Historic Shipwreck Profile: Additional Information on Wreck Event
St. Paul |
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Passenger Cargo Steamer - Barkentine |
Source: San Francisco Call (San Francisco, CA), 10 Aug 1896, p. 1 (cols. 1-6), p. 2 (col. 5).
Courtesy of The Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
Transcription:
FAST ON A SUBMERGED REEF,
The Steamer St. Paul Goes Ashore Near Point Pinos.
GUIDED TO DESTRUCTION DURING A FOG.
Passengers Safely Removed in Small Boats to the Beach.
SMALL HOPE OF SAVING THE STRANDED VESSEL.
Water Fills the Hold and the Cargo Is a Loss — The Colombia Disaster Repeated.
Drawing: The North American Navigation Company's Steamer St. Paul on the Rocks Near Point Pinos. [Sketched by a "Call" artist yesterday.]
Drawing: CROWDS VIEWED THE WRECKED ST. PAUL
The Scene of the Disaster to the Steamship Was Visited by Hundreds of People Yesterday. They Came in All Sorts of Vehicles, and Many From Long Distances.
MONTEREY. Cal., Aug. 9. — The Pacific Coast Steamship St. Paul lies on the rocks just south of Point Pinos, full of water and a total loss. The Pacific Mail Steam ship Colombia lies on the rocks just south of Pigeon Point, full of water and a total loss. The two luckless vessels — sisters in misfortune — are about fifty miles apart. The causes of their destruction are so identical as to be remarkable. Both were feeling their way to San Francisco; both became bewildered in a dense fog, and both went ashore.
The St. Paul struck her fatal reef at ten minutes past eleven o'clock last evening. The deck was in charge of First Officer Andrew Hail, with Captain J. C. Downing on the bridge, personally directing the movements of the vessel. The night was dark and the thick fog made it impossible to see ten feet ahead of the bow. The steamer was running under a slow bell and just before her stem touched the rocks the heavy white veil ahead lifted a little and the lookout on the bow saw the foam of a breaker. He quickly gave the alarm and the engine-room bell sounded to stop and then back full speed, but before the doomed ship could be checked she ground into the rocks, and several succeeding swells lifted her higher up.
In the meantime the engines had been reversed and the propeller was churning the water astern into foam in its efforts to free the vessel. — The attempt was useless and the St. Paul settled down on her bed, just as did the Colombia four weeks ago.
The sharp rocks pierced her bottom in several places and the water began to come in to the amidships compartment, flooding the fire and engine rooms. No further attempt to get her off was made and the order was given by Captain Downing to clear away all the boats.
The shock of her striking and the quickly succeeding grinding and bumping awakened all the passengers, as well as the officers and crew in their bunks below. There were sixteen women and four children on board, and among these there was at first considerable confusion. They were, however, quickly given to understand that there was no danger, and they were soon dressed and ready to leave the steamer.
As the boats were swung over the side into the sea and manned the passengers were taken aboard, the women first. There was no confusion nor any mishap, as the water was smooth and only a light wind was blowing. Captain Downing directed the officers in charge to make their way to Monterey, which port he believed was close by. Nothing could be seen nor heard and even the breakers close aboard were at times hidden by the fog.
The five boats put off in the darkness, cautiously feeling their way. The night was cold and the passengers, especially the women, being lightly clad, were soon chilled. The boat commanded by Second Officer Philip Ward made a landing near Pacific Grove, and seven of the passengers started overland for Monterey, reaching this place about 4 o'clock this morning and bringing the first news of the wreck. The other boats got into the harbor a few hours later and all the passengers were then safely domiciled at the Pacific Ocean House.
The St. Paul lies as she struck, heading due east, within about 100 yards of the shore, something like three miles south of Point Pinos light. That three miles was the extent of Captain Downing's error. He was just that distance off his course and away from the position in which he should have been. Like Captain Clark, who made the fatal mistake of believing that the Colombia had rounded Pigeon Point light, Downing headed his ship east ward. Instead of steaming safely into Monterey he plunged the St. Paul squarely on the beach.
The coast all along this locality is a bed of kelp which extends for miles out into the sea. This indicates shallow water, from one to four fathoms deep. Consequently the St. Paul, drawing twelve to fifteen feet of water, must have been plowing her way under a slow bell through this bank of luxuriant marine vegetation for hours. The question naturally arises, If the captain, his bearing gone in the blinding foe, did not know that the deadly reefs were at times only a few feet below his keel, why did be not use his lead?
Moreover, those waters are charted and the shoals and currents plainly indicated. About a mile west of Point Pinos is a whistling buoy, marking the outer verge of a dangerous reef. It sounds its warning pipe unceasingly, and can often be heard in Monterey, four miles away. The officers stated yesterday that they could not hear it from the locality of the vessel. Through the dense fog no ray could come from the lighthouse.
