The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-06-19
BAD MAN OF THE SEA.
SAILOR soRENsON. WHO SOLD HIS
CREW TO THE CANNI8ALS.

rrland California Mechanics
Lured to Death with Bait o;
Mythical Gold TInccrs.
From the Chicago Inter Ocean.
The Inter Ocean printed dispatch re-
Gently saying that after months of suffer-
ing from disease and the hostility of the
Solomon Island canniba,s the san Fran
cisco schooner Sophia Sutherland. has
just returned to Apia, Samoa. OF her
crew. fifteen argonauts who set sail for
the Western Pacific in search of lodges Of
gold which they believed were awaiting
the prospector four died at sea from
scurvy and fever.
officials in the South sea have grown TO
distrust vessels which start from San
Francisco for a cruise below the line. It
has often happened that schooners come
light to Apia and 10 Leruka and to Ton
gatabu seeking a cargo of copra for the
coast. and afterward gin and guns have
been found in the possession of wild isl
anders, TO whom such possessions provide
both the incentive and the tools of massa-
Gre So when the papers of San Fran
cisco brought the news that the Sophia
| Sutherland was to carry a crew of 100 gun
fighters, armed to the teeth, who were
going to find gold in the Solomons, the
eonsuls in Apa took alarm. The schooner
came into port last September. and the
harbor authorities found there were only
fifteen men aboard, and not enough in
| The way Of weapons to so around Thir-
teen young men who had been mechanics
in san Francisco were the crew, and a.
the same time principal stockholders in
| the South Sea Gold Mining and CONNER
| cial Company; not a bad man or gun
| fighter was in sight; the most that could
! be alleged against the skipper. Capt. Alecl5
! Mclean was that in the Old days when
| the game paid not a British nor a Yankee
! cruiser had been able to convict him Of
! pelagic seal poaching. The fifteenth man
| was SOrenson. But before Sorenson can
! be properly comprehended it will be neces-
| sary to sketch in the only background
against which such a man can exist in
| these days when piracy encounters bust
| ness depression
! For 800 years there has been a belief that
! gold existed in the Solomons. In the far
| off days when the vice royalty of Peru was
! second only to Mexico in the Spanish pos
| sessions expeditions were sent out into
! the unknown South sea to make discoV-
! cries, to find gold. Quiros, Mendana and
! Torres have left their names on the charts
! of the Western Pacific, for they found ana
! rebound the chain of mountainous islands,
| which they called after the name of Solo
mon, in the belief that they had redis-
| covered Ophir. One island still carries
| the name of the heroic lady Dona Ysabel
| who hid from the fierce savages the grave
! Of her husband, the dead admiral, ana
| faced mutiny and all the perils of the
| sea, and herself led back the shattered
! expedition in safety to Manila. They are
| a cruel place, these solomon Islands, and
| they never fail to take toll of the best
of those who have to do with them. Look
/ at just d few names on the sacrificiaI
| roll. There Is a Mendana a the head
| La Perouse met his fate, so long a black
mystery, just outside their limit Bishop
! Patterson did thereaWay So persisted
| Commodore Goodenough. Any of the old
beachcombers Will tell you that the aver
age duration of a white trader in the Sol
onions falls under three years; the end
| is always the same-the club and the
! oven. Only two years ago a scientific
! party from the Austrian corvette Alba
tross was lured to massacre in these
| mountain forests With such a record
1t IS small wonder that the British and
| German governments in partiuoning the
| group between them have ordered that no
| man shall visit the islands without the
| permit of the respective commissioners.
These Solomon islands are the scene in
which this man Sorenson developed, in the
| days when they were still unanneXed, and
| The infrequent naval vessel was the rare
| manifestation of law. Sorenson Is a Dane,
a meek race of water folk for the most
| part, but with now and then a throwing
| back to the Old viking sea chiefs Drift
| ing as such men do in the Western Pacific,
| lie soon put himself in the way of becoming
a worthy successor of that distinguished
| American, Bully Hayes. Lacking Bully
| Hayes sense of humor and skill I'm sea-
manship for Sorcnson still finds the sex
| tant and the chronometer too great a mys-
| terry for his comprehension, his manner of
work is coarser and devoid of that ingen-
| uity in crime which stamped the career OF
| the late Capt Hayes with such an arts
! tic finish. By profession he is a diver
for pearl she'll and he has worked at the
| trade with success beyond the common.
Like all pearl Divers. he was not scrupu-
lousy honest to his employers. He was in
the way of reporting a bank barren when.
in fact II was covered with rich shell. The
knowledge of rich banks thus obtained is
the trade of the pearl diver and
on this capital he trades 10 get q schooner
for himself
So with Sorenson. In 1888 he approached
some people in Melbourne with samples of
shell and stories Of his exclusive knowi-
Il edge of ineXhaustble banks. Such a man
does not Deddle this sort of Information
along shore. You can sell sailor a farm
with profit, but he knows what he's buy
| ing when it's on soundiugs or off So he
men. They bought The Port Phillip pilot
| schocNer Albert, which happened to be on
the market, hired a masrSr and shipped a
small crew. This was SOrensons sugges-
ton. He concealed his ignorance of the art
of navigation, and professed that thus they
would have a check upon the honesty of
his dealings with them.
The Albert was naVigated to the Solo
mons. once in these extensive archipela-
goes Of the Pacific any boy can navigate
by landmarks of the peaks i'm sight There
was no longer any need of the captain, and
Sorenson promptly disposed of him by
turning him adrift with one companion in
the dingey. The rest OF the crew were
locked in the forecastle The next step
was 10 recruit crew of ISLANDERS. This
was easy to such a man. \ native chief
| was invited aboard with his paddlers. The
chief was asked below INTO the cabin to
get a pannilIin of trade gin. and you can
do anything with a South Sea Islander if
| only gin Is in prospect. The chief was
firmly loshed his paddlers were driven
! tpfp so with a ri