The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1892-05-12
CRUISE or THE ST. GEORGE.
lFrom the Field. April 90

SIR:-In a previous letter, which
you kindly inserted in the Field some
months ago, gave short account OF
our voyage from England via the
Canal to San Francisco. We ar
rived there on Oct. 10, and left on
the 30th for Honolulu, distant POO
miles. About half of this passage
we did under sail, but had not very
good luck with our weather. First
of all we encountered strong head
gale, which lasted two or three days,
and reduced up at last to storm can
vas; during this time the goose-neck
of the main boom carried away and
other damage was done. After the
gale came calm, which did not suit
us any better in twenty-iour hours
we did twelve knots, so the funnel
was raised, and we steamed for
twenty hours or so, till a light breeze
sprang up from the S. E., enabling
US to get under sail again. After
this we passed through a region of
squalls, one of which struck the ship
with tremendous violence on the
afternoon of Nov. IL. The ship was
we'll handled, and all the gear stood
the strain we'll, so we escaped with
out damage. Next day we had light
airs, and could not set much canvas
for fear of the squalls; the result
was that the rest of the distance into
Honolulu was done under steam
we arrived there on Nov. 10.
Our daily runs during this passage
we're as follows (runs in brackets
were done under sail alone): l6S,
1872, [121, 95, 63, rs, 12], 1888, T90,
$50, 1856, 1856, 1l0J, 227, 249, 20.
AT Honolulu we spent very pleas
ant six weeks, ending up with Christ
mas. We took the yacht over to
Hilo in Hawaii, and Visited the vol
cano of Kilauea. AS this extraordi-
nary phenomenon is constantly
changing, it may be worth while just
to mention its present condition.
From the volcano house (Which has
lately been enlarged, and is now
quite comfortable hoteD, we went
down some scott. into the main era
ter, which is mass of hard black
lava, about three miles by two miles
in area. A walk of two miles over
this lava brought US to the edge of
the small crater, which is circular
pit 500yds. across. Looking down
we saw, 300ft. or 400ft. below US,
the marvellous lake of fire, a mass of
molten lava, some 300yds. in dia-
meter, dark grey in color, but veined
in every direction with what looked
like streams of molten gold, while
out of it were constantly shooting
huge fountains of this golden lava,
and the whole lake was all the time
on the move, now this way, and now
that. Two of us went down into this
small crater, which it is quite safe to
do; but we could not get close to
the lake itself, though even that is
often possible.
fter our return to Honolulu we
had very merry Christmas there,
the chief event of Importance being
an international tug of war, which
created great deal of excitement
and enthusiasm. This tug of war
was in imitation of one which was
going on in San Francisco when we
were there, and which was, believe,
the first of Its kind. The contest
took place on wooden platform
erected in the gymnasium, across the
platform were nailed rows of wooden
cleats; the teams lay down opposite
one another on this platform, with
their feet against the cleats. Each
team consisted of nine men, the ninth
man having round his body a sort of
horse collar, to which the end of the
rope was attached. Six teams COM
peted Hawaiians, Germans, Scotch,
Portuguese, Americans and English.
The chief interest centered in the
struggle between the last two teams.
The Americans had been carefully
picked from the crew-some $50
strong-of big man-of:-wa station
ed in Honolulu. They had been
practising for some little time. The
English team was taken, all except
one man, from our crew, and was
only selected the day before the con-
test began. America and England
were drawn against one another the
first night. They pulled for an hour,
and the Americans had gained one
foot out of six when the contest was
closed for the night. On the Mon
day they pulled again, the Americans
starting with their one foot in hand.
For an hour and more the rope was
stationary, then it began to move our
way, and in another three-quaIters
of an hour we had pulled them over
the whole lift. Our victory was very
popular with the Hawaiians. To cut
long story short, the Union Jack
proved victorious over everybody ex-
cept the Hawaiens themselves, who
were an immense set of men. They
secured six wins, and we came sec
ond with five wins and one defeat.
The Germans were a big powerful
lot; il took our men no less than two
hours fifty-seven minutes to pull
them over, one constant steady pull
4 4 l.