The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1899-08-14
4 QUEER STORY.


The story of the City of Columbia is
one Of the most extraordinary in the
maritime annals of Hawaii, and the
group has certainly been the conclud-
ing scene of many a weird tale of the
sea. There have been wrecks and boat
voyages with the most thrilling Incl
dents. Many years ago a boat came to
the Islands the people of which had for
ten days subsisted on a ration of tallow
dropped on bit of canvas. The late A.
j. Cartwright used to have a specimen
of the ration under glass, which he kept
in his office. Men have reached here in
the last stage of exhaustion, as was the
case Of the survivors of the Campbell, a
lumber vessel wrecked in the open
ocean, some 500 miles off the coast of
Mexico, and they have come in safe and
well as the captain, officers and crew
of the Norval did-a vessel that had
been burned over thousand miles
south of Hawaii.
The Columbias story has in a great
measure been played in Hawaiian wa
ters, at least the. more interesting por-
diction with a full fledged row on board.
She has been the source of endless lti-
cation, twice she has essayed to leave
the Islands, twice she has returned to
Honolulu. Now she is reported as hav-
ing sunk off Kauai, but even upon that
doubt is cast, and whether she has
really finished her career. or is still go
I Il
ished crew is yet unknown.
But out of the tale some facts have
developed which are worth noting. One
is that there are no shipping laws here,
and a vessel, no matter what her condi-
ton is, may go to sea and no one can
prevent her. Had the City of Columbia
been in an American or an English port
there would have been means of having
her properly surveyed. Here her own
ers could do as they pleased, in fact
have done so. The American Shipping
laws will soon be extended to these ISL
andS. SO there is no need for local legis-
lation now, but it is not an eXtraordi-
nary thing that il has taken all these
years to realize that shipping laws were
a necessity, and that inspection of YES
sells by competent officials ought To be
systematically carried out.
The laws with regard to seamen, too,
need readjustment. 1t seems very un-
just that men should be obliged to sail
in a vessel which they have every rea-
son to think unsafe And yet men are
so obliged. There is no doubt that a
considerable number of the crew OF the
Columbia sailed in her most unwilling
ly. Desertions We're numerous, and
some of the men had to be sent on
board in irons. This is certainly not a
civilized method of keeping a crew in
this year 1899. The sailor is much Worse
off than the contract plantation laborer
If the law imprisons the latter for fail
ure to carry out his contract, it at cas-;
takes care of him. But If the seaman
fails to carry out his contract, basing
his refusal upon the ground that his life
is in danger the law takes hold of him
and incontinently bundles him on board
with pair of handouts on his wrists
and forces him to take the risk of
drowning or perishing from thirst in ar
open boat. This, however, is no local
law and it will take an American Plim-
soil to arise and fight the cause Of the
sailor. Who ever does will meet with d
plentiful share of abuse.