Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/29

Rh, Sarah A. Robison, and Misses Rhodes, Atkinson, Lawrence, and Connor.

Several engagements had been made during the voyage out. The local paper of June 11, 1866, makes the following announcement:

Even the arch-promoter of the immigration movement could not escape Cupid's entanglements, as the following notice will show:

{{hi|Married-On the 15th of July, 1866, at the Methodist Protestant Church in this city, by the Rev. Daniel Bagley, Mr. Asa Shinn Mercer to Miss Annie E. Stephens, of Baltimore, Maryland.

The Continental has often been represented as having been captured by the Federal fleet while engaged in blockade r ning during the Civil War. This is not true. She was built for the United States at Philadelphia in 1864. She was constructed of oak and hickory. Her length was 285 feet, beam 36 feet, depth of hold 17 feet. When turned over to Ben Holladay she was practically a new ship and worth fully $250,000. By the scoundrelly trick he relates in his letter Mercer was robbed of a fortune. Captain Charles Winsor commanded her on the voyage out. He was later succeeded by Captains Dall, Bolles, Thorn, Metzger and others. William Law and John Farrell, both widely known Pacific Coast engineers, came out on her.

The Continental ran up to Portland and also to other Paeifie Coast ports for the ensuing four years, but September 27, 1870, while crossing the Gulf of California, encountered a heavy gale and foundered, eight lives being lost with her. She was commanded by Captain Chris Dale at the time, and, whether justly or unjustly, he was greatly blamed in connection with the affair.

Miss Harriet F. Stevens kept a record of the trip and furnished it for publication soon after the arrival of the party here. The following is briefly condensed therefrom:

"The steamer with its lessened quota of passengers, left New