The St. Paul was heavily laden, having among her cargo 5000 sacks of grain besides a great quantity of butter and cheese. There is also on board over 100 head of calves, shipped by Captain W. F. Taylor of San Simeon. They will be transferred to another vessel to-morrow and forwarded to their destination.
As there is six feet of water in the forward hold and a much greater depth aft much of the cargo, especially the grain, is undoubtedly a loss.
The vessel lies off Moss Beach, about half way between a point known as Seal Rocks and Point Pinos. Her bow is somewhat elevated and the stern low in the water, and, as she is tightly wedged in a sort of cradle between two ledges of rock she is steady, excepting for a slight swing and roll when a sea rolls in against her. There is a heavy fog coming in, but the ocean is still and but little wind blowing.
Captain Minor Goodall came in from the wreck late this evening, having arrived on the Santa Rosa. He believes there is a possibility that the vessel can be saved, but can not state positively until an examination is made by divers tomorrow.
"The rocks have pierced through the iron plates of the hull about amidships," said he to a CALL correspondent. "All of the compartments are flooded with water. The fire and engine rooms are awash and the machinery is useless for any work. All of the cargo, especially the wheat and wool, in the holds is ruined, entailing a heavy loss. The freight steamer Santa Cruz will come down from San Francisco in the morning and the livestock and what can be recovered will be taken off. Captain Downing thought he was rounding Point Pinos, and, changing his coarse to the eastward, went on the rocks. The fog was so thick that nothing could, be seen, and neither breakers nor buoy could be heard. Consequently he was not aware that he was near the shore until he felt his vessel strike. I was only aboard of the St. Paul this evening a few minutes and cannot tell much of what occurred prior to the time she went ashore. If she can possibly be saved no effort will be spared to rescue her. If the sea remains smooth we can do much toward lightening our loss, even if we don't get her on the dry dock."
However hopeful Captain Goodall is, the rocks are sharp all around her and every roll and fall on the reef starts a plate and the St. Paul will probably keep the Colombia company on their hard rocky beds until the seas batter them out of shape.
When the shipwrecked passengers were seen sitting on the veranda of the hotel this afternoon they were waiting patiently for the train that was to carry them city wards. Mrs. George Swain of Berkeley was one of the ladies lowered into the last boat. After being settled in the small craft tossing alongside the bumping steamer, she saw that her husband was still on deck and resolutely crawled back onto the deck. "There was nothing of a heroic nature in my action," said she. "I simply thought if my husband could stay there I could keep him company."
Captain Taylor, one of the passengers who landed at Pacific Grove and footed it into town, states that his party soon after getting ashore knocked at the door of Keeper Hitchcock, who has charge of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company's tract, known as the Seventeen Mile drive, and asked for assistance.
He was requested to send a messenger to Monterey for help, but he refused and was indignant that he should be aroused from his bed at 3 o'clock in the morning even to assist shipwrecked people. He resumed his slumbers and they trudged on through the fog and darkness.
There is a belief among the passengers that the light on Point Pinos was not burning. Soon after the vessel struck rockets were sent up, and they say that until this time no gleam came from the point. Then the light shone out.
Captain Downing was the first officer of the St. Paul when she was purchased by the Pacific Coast Steamship Company, and he was promoted to her command last month. He has the reputation of being a careful, zealous and faithful officer, and being so well acquainted with these waters one would wonder at him running ashore, and why his ship out yonder, within a biscuit's throw of the beach, is grinding off her plates to-night.
According to the accounts of some of the passengers and several of the crew, there was considerable confusion just after the vessel struck. Men and women for a few moments rushed out of their rooms half dressed around the boats. Some of the employes of the ship lost their heads, put on life preservers and crowded around the boats. They were forced by the officers to take off the belts and go below by threats of summary punishment. It is also said that the colored lights of Point Sur were seen and thought to be the red and green lights on the wharf at Monterey.
Out of all these vague and half whispered reports it is apparent that "some body blundered."
George Norton, one of the crew, is inclined to speak of the disaster. He was on the Colima when she went down on the Mexican coast and is no novice in shipwrecks.
"We were going at the rate of eleven knots an hour," he said, "when we struck. We hit hard. The engines were reversed and we backed nearly fifty feet, then stayed there. I was in my room at the time and one of the rocks is now in the middle of it.
"The shock threw me out of my bunk and the place began filling with water, and I immediately went on deck and found women running about in their nightclothes. They were all panic stricken, and although I told them there was no immediate danger they would not return to their cabins to dress. One woman I actually carried to her stateroom and locked her in until she dressed. The saloon was flooded quickly and the cattle in the hold scented the danger and began bellowing. This made the scene all the more appalling. Then a boat was let down to find out about the shore line, and where to land the passengers. I was in this boat, and after rowing around for quite a distance we found Moss Beach. We could not see the light at Point Pinos, and I do not think it was burning at all. Neither could we hear the Point Pinos bellbuoy."
