Hongkong

Hongkong

In the News~

April 2, 1895 [LAH]: “Catalina. Avalon, April 1.—...The Chinese junk Hongkong, from San Diego, which has been anchored in the bay for several days and is affording much entertainment for island visitors, had all her gorgeous colors hoisted...”

November 8, 1896 [SFCall]: “Gives chase to poaching craft. Steamer Pacheco leaves San Diego in quest of trespassers. Sent to capture vessels at Guano Islands off the Mexican coast. Seeks for eight offenders. Concessionaires attempt to enforce the payment of large royalties. San Diego, Cal., Nov. 7. — The steamer Pacheco, which sailed from here Wednesday night, ostensibly on its regular trip to San Quintin and way ports in Lower California, is now said to be on a chase after eight guano-poaching schooners which are believed to be gathered in Vizcaino Bay. These craft are the junk Acme, Captain Chase, and the Pekin, Captain Moodlin; the schooners Ellen, Captain Jinsen; Whalberg. Captain Martin; Hongkong, Captain Hornstein; Alta, Captain Farwell; Sailor Boy, Captain Edwardson, and Ida, Captain Atwood. Most of these schooners sailed from this port the latter part of October and are now probably at the Guano Islands. These islands are about 350 miles south of San Diego. All of them were formerly covered with guano and have kept a fleet of small craft busy carrying the fertilizer to this port. The deposits are owned by the Mexican Land and Colonization Company, which has a concession from the Government for all the fisheries and deposits on the peninsula coast. The company claims a royalty of $2.50 per ton and the Ensenada customs officials impose port charges of about $70 on each schooner. The skippers say this is too much to make the business profitable, and therefore they run down and get the guano and bring it to San Diego without stopping to visit the Ensenada officials or to render an account to the company. When O. J. Creweread assumed the management of the company a few weeks ago he served notice on the guano-poachers that they would be prosecuted for further encroachments on the company's preserves. The present trip of the Pacheco is for the purpose of apprehending the schooners. Last year the Pacheco made a similar trip and overtook the schooner Pekin at San Martin Island. Two boys were on the island gathering guano and another on the schooner. The schooner got away but the steamer captured the boys on the island, together with 900 sacks of guano. The boys are now serving sentence of eighteen months in the Ensenada jail.”

November 22, 1896 [SFCall]: “Plied Oars as Hunger Gnawed. Starving Guano Poachers Picked Up by Friends at Sea. Had Escaped in a Small Boat When Their Junk Was Seized. Sighted by the Notorious Hongkong's Crew When Almost Dead From Exhaustion. San Diego, Cal., Nov. 21.—The junk Hongkong, which was chased by the steamer Pacheco at Santa Rosalia Bay early this month, arrived in port this morning with a cargo of guano. It was to stop the poaching of guano that the Pacheco pursued the small schooners and junks from this port, and she captured two—the schooner Ellen and the junk Peking. Captain Jensen and two sailors of the Ellen are now in jail at Ensenada. Captain Moodlin, "Stuttering Fritz" Greiber and Larry Neison of the Peking got ashore and escaped from the Pacheco. They were picked up by the Hongkong at sea south of Cedros Island, after suffering from starvation, and after returning to Elide Island to load guano they returned, reaching San Diego today. "It was a pretty exciting experience," said Captain Moodlin. "Stuttering Fritz" nodded his head. "The Pacheco bore down upon us before we knew it," continued the skipper, "and we thought we were goners, sure. We pitched a few eatables into the small boat, grabbed a cask of water partially filled, got the junk's papers and tumbled into the boat. Fritz and Larry pulled for the shore with all their might and got there just as the Pacheco was getting her hooks onto the Peking. We made the boat fast to the rock and jumped ashore and hid in the brush, fearing pursuit by the guards on the Pacheco. "Pretty soon we saw the steamer leaving with the Ellen and Peking in tow and then we breathed easier, but a new situation was before us and a very dangerous one. We came near to a horrible death. As soon as we felt safe from the steamer we figured up what we had, and found we had secured only two gallons of water, two or three cans of tomatoes and a few cans of corned beef. It was pretty slim and there we were on a desert island with sure death within a week unless we got away. Our first care was the boat. We hurried down to the beach and our hearts sank as we saw it adrift and going seaward. We tramped over the barren waste for twelve miles, following the boat. Finally it got pretty close to the shore, and we swam out and got it. "We started out right away for Cedros Island, sixty miles to the north. Before the next morning we saw it was a hopeless job and began to think of starvation and its horrors. Our cask of water was almost empty and we were thirsty from the constant work. We did not dare eat much corned beef, as the salt would make us crave for water still more. the only thing that would pull us through was the tomatoes, and an excellent thirst-quencher it was. We agreed to take one teaspoonful an hour apiece, and so, getting down to starvation rations, we started in on the second day's pull toward Cedros, which was out of sight under the horizon. We pulled faithfully almost all that day, not daring to talk much about our condition. Each man, I suppose, had his own scheme of salvation, to be used when the desperation of hunger pushed him to throw aside all restraint. "It was then that we saw a sail—the ugly webbed mainsail of the Hongkong'. It was the most beautiful picture I ever saw, bearing down toward us on a heavy breeze. With our coats and the oars we made a signal which we waived and fluttered with desperate energy. The course of the Hongkong took her quite close and her skipper saw us and bore down upon us. He took us on board, where we almost fell upon the deck from exhaustion. The Hongkong ran down to Elide Island, and we helped the crew load and hurriedly put off so as not to be caught napping by the Pacheco. We got away on the 10th, and thanked the high seas and free run up to San Diego." "B-b-b-bu-bu-bet your life dat's right, too," said Stuttering Fritz.”

