THE STEAMER SENATOR. A Craft Which Has Earned Fortunes for Her Owners.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 54, 14 June 1884, Page 3

THE STEAMER SENATOR. A Craft Which Has Earned Fortunes for Her Owners.

The once fine steamship Senator, but in future to be known as the Auckland coal hulk of that name, arrived from San Francisco yesterday afternoon, having completed the journey, jury-rigged, after a good passage of 53 days. The purchase of this vessel by the Kamo Coal Company finishes the career of one of the most successful vessels afloat. The Senator was built at New York in 1846 by W. H. Brown, and ran between Boston and St. John, N.8., touching at Bangor and Belfast, Ireland. Many claim that she was built two years afterwards, but the best authorities place her as above. She ran for a short time on the eastern coast of America, but during the gold excitement at California she was sent to San Francisco, where she arrived in September, 1849, with 500 passengers, who were taken on board at Panama. Soon after completing this trip she was placed on the Sacramento River, making 3 trips a week, and with 35 dollars for cabin passages and 15 dollars for standing-room on deck, she soon paid for herself ten times over— in fact, her receipts averaged close on 20,000 dollars a trip, and for four months, or until tho steamer New Woi v ld arrived, fully 50,000 dollars a week. Her first captain Avas La Fayette Maynard, who was .meceeded by Van Pelt, and he in turn by the famous old Edgar Wakeman, who continued in her until succeeded by Sam Seymour. The Senator ran on alternate days with the New World, and this continued until 1854, when the combination known for many years afterwards as the Californian Steam Navigation Company was effected, and tho Senator drawing more water than necessary for the safe navigation of the river, waß withdrawn, and after being laid up at Sacramento for sevex-al months was brought to San Francisco and fitted up for outside business. She ran to San Diego under command of Tom Seelcy for several years. He was killed by an explosion at San Pedro, and Captain Butters took charge and continued so until old Bob Haley, who afterwards lost the Brother Jonathan, took her. She vas afterwards purchased by Ben Holliday and continued on the Southern route until purchased by the Pacific Mail Company, who subsequently sold her to Goodall, Nelson and Perkins, who afterwards incorporated the Pacific Coast S.S. Company, and she finished her days of steamming with that Company. The Senator had, I while in employment, many of the oldest American skippers at her wheel. Maynard, Van Pelt, Poole, Seeley, Butters, De Wolf, Sherwood, Seymour, Haley, Captain Stothard ; Bogart, who died in the pilot service ; Charley Horn, Mark Ilarloe, Francis Connor (dead), Gregory, Sholl, Debncy (now on the State of California), Sudden, Alexander and Wallace, have all had a test of her merits as masters. During her 34 years of active service she had many narrow escapes from destruction, and in the same time performed many good acts of towing disabled steamers into port. Although she has had new boilers on several occasions her engine, a vertical beam, continued in her from first to last, and her aftercabin through all changes was never touched, as the joiners on all occasions declined, for the reason that the highly-polished rosewood and mahogany could not be improved on. She was built of tho choicest Eastern oak, and an examination recently made showed that tho old timbers are as sound now as in IS4B, when they were first put in. Estimates have been made frequently as to tho number of people who have travelled on her, and the lowest calculation places the figure at over a million, and some idea of the money made by her on tho Sacramento may be formed when it is known that over 170,000 passengers travelled on her in that trade, and with passage at from 35 dollars to 20 dollars, the proceeds would buy her many times over. She has made more gold than she could carry, and has outlived scores of the finest steamers afloat engaged in business at 'Frisco, and which were wrecked or went to decay w r hile the old Senator, one of the few remaining links that bound inhabitants to the "days of old, the days of gold, the days of '49," plodded along successfully, until she finally had to give way to the march of improvement, and to the new and more economical style of craft, the steam propeller. She now r is completely metamorphised, and will settle down as a good old coal hulk in the Waitemata.

Mr Thomas Spurgeon is a capita) beggar. He has sent £275 towards tbo Auckland Tabernacle Fund, collected by him in Launceston, Tasmania. A French industrial society has advocated the suppression of all circular saws, on the ground that t&ey are w.astef ul and dangerous to life,