The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-11-12
Queer Navigator Lived for Ten
Days on One Bottle of Gin
and Six Crackers,
While Drunk Took Yacht Eagle and Sailed
Out of Sight of Land and Tells
Sensational Story.

days and all had during that time
was a bottle of gin and six crackers"
The above was only one chapter of
the marvellous story told to the police
last night by man who gave his name
as George Sydney Plomb and described
himself as sailor and navigator. He
had been brought to the station by
Frank Fisher, owner of the yacht
Eagle. and the latter claimed that the
sailor had stolen his yacht and skiff.
The sailor denied the story of theft.
Fisher says that he brought the yacht
in from the row and had her moored
up near the land end of the new Hack
field wharf where he was Offering her
for sale. Ten days ago his yacht dis
appeared overnight and he was unable
to get any trace of her until yesterday
he saw the yacht off the harbor and
Young Bros. later towing 1t in. Then
he secured the only occupant, Plomb,
NtIC lOi0 a IiidiNSllOuS SlOTy.
Ten days ago he. after being dis
charged from ship and leaving his
discharge and most of his money 1.-THE
office of the shipping commissioner.
went out to paint the town in varied
hues. He drank quart after quart of
sundry liquors and the last he remern-
harad he urao I.1,x,;por n bottIa 10 ,rt,, ,4
the Progress saloon. When he again
woke up he was far away from the
islands in small but well rugged yacht.
He was 6azed for awhile but finally
learned that he still had the bottle of
gin and later found that the pantry
of the yacht contained six crackers. On
this big storehouse of provisions he
managed to subsist until he struck Ho-
nolulu yesterday and did not even seem
to be hungry when he arrived at the
police station for ne looked well and
fit and did not ask for food immediate
ly. He said that he was quite familiar
with the sea around the islands and al
though he had neither compass, chro-
nometer, nor any way of keeping time
he Immediately decided that the islands
letS III ~ tcAldlt OItCttOu anu CCllpStiE
the feats of all known navigators.
steered his vessel through storm and
turbulent wave by the sun for six days
when he arrived off Honolulu. Then he
tried to beat into the harbor but was
unsuccessful and finally one of Young
Bros. launches went out to ask him If
he would take line. The "sun navi-
gator" Immediately accepted the prof
g., -.
his working capital was in the hands
of the acting shipping commissioners
and that he would see to it that the
Young Bros. should get four dollars
salvage.
But when he reached the wharf Fish
er was there to receive him. He had
the "sailor-sun navigator. taken to the
police station and after he had told his
story Fisher stated that the yacht could
not possibly have been handled by one
man, that the night on which she went
out was so calm that the yacht must
have been towed out to sea and that
1t was his theory that a skiff which was
missing and which had contained tools
mad been used to tow mis- yacht out TO
the anchorage where wind was secured.
Fisher was very angry. The police
neaTO DOLn stories. NO one COul0 1HlaS-
inc how Plomb filled in the four days
that elapsed between-the time that the
yacht left the harbor and that when
he woke up and commenced his won
derful sun navigation.
The police finally decided that the
two stories did not fit into each other
quite close enough and so told Plomb
that he must spend the night in jail and
that he would be given an opportunity
in Judge Wilcoxs court this morning
TO explain his wonderful methods of
sailing Ger the briny deep with only
the sun as a guide, himself as captain.
mate, bosun, and sailors, and such an
il-starred cupboard as the one that
contained only bottle of gin and six
crackers
Plomb looked as if he had put in the
whole ten days at sea for he had
stubby beard and some money in his
possession. and no sailor on shore who
lndulged in drink would be guilty of
having as much as ten cents in his
pocket after a ten days cruise around
the bars of the city.