The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1859-03-31


se.h snppiy, whish - 81 - 151P s 1870
lonesr. on hi4 ref1nss Affs *ks&zZHtI.
n-erfsctlv s.ais6ed ui1hshis trfp.npq ~ sz
hi .ee1 He found no diminusion = = 49,
can;c action: ~cra.ers. pits, lakes, rise'syz
sfl;a.;d 80 we're rising, ~spouting, flowing, 5s
t,mh,;nc; n awful sublimity. I hope he van 90 M
.a.oaa = f,rn;sb YOU with \ narrative OF MS most ~
tarcst;no excursion. His native GUIDE ne
10 tho ms, fearless Hawaiian he has seen. for m
stance. he boldly climbed up with him the steep anu
hardly cooled sides of the first crater 70 tne very Up,
: hs;obt If some two hundred. feet. and thence iooAeu
down into the burning fires below Inere Wa
t;,, Hove I,esoro It has been formed altogether ny
the present volcanic eruption
From the last glimpse We caught, which was TWO
or three nights ago. Pele's fires were glowing ana
blowing with undiminished activity. But we are ~
now covered over with such dense clouds OF smoke
that we cannot tell whether Pele is going Oh IN q
smoho or what she is doing. We are waiting for fur-
sther light. iours'
Waimea, March "a, 1859. M
wnale.hip and sseasnship Commanders.
NJ, ENRON The Mote . in yonr last-ddrer-
,;.e, headed .. Ill Manners at Sea- deserves some
notice. IL CtSiiity "
COLLEEN -ape. in taking no notice of the signals OF the
wbalesbips in Margarita Bay, is an instance OF III
breed;no too often shown by the silk-stocking, poma-
tum-annointed, white-gloved, musk-scented gentle
men ~ that command most ocean-steamers, and
not a few of the clipper ships of the day, to COM
manders of whaleships- A jewel in a pigs nose
would be no more out Of place than are many OF these
eleeant commanders in the positions they disgrace.
They are not gentlemen, and sailors they never can
be. Good sailors are almost universally gentlemen
I mean the sailor that goes " through the hawse-
hole. and thence through every grade Of his profess
sion. from Jack to Captain, as his ability and energy
merit-not the lubber who learns nautical tactics ana
navigation on shore. and obtains a position that heis
not fit to occupy, through the influence OF opuient
relatives and other equally valuable quaiihcations.
Such men are no more entitled to be ranked among
sailors than is an ourang-outang to be styled a gen.
tleman, or a fshmonger from Billingsgate to be
classed among ladies. If evidence. other than the
statement of the fact by the writer of this communi-
cation is wanted by the uninitiated, just take a look
at the enormously increased rates of insurance on the
merchant marine almost the world over, notwith-
standing the superiority of the ships of the present
day, both in structure and strength, to those Of less
modern build, within the last few years, since the
system of making captains on shore has been I'M
wisely introduced. Take the history, for example, of
ocean steam navigation on the coast of California. for
the past ten years, where about the whole science of
navigation by steamer from San Francisco to the
Isthmus consists in keeping a man on the lookout,
and figure up the plumber of steamers wrecked, the
amount of treasure lost, and the sacrifice of human
life, and then judge with how much propriety these
geutlemanly % captains disdain to acknowledge the
c~iyilities of hub5er- huaters-men who, almost to a
-, l.~o ta;,a tho rosit;ouS they hold and do
honor to, both as commanders and gentlemen, by
sterling merit and perseverng industry. These men
are sailors-every inch sailors they know a ship
from stem to stern, from keel to truck, and can han
die a vessel in a style as only a good sailor can.
The very acme of perfection in seamanship is dis
played in laying a ship properly alongside of a dead
whale. I'd like to see some of the silk-stocking gentry
undertake such a job. 1t requires a professional
knowledge that not one out of a hundred of them are
possessed of, and but very few of them are capable OF
attaining, for it needs brains and requires skill to do
it in a seamanlike manner.
The history of the whaling fleet particularly of
the United States, deserves to be written by some one
able to do the subject justice. 1t would develop facts
known to but fcw at the present time. The writer of
this article was once making a passage from Hong
kong to San Francisco, with an experienced captain.
At daylight, one morning, the officer of the deck
reported a sail in sight. OF course, captain and pas
sengers went on deck, and, sure enough, we saw
what for a time we supposed to be a sail but, on
nearing the object, it proved to be a high rock, not
laid down On the vessels charts. We congratulated
ourselves on having made an important discovery
took drawings, and located the island by observation,
as near as we could, to its actual position, for the
benefit of future travellers on the same route. Arrived
in San Francisco, big with the Importance of the sup
-..o1 I;oaror, vo % afa1 tho circumstance fo n n
old whaling captain. Judge of our chagrin when the
old gentleman informed us that he had Sc fshed
many a day around that rock more than twenty years
ago defining its latitude and longitude within three.
miles of its location as we had placed it. So it is all
through the Indian and Pacific Oceans the charts
of whalemen are dotted with islands, reefs and shoals,
unknown to any other navigators and what is
more, when one finds a dot on a w~haleman's chart,
he may depend it is made in the right place.
OF the whaling fleet, there is no ocean that its
keels have not vexed, no sea that has not witnessed
its broad spread canvas. From the torrid to the
frieid zones, the whalemen pursue their hardy calling,
knowing no fear, unappalled by any danger on I'M
known seas and around unsuryeyed coasts, where no
other class of vessels ever go, is a large portion of
their cruising grounds and yet the rate of insur-
ance on these vessels is much lower than on first
class vessels in the merchant service, although some
OF them are Qtteu u q years., III WIFI u
ss God-speed - from the owners at home, are left
solely to the management of the masters from the
commencement to the completion of the voyage.
[ have known many Ct the masters of the whaling
feet long and intimately-have wintered and sum-
mered with them, both ashore and afoat-and can
bear testimony that, with but few exceptions, they
are men of sterling merit ; that they possess an ex-
cellent business capacity, and as seamen and naviga-
tors, stand pre-eminent in their profession. Such
men can sell afford to forgive and forget, in con-
seriousness of their own merits, the picayune man.
ners and incivilities of any and all of the silk-stock-
ing gentry, who are better qualified TO play the
Is Miss Nancy in n ballroom, or to dilate on the