Failure to Have Compasses Adjusted Said to Be Cause of Coaster Going Ashore

San Francisco Call – December 23, 1909 – Ten members of the crew of the steamer Homer arrived here yesterday on the Pacific Mail liner San Jose, which went to the assistance of the stranded coaster, but was unable on account of her draft to get near enough to do any good. The San Jose took off the Homer’s passengers and crew, but later transferred the passengers and all but 10 of the crew to a gasoline launch, which took the passengers to San Blas, their destination after leaving part of the crew on board the stranded steamer. The Homer went ashore at 3:30 o’clock in the morning December 14. The weather was fine and for half an hour before the ship struck Captain Pierce stood on the bridge and listened to the musical boom of the surf, the sound of which had induced Second Officer John F. Cogan to call the master and to suggest that they were pretty close inshore. Pierce is said to have dismissed the suggestion with the remark that the land breeze made the noise seem nearer than it was. Throe-quarters of an hour after Pierce took charge the Homer was on the beach. A boat in command of Second Officer Cogan was dispatched to San Bias for assistance.’ At 5:30 o’clock in the evening the steamer San Jose was sighted. Cogan reported the plight of the Homer and Captain Thompson reached the scene of the wreck at 3:30 o’clock in the morning. He waited until daylight and then took off the 17 passengers and the crew. Meanwhile Cogan had reached San Blas, where he asked the captain of the Mexican* steamer Manuel Herreras to go to the Homer’s assistance. At that time the Homer could have been floated with very little assistance, but the Mexican captain refused to do anything unless guaranteed payment. While at San Blas the natives stole all the food out of the Homer’s lifeboat. Harold Smith, manager of the San Blas banana company, whose wife was a passenger on the Homer, proceeded to the scene of the wreck in a gasoline launch, taking Cogan’s boat in tow. Smith relieved Captain Thompson of the Homer’s passengers, but asked that 10 of the crew be given passage on the San Jose to San Francisco.

According to the report of the wreck filed yesterday with the government inspectors the Homer left here after being laid up for four months without having its compasses adjusted. That there was a deviation not shown on the old card was demonstrated early in the voyage when the Homer fetched seven miles inside its course between Point Firmin and San Diego. Even after this warning no attempt was made to adjust compasses and the second time the Homer went astray proved fatal. The Homer is lying at right angles to the beach, but is getting deeper all the time in the sand and unless assistance arrives soon the little old coaster will stay there. Those of the Homer’s crew who arrived on the San Joe were: Second Officer John F. Cogan, Second Engineer James Marshall, Alfred Ingram, Samuel Tores, W. C. McCabe, A. Reyes, P. Losada, R. Cota, Frank Ortez and John Frerisch.

* Noteworthy

1688 – As part of the Glorious Revolution, King James II of England flees from England to Paris, France after being deposed in favor of his nephew, William of Orange and his daughter Mary.

1913 – The Federal Reserve Act is signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson, creating the Federal Reserve System.

1947 – The transistor is first demonstrated at Bell Laboratories.

1970 – The North Tower of the World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York, New York is topped out at 1,368 feet (417 m), making it the tallest building in the world.

1972 – The 16 survivors of the Andes flight disaster are rescued after 73 days, having reportedly survived by cannibalism.

1986 – Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, lands at Edwards Air Force Base in California becoming the first aircraft to fly non-stop around the world without aerial or ground refueling.