The American ship Emily Farnum, sailed from San Francisco for Departure Bay, November 12, 1875, in command of Capt. Austin, with nine passengers, nineteen crew, and one hundred tons of railroad iron. She had fine weather until the sixteenth, when a heavy southeast gale raged, during which the cargo shifted and the ship lost considerable canvas. On the eighteenth the wind increased, accompanied by squalls and snow, and at midnight land was reported dead ahead. An attempt was at once made to stay the ship, which failed, and she was again hauled to the wind, but, in endeavoring to weather Destruction Island, a heavy sea drove the vessel toward the rocks, and at 12:30 she struck heavily. The port anchor was let go and the main and mizzen mast cut away. an effort was also made to launch the boats, but they were destroyed by the force of the waves. The amidships, the top part of her house, to which fourteen of the men clung, lodging on the rocks, where the survivors remained until morning. Thomas McGill swam from the rock to the main part of the island with a line, and a small raft, two of the men swam to the island, and John Hoaglin, a native of Sweden, and the Chinese cook, were drowned in attempting the same feat. The survivors remained on the island for several days, subsisting on flour and cabbage, until they were taken to the mainland by the Indians. From there they went to Gray's Harbor, Second Officer Reed and twelve men proceeding to Astoria, where Capt. Bolles of the Ajax kindly gave them passage to San Francisco. Capt. Austin and the rest of the crew remained at Gray's Harbor to recuperate. The wreck was caused by the chronometer being out or order, as observation taken on the eighteenth showed the vessel to be seventy-five miles off shore. Wright

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