"After finding a place suitable to land I our passengers we repaired again, to our boat. The first boat to leave the ship contained nineteen persons, mostly women and children. The next boat had twenty three people. The last boat carried the steward and one man. They were all safely landed at 3 a.m. The crew all went back, and we were so exhausted we could hardly do anything."
Michael Noon, the wharfinger at Monterey, was seen and he said: "I was on board the St. Paul twice to-day. She is awful solid on the rocks. I think when they clear her cargo they can raise her, but I don't think she will ever float. There is ten feet of water in her hold now and she has three rocks jammed into her, one forward and two aft."
Captain Goodall ordered the crew ashore to-night and they are now camped on the beach.
The officers of the St. Paul were: Captain J. C. Downing; Chief Officer, Andrew Hall; Second Officer, Philip D. Ward; Third Officer, J. J. Coleman; Chief Engineer, Henry Lax; Second Assistant, William Downing; Purser, William Chrisman.
The passengers were: Marie Vinson, Pomona; Earl Van Gordon, Cambria; E. P. Cashin, San Simeon; C. F. Stone and wife, Coursville, Ky.; Amy A. Reene, St Paul, Minn.; Lulu Arend, Mrs. S. E. Connell, S. Anderson, San Francisco; Bessie M. Cox, Los Angeles; Ed Nelson, Harry Yates, John Winston, W. B. Craig, Miss J. C. Woener, Mrs. W. M. Urquhart, Miss M. Urquhart, Mrs. W. S. Moolseed and two children, Ralph Halloran and wife, C. C. Greaeber, L. Greaeber, George Swain and wife of Berkeley, Fannie Dunn, Henry A. Harris, R. Walsand, Margaret Lone, R. R. Evans, George Evans, J. C. Corey, William Smith. F. S. Lanning, Dr. Byron F. Dawson, S. B. Cannell, Vittori Rinoli, William Kelley, Otto Brentz, A. J. Wilson, James Wilson, J. C. Johnson, V. Johnson, M. F. Taylor, A. L. Hail, C. J. Evans, W. Snow, W. W. Blanchard, Baker Blanchard.
The St. Paul is an iron steamship, built at Philadelphia in 1875 for the Alaska Commercial Company. She is of 960 tons burthen, 197 feet long, and her breadth of beam is 31 feet. Martin Bulger of this City superintended her construction. After her arrival on this coast she was put in the trade between San Francisco and the Alaskan ports. She made one or two trips to Panama loaded with furs, which were forwarded by the Alaska Commercial Company via the isthmus to London, and she was several timed chartered by the Pacific Mail Company to run on their line to Panama and Central American ports. In 1879, when General Grant visited San Francisco on his way home from his journey around the world, the St. Paul was placed at his disposal for a journey to Portland, Or. She was fitted up especially for the occasion, and, accompanied by Senator John F. Miller, who was president of the Alaska Company, the general and Mrs. Grant, together with Colonel Fred and Ulysses Grant Jr., made the voyage in a very enjoyable manner.
At the expiration of the fur seal privileges granted to the Alaska Company the St. Paul went out of commission and was laid up in Oakland Creek. On the organization of the North American Navigation Company the St. Paul was chartered and made the pioneer voyage between this port and Panama. On the collapse of that organization the vessel was purchased by the Pacific Coast Steamship Company, and after being overhauled and refitted, a process which detracted greatly from her apperance to the nautical eye, she was placed in service between San Francisco and Redondo, touching at way ports.
Captain Downing, the commander of the St. Paul, is a resident of Oakland and has been engaged in service on this coast for a number of years. He was formerly first officer of the Willamette Valley and was promoted to the command of the Bonita. From the latter vessel he was transferred to the St. Paul, a much larger and finer vessel.
Captain Freeman, the well-known pilot, returned from the scene of the wreck last evening. He reported, that the St. Paul was lying easily and apparently making no water. He gave it as his opinion that if the cargo is lightered they will be able to get the vessel off.
F. S. LANNING’S STORY.
He Tells of Bis Experience on the Ill-fated Steamer.
F. S. Lanning of North Ontario, agent of the Southern California Railway, who was a passenger on the St Paul, arrived in this City last evening and registered at the Commercial Hotel.
"It had been a little rough Saturday afternoon and the sea was just rough enough to make people seasick,'' said Mr. Lanning, and it continued until 8 o'clock in the evening, when, feeling tired, I retired, and it was not long before I was sound asleep. Suddenly I was awakened by a severe bump, then another and still another, and then I was thrown out of my berth, as was also a young man who occupied the berth below me. 'Guess we've got into Monterey and the steamer's run into the wharf,' he remarked as he straightened up. I replied that I thought it was worse than that, and believed that the steamer had been climbing on a lot of rocks. We got out on the deck and saw that the vessel was enveloped in a heavy fog and it was impossible to tell where we were, as there was no light from shore that was visible.