July 28, 1897 [SFCall]: “Found Starving on a Lonely Isle. Four men picked up by the San Diego vessel Wahlberg. Two of them presidio soldiers who had been missing for months. Valuable specimens brought back by the scientists who sailed on the schooner. San Diego, Cal., July 27.—The schooner Wahlberg, which sailed from this port on March 3 on a scientific expedition for the Smithsonian Institution and Stanford University, arrived at noon today. The crew consisted of Captain Fred Anthony, a well-known scientist; H. Keating; D. H. McGregor, a Stanford student, of Stockton; W. E. Goolman of Pacific Beach; and a Stanford University professor, who was left at San Jose del Cabo on the way down as he could not endure the hardships of the voyage. The professor took the first steamer going north for San Francisco. The Wahlberg brings back a full cargo, consisting of five tons of rare and curious deep-sea shells and four barrels of deep-sea fish, especially packed by McGregor for President Jordan. They are beautiful specimens, and were preserved by McGregor of Stanford. They were selected from Todos Santos, St. Martin, Geronimo, Guadaloupe, Bonitos, Natividad, Turtle Bay, San Rooks [Roque], Ascencion, Abricos Point, Cape San Lucas, San Jose del Cabo, Benedict, Socorro and Clarion islands, the latter islands being over 1000 miles from the coast. Many of the fish specimens are very rare, and one or two new varieties, not classified at Stanford or Berkeley, were obtained. On her return up the coast the Wahlberg stopped at Natividad, where she found four San Diegans who had been left at Cedros by the junk Hongkong, and had been taken to Natividad by a schooner, with the expectation of returning on another schooner to San Diego. The men there nearly famished for the want of food, but the arrival of the Wahlberg saved their lives. They were all brought away and arrived here today. They are ex-Sergeant Sanford, Private Connors of Company H, Tenth United States infantry, and John Dampier and William Andrews, sailors. These four men left San Diego on the Hongkong about eight months ago for Cedros Island, 400 miles down the coast. Dampier and Andrews were after abalone shells and meat, and Sergeant Sanford and Connors accompanied them for pleasure solely, both men having been granted three months' furlough. Upon their arrival at Cedros the Hongkong anchored on the south side of the island, where the four men were left, and the Hongkong continued south after guano, intending to return to San Diego and then pick the men up on her next trip. When the Hongkong returned to San Diego she was sold to J. W. Kishler of Riverside, who fitted her out as a guano poacher and sent her out in a different direction. The crew forgot all about the four men awaiting them on the lonely desert island, and went on the cruise with the Hongkong. In the meantime another small schooner had taken the quartet over to Natividad, where they were left with provisions and water, expecting to be able to get aboard of a schooner bound for this port before long. But no schooner have in sight until the Wahlberg arrived in time to rescue the half-famished men. By this time the furloughs of both soldiers had expired, and the men will now have to go to the Presidio to re-enlist in the army. Sanford is the senior sergeant of the Tenth Infantry, having served in the army for twenty-six years and having but one more term to serve to entitle him to be retired. For eight months nothing had been heard of the party, and during that time the men had no tidings of the outside world. Their arrival here today was a great surprise to nearly everybody, as it was generally supposed they were long since dead, either from shipwreck or starvation.”

