The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-09-03
SAILED IN AND
OUT OF WINTER

One hundred and eighteen days from
Cardiff with a cargo of coal for Ameri-
can men-of-war. which may at any
time cali here, the British ship Queen
Victoria, Captain Baker, dropped an
Choir in the harbor yesterday.
Fine passage? Yes. good trip,
although we passed from early summer
into the midst of winter and again out
OF winter into the midst OF summer,
right into your dog days" said Captain
Baker Had two summers and one
winter in one hundred and eighteen
days? Certainly 1t is easy. We left
Cardiff in May, just at the opening of
the English summer. BY the time we
Hemisphere was in the midst of its
winter, for their seasons are just the
opposite from ours. and of course when
arrive here it is again summer. the
same sumner I left in Wales four
months ago.
And the experience of the Queen Vic
toria i'll globe trotting from summer
to winter and from winter to summer
ought 90 be interesting to the many
young folks who are to take up their
Biographies for study in Hawaii schools
again during the next few weeks.
June is midwinter in the neighborhood
of the South Pols-and the regions
around Cape Horn are, figurativeIy
speaking, barely a stones throw from
the Pole. Then the days are the short
est. During the height of summer on
the equator the sun rises each day to
the direct center of the sky over head.
Hawaii is near the equator so that the
sun nearly always mounts to a. point
almost over our heads at midday. If
the sun travels south of the equator it
is winter in the northern hemisphere
and if north it is winter in the south
of the equator and so lit up the e1s-
treme southern part of the world but a
few hours each day. From the hori-
zon to the center of the sky over our
heads is a distance of ninety degrees.
When the Queen Victoria was off Cape
Horn the sun would rise in the north
east to distance of only ten degrees
above the horizon and set in the north
west.
Captain Baker stated that the dawn
commenced at about eight o'clock in
the morning. AT half past eight was
the sunrise. AT half past three the
sun set and at four it was dark again.s
Thus the Cape Horn region in the Win
ter time is a laboringfnans paradise
the days are but eight hours long and
the night are sixteen.
But the sailors on the Queen Vic
toria had to work despite the short
days. Day after day and night after
night, with a southerly wind prevailing,
the vessel encountered tremendous
snowstornns. The seas were smooth so
that there was no water on deck to
wash off the snow as it fell. Wooden
shovels We're made and the men worked !
snow, At one time Captain I
Baker had to keep man at the binna- |
Gle with broom to sweep the snow off |
the compass as fast as it fell so that
the man at the wheel could see to
steer.
This is the regular routine of sailing |
around the Horn dlSffng the winter sea-
son.
Captain Baker says this is his first
trip to Hawaii but his ship is a sort OF !
kamaaina in the Pacific for she has
made fourteen voyages to different
parts of this ocean from the United
Kingdom. The vessel has no charter
from this port but Fnay proceed either
to Australia or to Puget Sound to load
grain for home.
The vessel is now lying in the stream.
A