The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-08-17

the General Siegel, which vessel had
gone to pieces on the reef off Midway
Island. previous to the loss of the Wan
dering Minstrel.
The article in question said that Jor-
gensen had murdered two of his fellow
castaways and that the remainder of
the crew deserted him and in course OF
time arrived in Honolulu, where they
made no report of Jorgensen's solitary
existence.
There is to-day working In the car
shop of the Oahu Railway e. Land Co.
a survivor of the crew of the General
Siegel, by name E. Olsen. The account
of the adventures of the crew of the
Wandering Minstrel attracted his at
tention and disagrceing with some OF
the statements contained therein re-
lating to Jorgensen, he told to an Ad-
Yertiser reporter the following thrill
ling account of the wreck of the Cen
eral Siegel and the extraordinary ex-
periences and subsequent rescue of the
crew. This is Olsen's story:
THE schooner General Seigel, on
which / had signed as seaman, was
chartered from the Pacific Navigation
Co. for a six months Shaking expedi-
tion, and left Honolulu on September
1st. 1886. We had obtained a full load
of sharks fins. oil, etc. and on our re-
turn trip, called at Midway Island,
where we stayed for considerable
time. At last preparations were made
to continue the homeward journey, but
the start was delayed. after everything
had been got in readiness for the de-
parture, on account of the comics,
which make the islands their nesting
place, having at the last moment start
ed laying. We wanted to take lot OF
the eggs back with us and the day of
leaving was accordingly postponed for
a short time.
ION the night of November 10th, the
schooner went on the reef during a
! terrible gale and became a total loss
The captain. whose name was Asher
dine. said that we must stop on the ISL
and until a rescue party should come
from Honolulu to take us back
There were eight of us and we lived
in a wooden house which we found or
the island and which had been built by
the American Government in former
years when Midway Island had beer
used as coaling station. Ten days
after the wreck of the schooner, Peter
Larkin, one of the crew, blew his right
hand off while fishing with dynamite
and died in ten days. He was buried
there and sign put up to mark the
spot.
"One day boat of the British shiI
Dunottar Castle, which had been los
off Ocean Island. about sixty mile:
from where we were, drifted ashore.
I'm May. 1887, we started in to repail
the Dunottar Castle boat, but after
putting her in shape. as she was too
small to accommodate all hands, we Sc
10 work on Japanese sanpan which
had been left on the island by Captain
Paul Bohm, when there fishing with TIL,
schooner Kaulilua. We fixed the sand
boat up and launched her but she cap
sized. We then put ballast in her, bu
that failed to keep her afloat; so finall,
we took the schooner's mast, cut 1t int
short lengths and fitted them to thu
side of the boat to act as outriders.
while we were repairing the san
pan, Captain Asberdine. who was |
Russian Finn. Jorgensen the mate an'
a sailor named Brown went over t
Sand Island in the Dunottar Castle
boat, the captain being DESTROYS of ex
ploring the island before he left. tn
captain took with him a shotgun ant