Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1898-05-13

| injection. In the summer of 1895 The
Asiatic cholera stole aboard a numbe,
ol japanese warships on the home sta
t'on ana 1t pretty nearly licked up the
crews or all Of these Jap men OF war
AZ the same time the cholera got
ABOARD the United States steamer Ben
mnston at Honolulu, and it took off
one man. or boy rather-a Washington
iad' by the way named Goebel
1eei perfectly certain that the
nerve displayed by the men on the
bennington was largely accountable
10Y thelr comparatively easy escape
from heavy visitation. Cholera is
not indigenous to the Hawaiian is
lands, but on this occasion the plague
was brought to Honolulu by cargo of
Chlhese coolies shipped on the steamer
Belglc for work on the Hawaiian sugar
plantations. Cholera broke out among
these coolies ten or twelve days before
the Belgic arrived at Honolulu, but no
report of the visitation was made bv
the SHIPS officers when she got there.
Consequently the coolies were permit
tea TO land and in day or so Homo
lulu aWoke to the realization that the
town was IN for a bad cholera seige.
me Bennington moved her anchorage
to distance of about 600 yards from
the Honolulu docks when the presence
OF the cholera was announced, and all
hands were strictly quarantined. The
precaution. however, was overlooked
OF not permitting the men forward
to going in swimming from the ship.
and that's the reason we got the chol-
era aboard and lost the boy Goebel.
About week after the plague
broke out in Honolulu a hundred or so
OF the men aboard the Bennington
jumped over the side one evening to
have swim, young Goebel among
them. The lad probably swallowed a
mouthful of water contaminated by a
creek that passes through the Chinese
quarter of Honolulu-Where the chol-
era stricken Cinnamon We're quaran-
tined-and empties into the harbor. A
couple of hours after the boy left the
water he began to complain of cramps,
and when he was taken aft to the sick
bay and examined by the surgeon it
was found that he had Asiatic cholera
The surgeon and the ships apothecary
worked over the lad all night, showing
no fear whatsoever of the disease but
they couldn't save him, and he died
early the following morning. The men
knew all about what was going on in
the sick bay, but there wasn't one of
them that gave the slightest indication
of showing the yellow. They smoked
their pipes and talked about day.
The apothecary who had attended the
dying lad all night moved freely among
the men forward. and they made no
effort whatever to give him plenty of
sea room.
when the boys body was disposed
of the skipper had the men mustered.
told them all about cholera and the
precautions necessary to stave it off, if
possible. and the men went about their
business when they We're dismissed
from quarters. The ship was thor
oughly disinfected, and we had no
more cholera aboard, although the
health authorities cf the islands kept
us Quarantined on board ship for over
three months. If the Bennington'S
crew had been men of mercurial dis
position. and had collapsed from fear
when il was announced that he had
cholera alongside us as a shipmate, it
is ten TO one that there would have
been an epidemic. '-Washington Post.