Peabody as master, was put aboard of her. He had been successful as master of the Tarn o’ Shanter, and during one voyage left New York the same day as the Shenan doah, and they both came in through the Golden Gate together in the fast time of 111 days. Captain Peabody made one trip in the Sintram after leaving the Tarn o’ Shanter and then he accepted command of the New York. But his advent did not relieve the “hoodoo.” After leaving Hong kong she lost her foremast in a gale and had to put back for repairs. A second start was made, but misfortune again overtook her. In another gale she lost her foretopgallant mast and foretopsail yard, and altogether there were five serious accidents during the Captain Peabody had his hands full during the voyage. His crew became mutinous, and the belaying-pln had to be used occasionally in order to get any work out of the men. The New York and the Tillie E. Starbuck were sister ships, but there the resemblance ends, as the former has been a continuous failure while the Starbuck has been a success. The New York was an iron ship, built by the American Ship Building Company of Philadelphia in 1883. She was 255 feet long, 40 feet 6 inches broad and 23 feet 5 inches deep. She was 1897 tons burden and had aboard the following cargo consigned to Williams, Dimond 6 Co.: 100 boxes 50 bundles cassia, 550 half chests 10 packages tea, 1042 pack ages green tea, 60 bales gunnies, 2000 bundles hemp, 75 bags coffee, 730 bundles kopak, 20 packages camphor wood trunks, 170 bundles 743 bags 72 boxes tapioca, 68 bundles palmleaf fans, 46 packages rattan furniture, 22. 605 packages 21 bundles 300 bales 441 boxes 1807 bags merchandise, 700 rolls matting, 109 bags hemp seed, 40 pack ages trunks, 2320 quicksilver flasks, 107 bundles gambrla, 500 cases pineapples, 8243 mats rice, 61 bundles rattan, 40 cases Soy Lo, packages bamboo shoots, 20 baskets garlic, 5 cases salt vegeta bles, 3 cases joss sticks, 1 bundle strings, 1 jar sauce, 280 boxes peanuts, 75 boxes dry goods, 224 boxes sago flour, 1 package paper, 1550 boxes nut oil, 50 boxes tapioca flour, 98 packages flour, 100 boxes peanut oil, 140 boxes crackers, 14 boxes chinaware, 14 boxes woodenware, 30 boxes 10 packages to bacco, 96 bags pepper, 200 boxes oil, 200 packages green beans. Deputy Surveyor of Customs St. John yesterday sent Customs Inspector Henry Payne to the scene of the wreck for the purpose of taking pos session of the cargo until the duties thereon shall have been liquidated through the Custom-house. This morn ing three additional inspectors will leave by stage for Half-moon Bay for the purpose of guarding the wreck and the cargo. Each man will watch eight hours out of the twenty-four, so that a continuous watch day and night will be kept.
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