The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-06-29

/
= ing lost her captain and mainmast
yards at sea in bowling gale, made
an attempt to wrest the command from
| the boatswain, steer the ship for the
Pitcairn Islands, run her ashore, and
then set up for themselves little
kingdom in the sea- One of their num-
Der painted tempting pictures of the
lows which awaited them on one of the
little islands of the Pacific, and so in
fiuenced their minds as to get them to
attempt to capture the ship. 1t was
only because the officers We're armed
with revolvers that the attempt did not
prove successful.
When the Thomas arrived here ana
people heard how the captain had been
lost at sea and the boatswain had tax
ZEN command, because the mate and the
second officer were either too sick or in
| competent to navigate the vessel, the
wise ones on the waterfront said that
! there was something more to be told
which had been held back They ex-
pressed it as their opinion that there was
| a mystery of some kind to be cleared
up.s 1t was altogether TOO hard thing
/ TO believe that a vessel could lose her
captain at sea and be brought to port
1
some other story. connected with the
affair besides the mere account of the
gale, the cause of the loss OF the master.
That the expectations of waterfront
ers and others were not without reason
will be shown by the following account
of mutiny, which failed to materiaiize,
and of happenings aboard, the story of
which seems *nore like fiction than
TT ~ 81
truth.
In the city there is 81 member of the
Thomas crew who is in the hospital.
! He has been paid off from the ship,
land has nothing more to do with her
He believes that in the interest of
truth the facts should be known.
Captain Brown, who lost his life at
sea, had considerable difficulty in Sc
curing crew to his taste in Australia.
He was finally compelled to accept a
gang of men which afterwards proved
to be one of the toughest he had ever
handled. All the responsibility of work
which should have been attended to by
the mates fell upon the captain, for the
reason that the mate was afflicted with
a disease which practically rendered
him useless aboard ship, and the sec
years and inexperience that he hardly
knew enough to shorten sail in a whirl-
wind
! Previous to the loss of the captain,
nothing of great import occurred on the
! vessel beyond the growing of the fore
mast hands and their regular kick
| against everything they were ordered to
| do. -
The foremost hands were banded
| against the officers and they used to dis
cuss ways and means to have things their
own way Chips the carpenter, a
! cripple. stood in with the crew and SYM
I pathized with them in all their tribula-
| TONS
| After the Thomas came out of the
gale, minus her captain and her main
| mast yards and lube, the boatswain,
| took charge. things took on peculiar
7 nature aboard the vessel
/ Chips Immediately began to make
trouble between the officers and the
| 'foremast hands. He did not believe that
the entire command of the vessel should
be given to the boatswain. He had been
given some of the dead captains clothes
and became SO stuck up in his new rig
that he came to the conclusion that he
was aboard to exert his influence for
reform. He expostulated with the ailing
/ mate and advised him not to allow the
| boatswafn to keep the command.
In the dog watches the crew would
4 gather together an1idships. under the
naked mainmast, and plot and plan.
/ The officers dubbed the carpenter and
| the hands THE Irish Parliament" of
which the carpenter was president, a
fellow by the name of Paddy vice presi-
dent, and one Sails" German, secre-
tary. There was no treasurer for the
| reason that there was nothing except
sea-butcuit and sa1t-pork to treasure.
This Parliament decided that it
| was not fair thing for the boatswain
to be the skipper. They said that they
would arrange matters.
Chips" declared that Paddy should
look out for the welfare of the slips lon
gitude; that Sails should have charge
of all work in connection with determin-
ing her latitude and that he, Chips %
would attend to taking the sun, himself.
The men he appointed to these jobs were
to have nothing to do between times but
smoke on the shady side of the deck.
When "Chips" endeavored to enforce
these ideas, and other similar schemes
however, he was naturally met with a
vigorous opposition on the part Of the
boatswain, the mate, second mate, cook
and cabin boy
One man forward claimed that he had
had no tomatoes in his soup for three
days; another said that he would not do
another stroke Of work until he got
more pork for his mess; still another in
sisted that he would go to his bunk un-
less he got some butter with his biscuit
The cook was armed with a revolver,
and lube, the boatswain in command,
had a gun which he packed around with
him.
According to the cook. the carpenter
came into his galley one day with his
hand held behind him. and demanded to
know which side he was on--that of the
officers or that of the men forward 1t
was cold chisel which Chips held
behind his back. The crew had no fire.
arms, and that fact was probably all
that kept them from taking command of
the vessel
Chips" took advantage of being lame.
and abused the officers in no gentle Ian
guage, almost attacking them. When
ever the officers showed any signs of re-
taliating or of putting the obstreperous
carpenter in irons, the forward hands got
together and declared that they would
not see cripple abused, and would stand
by him to the bloody DEATH
i At last 1t was decided by the Irish
I,o~ no p