The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-05-18
Bark Hesper for the Sound.

| TWO days later mail and news.
The Peru was scheduled to leave the
coast on the 18th instant
Bark Hesper for the Sound
The bark Hesper sailed for the Sound
in ballast yesterday morning. Captain
Hector Friis left in command of the
vessel, accompanied by his wife. Mrs.
lSodergren, the wife of the former cap
tain of the vessel, was also aboard. A
large number of the friends of Cap
tain and Mrs. Friis accompanied the
bark to sea on the tug Fearless
Monthly Shipbulldlng Returns.
The Bureau of Navigation reports l2e
vessels of 63,159 gross tons built in the
United States and officially murdered
during the month Of April, as follows:
IThirty-three wooden sailing vessels OF
5,472 gross tons for the Atlantic and
Gulf trade; ten wooden sailing vessels
of 3,077 gross tons for the Pacific trade;
four wooden sailing vessels Of seventy
gross tons for the Western rivers;
thirty wooden steam vessels of 1,e95
gross tons for the Atlantic and Gulf
trade; twenty-one wooden steam YES
sells of 1,09S gross tons for the Pacific
trade; three wooden steam vessels of
| LOU gross loIlS LOT the 'ITedt Ldhe9,
ten wooden steam vessels of 1,274 gross
tons for the Western rivers; two steel
sailing vessels Of 4,55S gross tons for
the Great Lakes; five steel steam YES
sells of 13, 99S gross tons for the Atlantic
and Gulf trade; one steel steam vessel
of twenty-three gross tons fer the Pa
cific trade, and nine steel steam vessels
of 30 324 gross tons for the Great Lakes.
The largest steam vessels included in
these figures are: The Oregonian.
5,597 gross tons, built at Chester, Pa,
for the American Hawaiian Steamship
Company; the Venus and the Jupiter.
3,719 tons each, built at Lorain, Ohio,
for the American Shipbuilding Com
; pany; the William l.. Brown, 1898 gross
, tons, built at Chicago for the Federal
State Ship Company; the Randolph S.
Warner, 1862 gross tons, built at West
Superior: the G. A. Flagg, a sister ship
; of the Warner; the Mars, S,148 gross
tons. built at WyandOtte. Michigan;
,, the David M. Whitney, 1926 gross tons,
, and the Esperanto, ATOP gross tons.
} built at Philadelphia for the New York
, and Cuba Mail Steamship Company.
A Remarkable Cargo.
B The schooner w. S. Phelps arrived
2 at San Francisco few days ago from
: the Galapagos (Tortoise) Islands, after
more than a years absence. She left
San Francisco on May l. 1900, and after
. short stops at MazatIan and at Clip
0 perton Island went direct to the equa-
0 tor The crew was composed of Captain
5 w. P Noyes, Mate III. Finley, cook
5 and five sailors. Guy Green, a taxides,-
y mist, was the only passenger. The ship
y went after the tortoises known to be
= on the islands, seals, reptiles, birds and
( in fact anything that would find a pur-
n chaser in the market of the world.
0 The voyage was a very successful
0 one, as the Phelps brought back
0 twenty-five tortoises, 1850 hair seal
0 skins, 20S fur sealskins number OF
0 live and some stuffed iguanas, a guam
Y tity of shark fins and "a large collection
= of birdskins. About half a dozen of the
. tortoises are the largest in the world
. one of them weighing 527 pounds. As
2 to their age no one can guess. bu,
8 Captain Johnstone, owner of the
0 Phelps, asserts that all the big ones
must be over 1000 years old.
ut was my first visit to the Gala
pagos," said H. Finley, mate of the
w. S. Phelps. II never want to make
another one as long as I live. There
are about thirteen islands in the group
and all of them, save Chatham and
Charles, are God forsaken. Albermarie
Island was the scene Of our operations
1t is about sixty miles long and fifteen
miles broad, and is really composed OF
six huge craters, which are from 2,00o
to 1000 feet high
/ nY1y To- ~,
formed of broken lava. As we sprang
from rock to rock innumerable crabs
and hideous iguanas started out In ev-
cry direction, and for a time thought
= we were in the midst of the inferno
Nearly all the tortoises we found on
, the sides Of the mountains, where they
go after cactus, on which they feed.
, and some of their shells are badly
! burned, where they must have got into
the lava. The biggest tortoise in our
cargo we found up near the mouth of
, one of the craters, and it took all hands
five days to get him down the side of
the mountain. We had to carry him in
a sling, and maybe we didn't curse his
weight as we staggered under 1t over
the broken lava. When we got him
aboard the ship we took rest before
starting on another hunt
4 About Christmas time we went tc
. Chatham Island for our mail. There
is sugar plantation on the island, and
the Government of Ecuador sends it.
convicts there to serve out their sen
fences. They are Mormons on the Is
land, but conditions are different from
what they are in Utah. On Chatham
Island every woman has from four Il
ten husbands and she makes then
work for her.
When we were not catching tor
toises we were seal hunting. The fu,
seal we shot, but the hair seal we kill
ed with clubs. Mr.. Green killed nearly
all Of the birds. and helped us will
the seals, and then when the tortoise,
gave out and everything else got 81
weary that we could not get q shot IL
day, we put up sail and started fol
home. The tortoises and turtles OF
the Galapagos will soon be extinct, a.
the wild dogs and wild pigs live on Their
eggs. We brought enough cactu.
away with US to last the tortoise.