The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1902-05-01
BIG FREIGHTER HERE

After a delightful trip of days and
3 hours the big freighter Alaskan, Cap
tain Banfeld, arrived from San Fran
cisco yesterday afternoon and went to
the Railway wharf. The arrival of the
big vessel caused considerable curiosity
as she was known to be the biggest
merchant vessel which had ever come
to this port and was, furthermore, the
biggest freighter ever turned out by the
Union Iron Works.
The vessel took her time coming into
the harbOr, as her great length of $40
feet would it was, feared, make her diff
ficult to manage in the rather limited
harbor room. There was big crowd
at the Oceanic wharf, waiting for the
Alameda to depart, and the big freight
err attracted attention as she passed.
The port propeller of the Alaskan got
afoul Of the can buoy Eva of the Ocea-
mic wharf and the buoy chain got
/ tangled in the screw. There was a
strong off shore breeze blowing at the
time but the Fearless was on hand and
| helped dock the big freighter alongside
the railway wharf.
The Alaskan is immense. She came
down very light bringing only 500 tons
of freight for this port. Although this
would be considered nowadays, as Il
| decent sized load by the average sail
ing vessel, it was nothing to the big
boat as she lowered out of the water
her vast proportions could be appre-
ciated She is 80 feet in length, has a
beam of So feet and is Al feet in depth
She was not drawing over 16 feet astern
when she came into port however. Hel
displacement is 1900 tons and her car
rying capacity 1900 tons.
There is one particularly interesting
feature about the vessel and this is the
fact that she has quadruple expansion
engines. She is the first vessel fitted
with such power, to visit this port. She
also has twin screws and on the triI
down her machinery worked to the en-
/ tire satisfaction OF her officers. On hei
trial trip, she made 1l% knots but OF
the run down, she averaged about 81
knots. 1t is thought she could make
liz knots, under forced draught
The vessel is one of the most pleasan
on which to travel, for the reason Iha
she had an unusually large amount Of
deck room, the maindeck taking up tn,
entire legth of the boat. The quarter!
of the various officers are pleasantly
situated on the upper deck. In tn,
fOrecastle are accommodations for fiv,
men, while the fifteen firemen and tn,
five sailors are in the after part of tn,
vessel Her full crew consists of 4!
men. About 10 of the firemen claimed
that the crew was not large enough anC
today they Quit work. Other men wer,
secured. There are only five sailors
employed on the vessel and this mum
Der declared by the men to be made
quate. Three of the men left the boa
today.
The master of the vessel is Captain
Bantield who was formerly the master
of the steamer Californian. Chief En-.
gineer Chisholm occupied a similar ca.
pacity aboard the same vessel, and wa.
also first assistant engineer on the
transport Senator.
The other officers of the vessel are
first officer G. b. Knight second officer
L. Curtis; third officer, j. Walters frs
assistant engineer, j. Laswell; seconC
assistant, w. Reed third assistant j
Fouert. Mr.. knight was formerly mas
ter of the ship j. b. Brown.