IMPRESSIONS OF CALIFORNIA 269 



beautiful, a masterpiece, which looks as if it had been 

 cut out of one solid block of wood. On the stern under- 

 neath the bow-sprit, she carries a finely carved winged 

 horse, gilt and much above life-size; this and a gilt- 

 moulding, about three inches wide, running all around 

 the ship, are her only ornaments; beyond these, she is 

 painted black. To show you how remarkably strong 

 these vessels are, I shall relate an incident which I should 

 not have believed from hearsay, but which I now vouch 

 for, having been an eye-witness to the fact. 



As the " Clara Mallory," a Baltimore clipper of about 

 equal size and just as handsome a ship as the ''Winged 

 Eacer," came into port a few days ago, the breeze began 

 to decline and, as the tide was running heavily against 

 her, she was obliged to engage the steamer "Goliath" to 

 take her in tow, and bring her up to the wharf. Being 

 loaded rather deep, the "Goliath" had to make supreme 

 efforts to bring her near Long "Wharf, and just at the 

 moment, when she was turning into the slip, the tow-line 

 broke and the "Clara Mallory" fell squarely into the 

 trough of the sea and began to drift with increasing 

 rapidity. She immediately let go both bow-anchors, but 

 these did not take hold at once and it thus could not be 

 prevented that she swept with her long jib-boom over 

 the deck of the three-masted screw-steamer "Fremont-" 

 a steamer somewhat larger than the Konigsberg "Cole- 

 raine," then at anchor. Any ordinary ship would have 

 lost her jib-boom in striking against the mast of a vessel 

 riding at anchor and would then have cleared, but the 

 "Clara Mallory" did just the reverse. With the very 

 end of her jib-boom, she first broke the "Fremont's fore- 

 mast, then the main-mast, and finally knocked the chim- 

 ney overboard, without sustaining even the smallest 

 damage herself. It seems incredible, but as I mentioned 

 before, I saw it with my own eyes. 



Perhaps the most gigantic, though not the finest of all 

 ships in this port at the present time, is the screw- 

 steamer "Samuel S. Lewis" lately arrived from New 

 York and intended for the Panama line. She is of two 



