Overdue Vessels Get in at Last -- June 27, 2014

OVERDUE VESSELS GET IN AT LAST
The Walla Walla Led the Way and Then Came the Homer.
A Couple of Sailing Ships and the Costa Rica Got In Later On.
Some Anxiety Is Felt for the Safety of the Whaler Beluga and Steamer Alice Blanchard.

The first of the overdue fleet got in yesterday. The Pacific Coast Steamship Company's Walla Walla put in an appearance about 8:30 a. m. and an hour later was tied up at Broadway wharf. It did not take the passengers long to get ashore and many a woe-begone looking female heaved a sigh of relief as she stepped upon the wharf. One and all asserted that it was the heaviest storm they were ever in, but Captain Wallace asserts that it was only "just a stiff blow."

Soon after the steamer left the Sound and was headed for San Francisco the wind began to blow with hurricane force.  The waves were kept down in a measure by the force of the wind, but the spray blew in blinding sheets and the rain fell in torrents. One of the boats on the starboard side was left with the plug in and at 4 P. m., it was found to be almost full of water. While the storm was at its worst an arctic owl blew on board from some where and alighted on the gaff. In spite of the pitching and tossing of the ship one of the crew managed to creep out and secure it. The stranger must have been blown off shore and sought a rest for its weary wings on the Walla Walla.

Off Cape Blanco Captain Wallace was in company with the collier Costa Rica.  The Walla Walla was just holding her own under a slow bell, while the Costa Rica was "bucking into it" and burying her bow, at every plunge, right up to the deckhouse. Captain Mclntyre brought his vessel in last night and says it was as wet a trip as he has ever made.

The Homer, fifty-six hours overdue from Coos Bay, got in during the afternoon.  Captain Jessen says the force of the wind was enormous, but that the sea was not very heavy. The spray drenched the ship from stem to stern, and the staterooms and cabins were flooded. The steamer had to be hove to, and when a slant came she was again put full speed for port.

A little anxiety was felt over the Bark Carrollton, thirteen days out from Nanaimo, B. C, and the General Fairchild, seventeen days out from Seattle, but both set all doubts at rest by getting in last night. Outside of the report of heavy weather and the loss of some sails, there was nothing special to report by either master. Another arrival was the barkentine Archer from Honolulu. The run was made in eleven days, a wonderfully fast passage. The storm that delayed the south-bound fleet helped the Archer along on her way home.

Whaling men are looking anxiously for the arrival of the steam whaler Beluga.  She ought to have been in a week ago, and her owners are wondering what is detaining her. The Beluga, Belvedere and Thrasher all passed out of Bering Sea in company. The Belvedere got in on the 6th, and the Thrasher on the 9th inst., but still there is no word of the other ship.  The schooner C. H. Merchant, from Everett with lumber, is also fully due. and the reports of wreckage drifting ashore on the Oregon coast does not tend to allay the owners' apprehensions.