Posted inMaritime & Naval History Ship Histories

Tanner Again in Commission

Fifty-Year-Old Brig Is to Load Cargo of Lumber at Mukilteo for This Port

HULL IS EVERLASTING

In Spite of Age and Shipwreck Her Ancient Timbers Still Hang Together

The brig Tanner is going to celebrate her jubilee by making another voyage from the north to this port. At least half a dozen times has this time-worn craft been wrecked, and as often has her obituary been written. She has been sailing the seas since 1855, when she was launched from a shipyard long passed away at Smithtown, N. Y. “Arrived, brig Tanner, in distress,” Is an entry which appears with surprlsing frequency on the records of the Merchants’ Exchange. She knows all about Davy Jones’ locker from personal observation, and more than once in the “disaster” column of the marine records she has been classed as “wreck, total loss.”

Posted inMaritime & Naval History Ship Histories Shipwrecks & Nautical Disasters

Efforts to Save Brig Tanner Fail

Newspaper illustration of the Tanner, showing her under sail.

PORT ANGELES (Wash.), October 28.—Efforts so far to haul off the brig Tanner, which went ashore last Saturday near Elwha river, six miles west of this city, have proved futile. The vessel so far is not damaged by the seas. Further effort will be made by tugs at high tide tomorrow. The tug captain believes the vessel can be hauled off if more tugs can be procured before the storm comes, otherwise she will prove a total loss.

The news that the old brig Tanner had gone ashore at Port Angeles and probably would prove a total loss was received yesterday in the local shipping world with considerable interest. The Tanner was about the oldest and one of the most picturesque vessels on the Pacific. In 1855, when she was launched at Smithtown, N. Y., she was as tight and saucy a brig as ever flew the stars and stripes. Forty-eight years of sea service, however, transformed the Tanner into a floating sieve in which no sailorman less brave than her skipper and owner, Captain Newhall, would have dared to venture beyond easy reach of a life-saving station.

Posted inMaritime & Naval History Ship Histories Shipwrecks & Nautical Disasters

Collision Between the Steamers Black Swan and Luna

Illustration of the collision between the Black Swan and the Luna, showing the two steamers collided with the vessel to the left, the Black Swan, going down by the bow. Rescuers row boats toward the disaster.

The steamer Black Swan, belonging to the Tasmanian Steam Navigation Company, left the Queen’s’ Wharf, Melbourne, at 10 o’clock on Tuesday, morning, 16th July, for Launceston, and had at 11 o’clock got nearly abreast of the breakwater running off from Williamstown, when the steamer Luna, coming from Geelong, reached the same spot. The two vessels then came into collision, the Luna striking the starboard bow of the Black Swan stem on, cutting into her to a considerable distance. So great was the force of the shock that it was with difficulty the Luna could, by backing astern, extricate herself, and the Black Swan‘s head was forced from the course she was going right round.

Posted inMaritime & Naval History Ship Histories

Missing Vessel Safe

Schooner Philippine

SAN PEDRO, Oct. 1.—The four-masted schooner Philippine arrived off the breakwater today. It had been feared lost due to the menace by heavy winds striking the southern California coast last night. Of the 11 aboard, only Captain Nels Nelson is said to be an experienced sailor. When the boat left San Francisco it was rumored possible it was the honeymoon ship for Mrs. Aimee McPherson Hutton and her husband, since the former temple attorney and press agent were aboard, but both she and David Hutton denied this. The boat was due yesterday.