May 10, 1898 [SBMP]: “The Chinese junk, Hongkong, Captain Forrest, arrived yesterday from San Miguel Island, with 40 sacks of wool and 100 head of sheep. Captain Waters also came over from the island. The Hongkong will go to Santa Rosa Island in a day or two.”

April 1, 1900 [SF Call]: “Chinese Junks Seized. San Diego, March 31.—A private dispatch received in this city from Ensenada, Lower California, says that the Mexican gunboat Democrata has arrived at that port having in tow the junk Hongkong and two other small vessels, all hailing from San Diego, which were seized on charges of poaching guano at Guadalupe Island.”

April 16, 1901 [SF Call]: “Passes Many Months in Mexican Dungeon. Captain Thornsan of the Guano-Poaching Junk Hongkong Survives Awful Hardships in the Cuartel at Ensenada. San Diego, April 15.—Among the passengers arriving here this morning on the steamer St. Denis was Captain Hnas Thornsan, who returns to civilization after eighteen months as a prisoner in the Mexican Cuartel at Ensenada. There he underwent an experience which he will not soon forget, and the emaciated condition in which he returns to San Diego gives ample proof of the story which he tells. Thornsan was the captain of the junk Hongkong, which was seized at Elida Island more than a year and a half ago by the Mexican man-of-war Democrata. In company with two other small vessels of about the same class the Hongkong was being used by guano poachers. There were seven men in the enterprise and four of them were able to get away from the gunboat, though their vessels were taken. Captain Thornsan and his crew of two men were captured and conveyed to Ensenada. The four who escaped lived on Elida Island for a few days, until the Democrata sailed north with the three small vessels in tow. Then they succeeded in getting across the channel to the main land of the peninsula, and, after enduring great hardships, eventually reached San Diego. The three prisoners were taken to Ensenada and thrown into jail. The vessels were confiscated by the Mexican Government. The two sailors were sentenced to six months each, while Captain Thornsan, because he owned the vessel in which the guano was to have been taken away, was given a double sentence of twelve months in the Ensenada Cuartel. For some reason unknown and without even the form of an explanation to the captain, his sentence was extended to eighteen months. "I was treated like a wild animal," said Captain Thornsan today, "and if I attempted to go into the presence of other prisoners, who were given more liberty than I, they would run away and lock the doors. When I was taken to jail I had some money and some clothing. The latter was taken from me, and during almost my whole term of imprisonment I had only one suit of clothes and one blanket to cover me. My bed was the concrete floor of my cell, and I slept rolled up in a blanket with my coat as a pillow. While my money lasted I was able to buy a little extra provisions, but when this was gone I was out on an allowance of 25 cents a day, Mexican money. With this I bought bread and a few beans, but six weeks before I was released my allowance was stopped, and since then I have existed solely on bread and water. "As may be expected, my clothes were nothing but a few rags, hardly sufficient to cover my body. During my whole term of imprisonment I was never allowed to leave the alley that separated the cells from the jail, and I never felt the warmth of sunshine. Communication with the outside world was cut off entirely, and what has happened during the last eighteen months is a blank to me. "I am happy over one ting, and that is that I have lived through this terrible experience, and I assure you I will never put myself in a position again where there is the least chance of me having another dose of it." ”