The steamer thumped several times and then settled, careening so much to port that a man could not walk the deck without being very careful.
The other passengers came on deck and there was considerable excitement, but very little confusion. The women, with the exception of two or three who fainted, behaved remarkably well. The master of the vessel and the other officers acted with great coolness and did all they could to quiet the passengers, and gave orders to secure life-preservers and put them on. There were plenty of these, and soon everyone had one or two on his or her body. In the meantime we could hear the breakers rolling on the shore and could hear the water rushing into the hold of the steamer.
"The master as soon as possible gave orders to lower the boats, five in number, and this was done as rapidly as the hands — who seemed somewhat rattled — could do so, and as many passengers as could be placed in each were taken in. Each officer in charge of a boat was given orders to make for the nearest point at which a landing could be effected and return with all possible haste. That was no easy task, for the fog was so thick that it was impossible to see a boat's length
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Page 2.
FAST ON A HIDDEN ROCK
Continued from First Page.
ahead; but the boats went off, trusting that the fog would lift, but it did not until late the next morning.
"There were ten others besides myself who decided to remain by the ship rather than endanger the lives of the other passengers by overloading the boats. Nearly all the passengers who went into the boats were got into them with little trouble and none of the ship's employes got into them unless by order of the master, with the exception of two cooks, who could not be restrained.
''There were many head of cattle on board and it was pitiful to hear their moaning. After the boats went we could do nothing but wait, and it seemed a long time until the first boat, which was the first mate's, hove in sight at 6 o'clock. In the meantime the master had all the life rafts ready, so as to use them in case of necessity. The sea calmed down and when the tide receded I saw that the vessel was on a cradle of rocks in five or six feet of water, about 500 feet from shore, with her bow due east.
"At one time I volunteered to swim ashore, but was advised not to, and I am glad I did not make the attempt, for if I had I would have been dashed to pieces on the rocks. One young man, S.B. Cannell, parted from his wife and told her to go in one of the boats and that he would remain on the steamer. She begged him to come with her, but he told her that he wanted her to reach land and that if he got into the boat it would sink. He remained with me until we were taken off. When we did get ashore we learned of the safe arrival of the boats and ascertained that we struck about eight miles below Monterey."
The Santa Cruz, a freight boat, went to the wreck at 2 o'clock yesterday, but carried no passengers, having no license to do so. The boat will render whatever aid she can to the stranded vessel. The principal object of the trip was to carry down men and machinery. She will probably arrive this morning.
Source: San Francisco Call (San Francisco, CA), 11 Aug 1896, p. 3 (cols. 5-6).
Courtesy of The Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
Transcription:
ABANDONED TO WIND AND WAVE.
The Wrecked St. Paul Has Sailed on Its Last Cruise.
FAST ON THE REEF.
Work of Dismantling Begun After an Investigation by a Diver.
LITTLE OF THE CARGO SAVED
A Portion of the Livestock Aboard Drowned in the Stranded Vessel's Hold.
ABOARD STEAMSHIP ST. PAUL, Ashore off Point Pinos (via Monterey, Cal.), Aug. 10.— Already the stranded St. Paul is abandoned to her fate and the crew is stripping the wreck. It is the story of the Pacific Mail steamer Colombia over again without even a variation. Like the steamship on the reef off Pigeon Point, forty miles away, the St. Paul is as motionless as when she lay on the stocks before launching. There is a sharp rock piercing into the hold just abaft of the foremast, a little on the port side, and another in the afterhold, also on the port side. On these two pinnacles of reef she hangs. To be freed from her position she must be lifted bodily, but she will never be free until the seas batter her into scrap iron.
There is deep water under the bow and amidships and along the entire starboard side. If she had listed in that direction after the rocks crushed her bottom on Saturday's dark and foggy night a number of bodies would now in all probability be washing about in the treacherous coast currents. But she went the other way and fell against a large rock, which has crushed in the plates on the port side. When the engines were reversed in the effort to back the bumping steamer off the reef the propeller-blades struck the ledge as she fell in the trough of the swell and were broken off. The keel aft is jammed out of line and the rudder damaged.
This is the report of the diver who went down under the vessel to-day. In the clear, blue water he groped along her entire length and saw every splintered plate. When the submarine observer told of the wreck and ruin below the water line Captain Goodall immediately gave orders to begin the work of dismantling the hulk.
As in the case of the Colombia, the crew began with the staterooms and cabins. These were soon emptied and their furniture removed in the ship's boats to the Santa Cruz, which is lying at anchor a short distance away.
