The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-01-26
their drunken ship

the Ilrst American man-O'-war's man
TO jump for and punch the abuser Of
the Jap dog was himself a cockney
who had done his twelve years in the
BRITISH navy. But his American Ship
mates were right behind him. Taking
INTO consideration all of the reVolu-
lions ana counter revolutions that ever
occurred in the Hawaiian Islands, there
never were such dongs as then and
there ensued in Lycurgus lane, Hilo.
At first it was all fist work, but when
the lime juicers, borne back in spite
OF their overwhelming numbers began
to hurl rocks, the Americans took to
that game too, and they went the
Britishers one better by tearing the
weather boards of Lycurgus' shacks
for use as weapons.
The uproar in the swift-fallen dark
ness was so terrific that it was plainly
heard by the watches remaining on the
American and the British warships,
which We're anchored not far from the
shore. The half of the ships company
remaining on board the United States
gunboat knew what was in progress
from the noise but they had no appre-
hension of the outcome until something
happened. The something that hap
pened was the Jap dog. The dog had
escaped from the melee, and, taking
a chance on the sharks with which the
harbor is infested, had leaped into the
water and swum out to the ship,
around which he circled like a pilot
hsh, barking furiously.
There's something doing--our bunch
are in tight place and the dogs come
after u.s." said the men of the port
watch to each other, and down the
after anchor chains they went like
rats and swum for the beach. 1t was
a plain case of Jumping ship" and
severely punishable as such, but the
officers couldn't stop them, and if the
honest truth were known, it is to be
doubted whether the officers wanted to
stop them. Inside of five minutes after
the Jap dog had first swum out to the
ship and set UP his barking there
weren't enough men left on the gun
beat to spread mess gear. The dog
swan to the beach with the last man
that splashed into the water from the
anchor chains.
The dog, however, had only imagined
that the Americans on the beach were
getting the worst of the mix-up. They
were easily holding their own, and
better, against more than double their
number, and when the port watch from
the United States ship broke upon the
scene of conflict there wasn't really
much for them to do, except to form
mates.
Now, the remaining watch, 260 men,
of the British ship had seen the Amer
lean watch sliding down the after an
Choir chains, and they weren't to be
outdone. They didn't reflect that there
were still more British tars on the
beach than American, but they took
to the anchor chains themselves. Most
of them jumped the snip to get into
the shore fracas.
Thus the Americans were again more
than doubly outnumbered However.
tehy didn't know that until later and
they wouldn't have been bothered any
If they had known it. The fight ragged
all night. The Kanaka chief of police
of Hilo swore in 100 Kanaka deputies
to establish order" The sailors either
tucked these deputies under their arms
and carried them down to the beach,
where they chucked them into the sea,
or they hurled them to the top of huts
and sheds, where the deputies were
glad to perch for safety.
When the morning broke, the Amer
leans had driven the lime juicers to
the point where the long uphill road
to the Burning Lake of Lilauea be-
gins, and an hour after daylight the
British tars scattered in a panic and
took, in disorder, to the mountains
The Americans took after them and
pursued them all that day, driving
many of them to the chilly levels sew
eraI thousand feet above the sea.
They'd have chased them all the way
to the top of the volcano of Mauna
Loa, which is nearly $4,000 feet above
sea-level, if they could have done it
without breaking their three-day lib
erty.
The american tars drifted back to
Hilo "a hours after the fracas
started, formed together, signalled to
| the ship for the steam cutter, and re
turned to the gunboat in good order.
The Jap dog was in the first launch
load that returned to the ship, and he
wore, tied neatly around his head, the
cap OF a British petty officer, while the
rating badge of a British chief bo'-
suns mate was mucilaged ON his back.
There wasn't a single man missing
when the launch made it's last trip
| from the beach. Most of the men were
ready to turn into their hammocks, and
all of them had some kind of a bruise,
| cash, gouge or sprain to show for the
scrap, but they were all there.
The British sailors were struggling
back to their ship for eight days. and
there were several that didn't get back
at all before the cruisers departure
from Hilo harbor Every once in a
while, for several years after that
that a wild white man" had been seen
scooting through the Jungle brush a
| few miles above the town.
He's probably one of those English
| men, wars men that didn't get back"
the Hilo felix's would say when the
story was sprung.
One night, about eight years ago,
three American men-o'-wars men
| dropped into a saloon in Hakodate ia
pan, kept by former United States
bluejacket. Already in the saloon were
about a dozen strapping German men,
o'-war's men from a ship that had been
safeguarding German interests in Sa-
moa. These German sailors had a few
months before formed part of liberty
party from their ship that had received
hard trouncing in Apia at the hands
of a liberty party from the American
warship in the harbor, and so, natur-
ally enough. they had no use for the
American deep-water uniform. The
biggest man among the German sailors
had one English word in his vocabu-
| larry. That word was "rasstle," and he
kept repeating it sneringly to the three
American tars, who were talking to the
ex-tar behind the bar and behaving
| themselves.
One of the Americans, who had been
| a lumberman in a Michigan lumber
camp, where wrestling was the rough
mems great game. finally found that
the German sailors ''rassle" taunt Yves
! getting him on the raw, and he walked
up to the German and told him that