The Hawaiian gazette., 1905-09-05
QUICK TRIP TO LAYsAN.

port.
QUICK TRIP TO LAYSAN.
Captain Harris was seen by an Ad-
vertiser man at his home in Kalihi last
evening. He told the story of the
cruise, giving plain facts, shorn of
romantic embellishments, but the facts
alone show that the Woodbury. passed
| through a strange experience. Captain
Harris story is about as follows:
1--WE left Honolulu on July l and
had very nice trip down to Laysan,
making the trip in a little over four
days, covering $40 miles in that time.
Captain Weisbarth in the Lavinia left
here four days ahead of me, but l beat
him to Laysan by four days. We load
ed in $50 short tons Of guano and pre-
pared for the return trip. That cargo
is heavy for the Woodbury., but had
reason to believe she would carry 1t
all right, depending on good weather,
which we should have had at this sea-
son of the year. The Lavinia and
Woodbury. left at the same time, July
10, that date perhaps being something
OF a hoodoo to start with. Max Schlem-
mer was a passenger on my boat.
SAILS BLOWN TO RIBBONS.
II stood off to the southland to take
advantage of a breeze. The wind in
creased and / reefed her down. The
wind freshened still more and I de-
cided to heave her to with close-reefed
foresail and staysail We lay hove to
all night. Next morning 1t was blow
ing a heavy gale. The schooner was
laboring heavily owing to her heavy
guano cargo. Her staysail was blown
to ribbons about this time. decided
for the safety of the vessel to run her
before the gale. Then the foresail was
rent to ribbons and the gale became
a bowling hurricane. I found the pumps
had choked The vessel was not leak
ing from below to any extent but the
water which swept and pounded the
decks found its way down. At times
the seas almost took the men over
board. The man at the wheel had to
be dashed there. The pump valves
were found all right, but the pumps
brought up no water. How the vessel
lived at that time is one of the I'M
explainable mysteries.
PRovISIoNED SMALL BOAT.
For safety, / had the small boat
provisioned and water casks put in and
dashed. This was done for any emer-
gency that might arise. Candidly, I
believed our time had about come. The
vessel was scudding at terrific rate
under bare poles, not stitch Of cam
La haA a col
aboard and that was rammed down in
to the pumps. and then up came water
sending out pieces of coal and other
debris.
BULWARKS KNOCKED OUT.
about this time l poured oil over
then the decks were swept so contin-
ually that was compelled to knock
out the bulwarks to relieve the decks
from water as It was working down
below, We ran this way for five days
during which time we did not see sun,
moon or stars. l had not more than
five hours sleep in that whole time.
1.-THE gale started on a Saturday
morning and on the following Wednes-
day morning the storm began to sub
side. took my sextant out to get a
sight. as l believed we had been run
ming along chain of islands. That
we did not strike the Marc Reef is a
mystery. Toward evening We set the
headsails in order to steady the vessel.
I hoped then the storm had completely
blown itself out, and went below to
get some sleep.
MAIN BOOM BROKEN.
AT $3.50 o'clock / was awakened by
a cry Of Captain, come up quick 1
heard crashing sound and thought we
had run on some rocks. When reach
ed deck I found that the main boom,
60 feet In length, had broken off In the
middle, and the sail and boom were
dragging in the water. We Immediate
ly took steps to get the wreckage in.
We worked on this successfully and
got out the gam which Mr. Schlemmer
had given me at Laysan Island.
Schlemmer went Immediately to work
to fix the boom and made up a fairly
good boom. That evening we had a
mainsail. such as It was, bent on the
boom, but the boom being smaller than
~ '"'' We H"u W reei tne malnsall
way down. We had no foresan Then
We decided to go back to Laysan.
thought we might be able to make
about forty miles day.
CURRENT ENCOUNTERED
when ! thought we We're about
thirty miles from Laysan / took a
sight and found that instead OF being
Ia east Nnrd Of The island n q ,,.n rhnnld