A heavy sea rolls constantly around the steamer and the labor of loading the boats is a difficult one. If the hull were not hung so solidly on the rock points she would not last twelve hours, even under the present favorable weather conditions. As she leans somewhat seaward a material increase in the weight of the swell will topple her over to starboard into deep water, where she will sink in a few minutes.
The engine and fire rooms being full of water, it is impossible to get at the heavy machinery, but everything within that compartment within reach is being removed. A small portion of the cargo in the forward hold may be saved, but aft all is ruined. There are 5000 sacks of wheat, and the water-logged grain has swollen until the hold is as tight as a drum. In time the increasing bulk will burst the deck and bulkheads.
Last night Captain Downing and most of the officers lodged in Monterey, but the crew camped on the beach, as the hulk hanging on the reef is not a sale retreat by any means. When all hands returned to the vessel this morning they learned that the first tragedy of the wreck had occurred. The lower deck hatch covers had been lifted off by the rising tide within the hull, and most all of the livestock on board had fallen into the deep water. Twenty of the calves had been drowned, and the rest were swimming around and clinging to the floating articles in the hold, bellowing piteously. The survivors were fished out of their involuntary bath and removed to the Santa Cruz.
Captain Minor Goodall is staying by the wrecked steamer directing the work of stripping her. He says little concerning the ruin of one of his best boats, but evidently his thoughts are not happy ones.
“It is of no use," said he to a Call correspondent to-day, us he looked over the rail down at the rocks showing cruelly alongside, "to think of getting her off. The diver's report destroyed all that hope and she is goner. We will save what we can from her and the sea or the wreckers may have the rest. If she were lifted from the reef, could that be accomplished, she would only sink, and even if we got her further on the beach, where the breakers could get a fair sweep at her, she would soon go to pieces. I do not now recall what the insurance on her is, nor what she was valued at a few days ago. You know what she is worth now. However, the marine adjuster will be down tomorrow and he will have a little look around.
"No, I don't wish to make any statement as to the causes that put her up on Moss Beach instead of alongside the Broadway wharf in San Francisco. I can only say she is here, and, I imagine, her stay in the place will be prolonged."
Then the captain looked down at the rocks and lapsed into silence. A Call correspondent yesterday rowed from the steamer out over the rolling Pacific swells through the kelp. The fog whistle was sounding its dreary bellow. With its anchor and chain it weighs ten tons, and the whistle is almost twelve feet above the surface of the sea. A very light southerly wind was blowing, and to windward the whistle could not be heard a mile away. When a storm is on, and the great waves force the air up through its locomotive whistle, its howling can be heard for miles.
In dark, foggy, still nights it is of about as much use to a belated navigator as the pipe of a canary bird. It bears from the wreck northwest, which shows that the St Paul should have been headed toward this point of the compass at the instant she struck the beach, steering due east. It was truly a blunder.
The Point Pinos light is the oldest one on the coast, it was erected forty-four years ago. The lighthouse proper is about half a mile back from the shore line at Point Pinos, and is of stone. The lamp is ninety-one feet above the sea level. It is a fixed, white light, and has a 1930-candle-power light.
It is called a fifteen-and-a-quarter-mile light, but can be seen on an ordinary clear night for about twenty miles to sea. The light has two circular wicks, the outside wick being one and thirteen-sixteenths inches in diameter. It is a third order light. Mrs. Fish is keeper and has one assistant and a Chinese cook. These three are the only persons at the lighthouse.
Mrs. Fish has occupied her present position as keeper for the last three years. Her husband was a lieutenant in the United States navy, dying in the service. She was seen by a Call correspondent this morning at the lighthouse and freely gave all information possible in regard to the working of the light.
"It was the first wreck we had near this light," said she, "and you know this is the oldest. It is ridiculous for any of the crew or passengers to say that the lamp was not burning on Saturday night. It might not have been seen by the St. Paul in such a dense fog, but it was burning as usual. The Point Pinos light not depended on in foggy weather by mariners. Neither is any light for that matter.
"The whistling buoy, which is anchored three-eighths of a mile off the point, is placed there for just such a night as that was last Saturday, and by its sounds mariners are guided through the fog and around the point safe into Monterey Bay. This buoy plays its part well and can be heard far out to sea when the rays from my lamp cannot be seen a hundred yards distant."
Some of the published statements of the passengers regarding the demeanor of the crew and the condition of the boats are remarkable. There was excitement and confusion among the former, of course, when the steamer began to bump into the rocks, but the action of the people belonging to the steamer was superb.
They quieted the fears of the frightened and prepared them for their departure from the ship. In the darkness the boats were quickly lowered, each with its officer and crew, and the passengers one by one were skillfully embarked.
