The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-03-20
z SAILORS HAVE PIANOS now

What struck the visitor as odd wa
that an upright piano stood along tn
port side of the cabin. He could no
suppress a short whistle of astonish
ment which the skipper was quick t,
notice. A piano on a 300-ton schoone
engaged in the lumber-carrying trad
when there was big hole in the cabir
tablecloth seemed to the visitor to b,
peculiar. Still he stifled his desire t,
laugh as his host said with a wave O.
the hand:
"Sit down and I'll play you a tune"
First it was Brahms, then came Bee
thoven, Schubert and Schumann. Their
all was still The master of the schoon.
er was the first to break the silence as
he said:
After all, like Brahms best. Schu.
bert seems to -
. The visitor could not contain himself
any longer and stammered: Il never
knew that saiiormen went in for this
sort of thing. Are there many instru-
ments aboard ship?"
Few pianos like that / warrant you
I picked that one up in the Pacific
1t came out of the wreck of an English
bark that struck near Valparaiso. Got
it for song from the underwriters
Better now than when first launched
into the sea of music
But you do not understand me. !
mean is it not strange to find a piano
on board sailing vessel like this?'
Not at ALL not at ALL replied the
master mariner. 1T is all the fashion
these days. There was time when the
cabin of the average coasting schooner
looked as desolate as the rear end of a
Maine barn. They are now got up with
some idea of comfort. l know of at
least twenty-five schooners in the trade
between south of Hatteras and east of
Sandy Hook that have fine pianos in
their cabins. One of them, the new six
master George w. Wells, has a grand
but then she has plenty of beam.
Il do not know how the idea of plac-
ing pianos aboard vessels in the coast
wise trade originated, but. imagine
that some skipper who had taken his
family to sea with him decided to lug
along the pet dog and maybe the piano.
Anyhow, there is nothing strange about
the sound of a. piano aboard the schoon--
er type of craft these days. The big
lines can't have monopoly, you know.
/ remember passing Winter Quar-
ters -Shoal lightship one calm evening
last August in the company of eleven
schooners all bound north It was Just
after supper and the crew had gathered
about the forecastle to smoke their
turning-in pipe of tobacco, when some
body on the nearest schooner to us be-
gan to pound away on an organ that
was in the cabin. He was mutilating
one of the comic operas and just turn
ed to and gave him piece of my mind
over the keyboard. That was the signal
for a general row and in less time than
1t takes to tell it seven of the eleven
schooners were battering away at nat
urals, sharps and flats. Those who
hadn't any pianos came up into the
quiet of the evening with banjos, har-
montcas or concertinas, and it was the
grandest vaudeville performance that
old Neptune ever heard.
There is nothing really surprising
about seeing a piano aboard a vessel
OF good tonnage these days, if she hap
pens to have good owner. 1 was down
in the Erie Basin the other day and
heard the chords of a tip-top piano
coming from a canal boat lying I'D
there for the winter"