The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-08-20
BROKE RECORD
AROUND THE HORN
The Magnificent Ship Erskine N.
Phelps Made Voyage in
Ninety-Seven Days.

| The finest sailing ship in the world
nearly five thousand tons of coal for
the Government This is the Ameri-
can steel, four masted ship Erskine M.
Phelps, Captain Graham, from Norfolk,
and her skipper is today telling the
story of how his magnificent vessel has
broken the record from Atlantic coast
ports to Honolulu. The Phelps made
the trip to Honolulu in ninety-seven
days, two days quicker than it has ever
been made before by any sailing craft.
The Phelps is conceded to be the
finest built and prettiest merchantmen
on the sea today and looks more like
an enormous pleasure boat than a ship
carrying such dirty kind of cargo as
coal. But there is another reason why !
one should be proud of this ship and
that is because she is American built
from keel to truck, jib boom to spanker ,
Boom. and with her great mass of snow ,
white canvas, her white painted huh, :
and out before stiff breeze she is (
sight for the gods. I
The Phelps is of great dimensions for /!
a sailing ship. Her length over all is
$50 feet, and her length on the deep /;
load line 312 feet. Her breadth is forty
five feet two inches and her depth
twenty-five feet six inches. Her gross (
tonnage is 5000 tons and she has a
dead weight carrying of nearly FIVE
thousand tons. The masts average
about two hundred feet in height
above the keelson. They are thirty
two inches in diameter at the part
ners and twenty-six inches at the heel.
Her lower yards are ninety-four feet
long; lower top-sail, eighty-f1ve feet six
inches upper topsail, seventy-eight
feet; topgallant sixty-f1ve feet; royal
ffty-five feet; and skysail yards forty
six feet. The bowsprit is also of steel
and is sixty-eight feet in length. The
deck fittings are built on the same
scale but it is in the cabin
that ones eyes rest on what might be
termed luxuries for merchant ship.
When one first enters the commodi-
Gus after portion of the ship he is sure
to make some sort of exclamation The
idea! Such magnificent quarters on a
coal carrying vessel. They are for
prince to reside in and many a prince
sails a yacht that is not as nicely fit
ted as this sailing ship. Captain Ora
ham has his wife and little daughter
aboard his sea mansion. They lead
them a very happy life. The cabin is
painted with white enamel while the
floors are of highly polished hardwood.
The captain takes great pride in his
dining saloon and parlor. These two
rooms are connected by a folding door.
The parIor is luxuriously furnished.
There is a piano, fancy and unusual
chairs, odd pieces of bric-a-brac, fine
rugs over the polished floor, and pic
lures of life upon the sea hanging
TIT, coll
furnished with an oak table and oak
chairs and is spotlessly clean. The
lockers contain an expensive dinner
service Big skylights make the cabin
as bright as one would wish for All
the bed rooms are furnished In the
same magnificent manner and the sit
ting ROOM sewing room, and other
apartments of Mrs. Graham are as
cosy as one could wish for. The bed
rooms for the officers of the vessel are
also finished in the same manner and
life in the after part of the Phelps
must be very pleasant.
Captain and Mrs. Graham are well
known in Honolulu and have host of
friends here During the stay of the
ship in port they will live ashore and
their handsome apartments aboard the
ship will be carefully sealed up so that {
no coal dust may get into them while
the ship is discharging.
Captain Graham has a crew of TWEEN 8
tv-six. mostly Americans. He says life
aboard the ship would be very pleasant
were il not for the fact that a good
cook is very hard to obtain. If there
is a good cook in Honolulu who is anx
ious to take a turn on the sea it is
quite likely that the captain will dis Z
cover him and take him away.
During the vessels passage around
the Horn she met with fine weather
during the greater part of the time but
OF course suffered a few days of rough
weather during which icy spray swept
over the vessel.