It was dark, the billows were breaking around the doomed vessel, but not a life was lost and not an accident occurred. One or two of the servants lost their heads, but not a sailor faltered in his work. Captain Downing, with his ship grinding to pieces under him, his professional future ruined, thought only of the lives intrusted to his care, and he sent them all safely ashore.
The St. Paul, stranded and listed over on her bed of rocks, affords a new feature to the attractiveness of historic Monterey, Pacific Grove and Del Monte. Everybody comes down to the wreck in all manner of turnouts, from phaeton to cart and from bus to buggy. They come through the pine woods to see the melancholy spectacle of a ship which would leave her element for a journey overland.
NO HOPE FOR THE ST. PAUL.
Captain Minor Goodall Does Not Think the Vessel Can Be Saved.
The following telephone message was received from Captain C. Minor Goodall, who is at the wreck of the steamer St. Paul, by the Pacific Coast Steamship Company yesterday: "The ship is lying easy, hemmed in by the rocks. Doubtful if she can be got off. She is entirely exposed to the swell, which is striking her endwise at the stern.
"Landed all hands on board for the night, as the swell was increasing. The steamer Santa Cruz will be unable to get very close to the wreck. Will try and get pumps on board when the Sama Cruz arrives Monday. I think the leak is aft and will try and get a diver down to locate it."
Later in the day Captain Goodall telephoned again, saying that he was about to start for the wreck with three boatloads of men to see what could be done to save the vessel and cargo. In talking about the vessel and her loss Edwin Goodall said that she was valued at about $100,000 and was only partly insured. A great deal of the cargo is a total loss, but the greater portion of it is insured. The company has owned the St. Paul for a little over three years, having purchased her from the Alaska Commercial Company. For years the steamer ran to Alaska and when General Grant was making a tour of the world the St. Paul was chosen to carry the party to the glaciers of the far north. Later she was chartered to the North American Navigation Company and ran in opposition to the Pacific Mail on the Panama route.
The steamer Coos Bay was to have gone to Alaska yesterday, but the company took her off and sent the Yaquina in her place. The Coos Bay will now take up the running of the St. Paul on the San Diego route.
"Ed" Cashen was at Point Pinos when the St. Paul went ashore. He reached San Francisco yesterday. He states positively that the station light was burning brightly at the time. Half an hour after the vessel struck he was aboard and remained by her until 7 o'clock on Sunday morning. "At that hour," said he, "there was not a drop of water in her hold, and it was only when the captain ordered the engines full speed astern that holes began to show in her bottom. The St. Paul went on a broad shelving rock and every wave took her further on it. She was surrounded by rocks, but the one on which she rested was the best one that could have been found to run on. I don't think the vessel can now be saved."
Captain Downing has been for years in the employ of the Pacific Coast Steamship Company. He was formerly mate on the Orizaba and later had command of the Yaquina. When Captain Green was transferred to the State of California, a few months ago, Downing was given the St. Paul.
Source: San Francisco Call (San Francisco, CA), 12 Aug 1896, p. 2 (cols. 4-5).
Courtesy of The Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
Transcription:
THE ST. PAUL IS ABANDONED.
Stripped of Her Valuables, the Ship Is Now Tenantless.
LITTLE FREIGHT SAVED.
Damage to the Owners, Outside of the Insurance, Will Be $40,000.
ENGLISH UNDERWRITERS LOSE.
Startling Condition of the Southern Pacific's So-Called Aids to Navigation.
ON BOARD STEAMER ST. PAUL, ashore off Point Pinos (via Monterey), Aug. 11.— The St. Paul men have worked like beavers all day and to-night, the Pacific Coast Steamship Company has practically given up the ship. Anchors, chains, winches and all manner of gear have been hoisted out by the donkey engine that remains above the water and away to the Santa Cruz, which sailed this evening for San Francisco.
Yesterday morning Marine Adjuster Hooper arrived and immediately boarded the St. Paul. He remained in consultation for half an hour, looked down on the water-logged cargo and went ashore. When seen by The Call correspondent before he left the vessel he answered all queries with a brevity that was almost a witticism. "I came down here to do some adjusting, but I see nothing to adjust. The sea has made my labor exceedingly light and I may as well leave.'' The loss to the company, outside of the insurance, will be between $30,000 and $40,000. The insurance placed with English companies, on the vessel, is $55,000. The local insurers are Gutte & Frank and Mann & Wilson of San Francisco. The loss in cargo is much greater than at first believed, for only eighty out of the hundred livestock were saved, and but 400 out of the 6000 sacks of grain will be worth removing from the flooded hulk. The hundred sacks of wool which were supposed to be impervious to the action of water are a total loss.
The St. Paul still lies tightly embedded on the rocks with a little more list to port, indicating that the ledge she is leaning against is pressing in her plates.
