The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1898-12-03
REMARKABLE VOYAGES.

The tales Of the survivors of the ship
W. III. Starbuck recently burned at sea,
1900 miles from this place, and of the
ship Norval burned 1000 miles from here
in 1882. are more wonderful than rom
ances of the sea. 1t is indeed a pity
that there is no historian of the min
ute details OF these remarkable vow
ages The facts regarding the effect of
limited diet, would be of extreme
scientific value
The writer, at the time of the arrival
OF the crew OF the Norval, occupied an
official position here, and at once put
the captain Of the vessel under cross
examination, as to the details of the
voyage. report of the examination
was sent to Professor YOumans of the
Popular Science Monthly but it was
mislaid by the professor, and could not
be duplicated
"A calculation was made at the time,
that each man consumed only five
ounces OF food per day. The weight of
the food consumed. per day, by an
average man in good health, is about
fifty ounces. The army ration is over
sixty ounces. When the boat crews OF
the NOrval reached the steamer Like
like, after twenty-one days of sailing,
and upon this scanty diet, they were
asked if they did not wish food at once.
They replied that they were in no
hurry for it, but did wish for water. On
l,-y,o Il, ~, <DF
the men appeared to be in excellent
condition. The exercise taken during
the voyage consisted in rubbing each
other down. after taking salt water
bath.
Owing to the steadiness of the trade
winds, the boats of the Starbuck made
1900 miles in twenty days. The boats
of the Norval made 1000 miles in TWEEN
ty-one days.
There is singular coincidence in
the incidents of the two voyages Out
of the four boats that left the Norval,
peared, and never was heard from. An
other of the boats was swamped, and
the crew transferred. In the case of
the Starbuck, three boats left the ship.
One, commanded by the second mate,
disappeared, and will probably never be
heard from. Another boat was swamp
ed. and the crew transferred to the
only remaining boat.
One important fact is developed by
the voyage of the Starbucks crew.
Canned vegetables were on board.
These contain over eighty per cent. of
water The crew of the schooner that
lately drifted from Tahiti to these ISL
ands, were without water for sixty
days. The canned vegetables furnished
to a large extent the water needed.
1t is pity that the Historical So
ciety is not organized, so as to obtain
and preserve the minute details of
these perilous voyages in boats. News
papers, as rule, cannot afford to spend
the time necessary to secure long and
circumstantial statements of facts,
which have a real scientific value
The captain and crew of the schooner
that drifted upon the coast OF Hawaii,
about five months ago, were in this
port for three weeks. They possessed
the most valuable data, which threw
much light upon the way these Islands
were populated through drifting Voy-
ages No attempt was made by the
Historical Society to secure this most
valuable data. An attache of the Adj
vertiser secured it, and will in due time
prepare a valuable paper on the sub
ject. II he had not done so, a hundred
wears from the present time, some one
would read a paper before Histor1-
cal Society, full of guess work about
this drifting voyage.