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.”
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." ”