When she gets a few degrees further over the swells will get at her woodwork and then the beach will get the splinters. Seen from the stranded ship all roads appear to lead to the bit of shore ahead of her, and those highways bring each their string of visitors to the beach. The St. Paul plays to a full house. The Southern Pacific Railroad possesses all of the land in this vicinity, and that company only tolerates the public on its right of eminent domain. Mounted employes of that great corporation furiously gallop here and there with a "keep-off-the-grass" menace in their rushes. One of these fierce videttes yesterday plunged down toward the beach as though he would drive the trespassing breakers into the sea.
The Southern Pacific Company is apparently paramount here, from the crest of the coast range out to a marine league from the continent. The light and fog signals of Point Pinos, its efficient so-called help to navigation merit some public notice.
Monterey is the third harbor in importance on the California shore line. The southern entrance to the harbor is flanked by long dangerous reefs jutting far out into the ocean. Vessels coming in from the south must hug closely the promontory, and when a white blanket of fog hides all bearings navigation here is extremely dangerous. The St. Paul, on her rock, is a fatal evidence of this fact. Pigeon Point is an isolated spot, twenty or thirty miles away from a harbor. No vessel has any business within five miles of its rocks, yet it has a splendid light, its great flame revolving from a lofty tower, is visible far at sea. A keeper and five assistants stand watch there from dusk to dawn. Its log whistle is sounded by a powerful engine and a second stands ready to keep up the music in case of accident to the first. The loud bellow of the horn can be heard out in the fog-thickened air.
Point Pinos has a small third-order light, with one keeper and an assistant. The lamp sits in a squatty tower, far inland, its comparatively feeble lamp less than a hundred feet above the billows that always beat savagely on that beach. The fog signal is an insignificant affair, uttering its low, owl-like hoot when the coast is covered with a bank of whiteness almost impenetrable to the seagull. When the wind that blows the fog aways kicks up a sea that sets it bellowing loud the signal is not needed. When the whistle sounds strongly through the fogless night the light is not needed. A phonic and a visual condition truly.
The steamship agents of this port say that often vessels are delayed for hours in the fog off the point trying to feel their way in. Such a thing at the entrance of a harbor whose gateway is twenty-five miles wide from headland to headland is difficult of comprehension.
The following is a list of freight on board the steamer St. Paul:
From Newport— l24 sacks peanuts, 11 sacks walnuts, 24 boxes lemons, 6 boxes oranges, 1 keg wine, 1 lot household goods.
San Pedro— 4 boxes seed, 10 boxes lemons.
East San Pedro— 5 cs canned fish.
Los Angeles via East San Pedro— l lot household goods, 1 organ.
Ventura— l box sauce, 20 packages merchandise, 1 case honey, 5 cs canned goods, 3 barrels rolled wheat, 151 boxes lemons.
Santa Barbara— 28 packages merchandise, 49 boxes lemons, 15 sacks crawfish.
Gaviota— l box butter, 1 case eggs, 81 sacks wool, 2 bundles pelts, 42 sacks crawfish, 3 boxes fish, 7 bundles dried fish.
Cuyucos— l tub 5 boxes butter, 6 cases eggs, 1 case dry goods, 1 package merchandise, 300 sacks barley, 9 dressed calves.
San Simeon— l8 packages merchandise, 12 1/2 boxes 7 tubs butter, 5 cases eggs, 100 calves, 1 sack beans, 6 sacks potatoes, 1 box fruit.
Port Harford— 6 cases honey, 18 boxes 1 keg butter, 35 packages merchandise, 11 cases eggs, 23 boxes fish.
Miles— 937 sacks beans.
San Luis Obispo— 1605 sacks barley.
Bteeles— 29l sacks barley.
Nipomo— 2253 sacks barley, 246 sacks oats.
Santa Maria— 372 sacks wheat.
The consignees are: W. C. Price & Co.; Eveleth & Nash; J. Ivancorich & Co.; J. M. Spofford; Southern California Fruit Company; C. A. Martins; Dairymen's Union; E. J. Bowen & Co.; Wadhams & Ken Bros.; Ross. Higgins & Co.; R.S. Owen; Dairymen's Union; Kohler & Frohling; Enterprise Brewery; Kowalsky & Co.; Deming, Palmer & Co.; Lievre, Fricke & Co.; San Francisco News Company; Immel & Co.; J. P. Thomas; Allen & Lewis; L. Scatena & Co.; Gordon & Co.; Redington & Co.; Main & Winchester; Dunham, Carrigan & Co.; American Union Fish Co.; A. Paladini; Milani & Co.; G. Camilioni; Wetmore Bros.; Wheaton, Breon & Co.; Christy A Wise; Thomas Dennigan, Son & Co.; Hills Bros.; D. de Bernardi & Co. ; Getz Bros. & Co.; Murphy, Grant & Co.; Sinsheimer Bros.; L. D. Stone & Co.; Western Meat Company; F. Uri & Co.; Hilmer, Bredhoff & Co.; J. A. Folger & Co.; Standard Oil Company; Marshall, Teggert & Co.; Russ. Sanders & Co.; Horn & Judge; C. Donnely; Castle Bros.; Marshall & R; D. E. Allison & Co.; J. W. Gall & Co.; Kowalsky & Co.; Labor Exchange; Pacific Coast Fish Company; Sacramento Fish Company; Bassett & Bunker; H. Dutard; Newhail Land and Farming Company; Southern Pacific Milling Company.
