The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-01-04
HIS FEET WERE
EXTRE MELY CHILLY
I he Prince A bert's Stew ard
Told Curious
Yarn.

Il was afraid to stay in the Nor
wegian ship Prince Albert another
minute said John Campbell, former
tiser reporter yesterday whom he had
sought out, and to whom he told his
tale of woe. Why, she makes about
three feet of water every eight hours
and I wouldn't go to sea again in her
for love or money" Campbell has
been paid off in this port, and what
he has to say about the vessel, he
claims, is in the interests of the rest
of the crew left aboard
He says the Prince Albert is hard
ship. Unfortunately, this is the story
that a sailor usually has TO tell about
a. ship he has just left, until he gets
another ship, and then the last ship
he was in is the best imaginable in
all the world.
why, the way they treat the poor
little cabin boy aboard the Prince AL
bert is something almost shameful,
said the sympathetic Campbell to the
reporter, looking mysterious. Il VIII
get the lad and send him up to you,
so that he can tell you all he has suf-
fered aboard the ship"
Campbell then told about letter
the cabin boy had written to his moth
er on Christmas day, just before the
ship arrived here.
II have the letter in my pocket" he
said. Il picked it UP from the floor
of the forecastle, just after the little
chap had run away from the ship In
this port. Here it is The following
is copy of the letter:
Aboard ship Prince Albert, Christ
mas, 1900.-My Dear Mother: I write
a fov lin T
you must be quite anxious to hear
from your son; to hear of my new
home 9son a ship bound for England
and / am pleased with my occupation
as cabin boy. 1 do hope that you will
visit Brother John, and please remem-
Der me to him. Please answer at once,
and by so doing it may reach me in
Honolulu, and if not, it can be for
warded to me in Puget Sound, Ameri-
ca. | am well, but was quite seasick
on leaving Newcastle / have a good
ship with kind treatment and plenty
to eat and lots to do, and intend to
stay in her until her arrival in Eng
land, which will occupy about years
time, and at the rate of wages I shall
have a snug sum of money to start, me
again on my feet in regards clothes
and the necessities of life. l am now
getting thirty shillings per month. I
do hope mother you are well, and I
shall look forward to a happy meeting
with you in the future. 1 am trying to
be a good boy and to please you will
be my one ambition. A sailors life
is roaming one, but there is lots to
learn, to see. I must send my kind re-
CARDS to all friends, And then the
cabin boy ends his letter the way a
son should end a letter to his mother,
and signs himself Henry M. Lung.
The ex-steward evidently was unable
to read, for the story ne told was alb
solutely denied in the letter he hand
ed to the reporter.
Later the cabin boy was seem He
said that he got plenty to eat aboard
the Prince Albert, that he was never
roughly treated, but that he was
sometimes roughly spoken to. Evident
~ the steward had persuaded him to
leave. the ship.
The boy said he had no cause for
complaint UP to the time he had writ
ten to his mother, and what bothered
him after that was nothing more than
being ordered around and being called
= Chinaman" by the steward.
Both the steward and the cabin boy
are at present at the Sailors Home
The Prince Albert is leaking considera-
bly,, and the steward was the first to
get cold feet.