The pioneer press. (Miller, Hand County, S.D.) 1893-190?, 1896-05-21
ACROSS THE PACIFIC.
A Letter from a Hand County Man
now In the L.. =. Navy.

now In the L. =. Navy.
The following letter was written by
H. NJ. Breiner, of Alpha township,
who is 10Y on the {. >. naval ship
Boston -:
NAJAsKI, JAPAN. April 3, SO.
B. n. Purkey: Dear Sir and Friend.
Yours Of the 18th Of December re-
| ceived at Mare Island some lineage,
and contents noted. AS have plen-
lty of spare time now will try to an
swer same, and give a short sketch
| of our trip across the Pacific. We
left San Francisco, Jan. 10 and was
II days reaching Honolulu. Had
fine weather, and slipped there days
to coal ship and clean upsome. Feb.
18th we steamed out of Honolulu har-
Dor for Yokohama, which is $500
miles from latter port; a long dis
lance for the Boston on account OF
her coal capacity which is small for
a ship of her size. We had fine wealth
er the first eight days out, when we
ran into II storm with head winds,
| which lasted until we reached IOko-
hama n little over II days, which
was good time considering every
thing. 1t looked ut times as though
we would never get there rs our coal
was getting very low, and tor sever
al DAYS made little Roadway against
the gale that was blowing. The wind
abated some and we got there with
very little coal to spare. The Bos-
ton can set considerable sail and We
could have reached port in time with
same but would have drifted days,
perhaps weeks before getting in.
The Boston is a dandy sea boat and
behaves well in a storm. Immense
waves would wash clear oyer her,
and water would come through the
matches into the engine and fire room
but she would ride the waves like q
duck.
The Pacific mail steamer City OF
Rio Jenero' ran into the same storm
and after battling with it 3S days,
when within 1000 miles of iokOha-
ma, put back for Honolulu, 2.1OO
miles away, which port she reached,
out of coal and in a dilapidated con
dition, having burned rs of her cab
ms, masts, spars, etc. to get there.
One soon gets SO that he does not
care much for II storm at sea, only
the discomfort it causes | was sea-
sick part of the time but did my
work all the same, and after steam
ing $500 miles from San Francisco
to Yokohama was glad TO get
through. We lay in the latter port
a short time to coal up, and putinto
Kobe, from there here, 700 miles
farther. This Is headquarters for
the war vessels of all nations out
here. There are six Russian ships
here at present, two OF which are bat
tie ships. There is talk of war be-
tween Japan and Russia over Corea.
The laps have the big head since
they did up the Chinese in the late
war, but will get some ofthe concept
taken out of them il they run up
against the Russians. 1t is only
400 miles from here to COrea, which
place we will be sent to as soon as
we report to the flag ship (Olym,
phia) which is at Shanghai, China,
which port we proceed to from here,
There are Z American men of war on
this station at present, viz: York
town, Olympia, Boston, Charleston,
Detroit, Machias, and the old wood
en- Manacacy. The Concord and
Petrol left for home as soon as we
arrived. There are many ships lay
ing here and coming and going all
the time. | hear we are to proceed
on to Shanghai, the 10Th, and some
say only outside for target practice.
One cannot tell until the captain gets
his orders from the admiral. One
thing | am glad of, we have no more
long trips to make, rs the ports are
only = OF 3 days apart. We have
been here nearly 1 weeks now, and
have the Boston cleaned up and
paitned, and it looks fine now.
Drilling, boat rowing, general quar-,
tiers, and clear ship for action is the
order OF the day now. The engineers
Div. have less drilling to do than the
rest OF the crew. The work is not
hard. and short days, too. There are
plenty of papers from the states to
read, and there is Il library aboard
ship. 1t would surprise you to see
the amount of mail carried by each
steamer from San Francisco. The
officers threw in an bought instru.
ments, and there was plenty OF mu-
sicians among the crew, so we have
Il good band too. of the country
can't tell yon'mheh yet, as | have
only been ashore n few times yet, al