Source: The San Francisco Call (San Francisco, CA), 15 August 1896, p. 9, col. 2.
Courtesy of California Digital Newspaper Collection, Center for Bibliographic Studies and Research, University of California, Riverside.
Transcription:
DOWNING ON TRIAL.
The Captain of the Wrecked Steamer St. Paul Tells How the Casualty Happened.
The official inquiry into the cause of the wreck of the St. Paul, which occurred near Monterey August 8, was held before Supervising Inspector Bermingham yesterday In all seven witnesses were examined, the testimony going to show that the steamer was lost under conditions similar to the Colombia.
Captain Downing said that at 8:56 o'clock on the night of the disaster the St. Paul was off Point Sur. He took his bearings and found that he was one and a quarter miles off the regular course. At 11:08 p.m. land was noticed ahead and the steamer was backed at full speed. When she struck he again took his bearings and found he was two and a half miles from where he expected to be. Shortly after the St. Paul struck the chief engineer reported that the engines would not work. Captain Downing then ordered the chief officer to take one of the smaller boats and find land. He then loaded the four remaining boats with passengers and provisions and awaited the return of the chief officer.
The other witnesses, J. J. Coleman, third officer; E. K. Knowlan, watchman; Jack Anderson, lookout; F. Nelson, at the wheel; Andrew Hall and Philip D. Ward, seamen, corroborated the testimony of Captain Downing. They said the night was dark and foggy, rendering it almost impossible to see a ship's length ahead. Captain Bermingham took the case under advisement.
Source: The San Francisco Call (San Francisco, CA), 26 August 1896, p. 9, cols. 1-2.
Courtesy of The Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Transcription:
NO LONGER A CAPTAIN.
Downing of the St Paul Loses His License as Master and Pilot.
Supervising Inspector Bermingham Gives Some Good Advice to Other Captains.
Captain Downing of the wrecked steamer St. Paul is without legal license or title. This was decided in an opinion handed down by the Supervising Inspector of Hulls and Boilers yesterday.
After reviewing the testimony of Captain Downing relative to the course and speed of the vessel Captain Bermingham says:
"It was still foggy, but he thought he could see a long way. The ship was all the time going at full speed, and, without at any time getting a cast of his lead, she took the rocks and became a wreck at 11:10 P.M. The testimony of Captain Downing as to the course steered is largely corroborated by his third officer, J.J. Coleman, who had charge of the deck watch from 6 P.M. up to the time the ship took the rocks.
The court at this point reviews at length the testimony of Quartermaster Wilson and then comments rather severely on the statement of the master:
The court is of the opinion that the St. Paul encountered a current between Point Sur and Point Cypress which retarded her speed by the land, possibly a mile and a half between those points; in no other way can her final position be accounted for, judging from the course testified to as having been steered at 10:35 P. M. She must have passed dangerously close to Cypress Rock thirteen minutes before.
Currents are not unfrequent thereabouts. Captain Downing does not seem to have given that matter proper attention, nor did he seem to bear in mind the disaster that befell the Columbia about three weeks before and only about forty miles away, but over-confident of his position as he kept on at full speed in a fog without getting a cast of his lead, which would surely have warned him of the danger he was rushing upon and saved his ship. What was the result? Another ship piled upon the rocks, from which, fortunately for the safety of the lives on board, she did not slip into deep water.
The court finds that the St. Paul was valued at about $100,000, and her cargo at $15,000; that her loss was occasioned by the negligence and unskillfulness of her licensed master and pilot, J. C. Downing, who, besides violating rule 21, section 4233, United States Revised Statutes, by running his ship above a moderate speed in a fog; therefore it is hereby decreed that the license of said J. C. Downing as master and pilot be revoked, and he is hereby forbidden to exercise the duties prescribed in his said license.
It is not unappropriate for the court to state, for the information of licensed masters and pilots, that it is a common remark in the office of the local Boards of Inspectors of steam vessels here that, if masters of wrecked steamers took a tithe of the pains in keeping their ships at a safe distance from danger that they subsequently do in their examinations in explaining how they ran ashore, there would be fewer disasters of the kind.
John Birmingham,
Supervising Inspector Steam Vessels, First District.