The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-07-18
BY Sol. n. Sheridan.

1t was a gallant race Wnlle IL lasted
but the Mauna Loa can sail rings
around the Kinau. Not doubt
of it. And if you had been at the
Inter-Island wharves couple of weeks
ago, on the first day that Admiral
Beckley's boat sailed under the new
ownership, you would have seen it for
yourself.
The boats were booked to leave the
dock at noon, both of them. That was
a condition that was full Of interest
ing possibilities, because when the two
fleets were two each flagship had its
partisans, and each partisan was of
the fighting kind. A straight ticket
politician would not have been a cir
cumstance.
Then the mail boat due that day was
late in arriving, and the sailing Of the
This for both of them, mind you. The
authorities and the fates were deter
mined that there should be a race.
Would mere steamboat men and pas
sengers balk them? Not for a moment.
JOCKEYING FOR PLACE.
The Mauna Loa lay at the wharf
farthest up the harbor. The crowd on
each wharf grew denser as the time
for the sailing of the boats approached.
The partisans were gathering, all the
old Wilder crowd around the Kinau
and the old Inter-Island crowd about
the Mauna Loa. The boats drew away,
at last, with whistles footing. and with
mighty cheer from the throats of
those left on shore. If anything, the
Kinau had just a fraction the better
of the start-or, it seemed to me,
standing On the deck of the Mauna
Loa, that she began to slip from her
wharf first. Maybe I.,did not feel our
own ship move as quickly as I saw
the Kinau begin to slip away. Maybe
Captain Freeman set his watch just
Tie IueTGSt pdItlCit VI d SGCOHu duSdu.
AT all events, he had a sea jockey
/ to reckon with, for as the Kinau slip
| backed away as easily-and, maybe
because she was the shorter boat Of
| the two maybe because she answered
her helm more readily, she turned first
and Strengthened out for the run down
| the. harbor, passing the larger kinau
| as though she We're standing still.
Some ribald persons standing on the
| deck beside me shouted to Captain
Freeman as we passed:
| eli. there! Throw US a roper
NOT TO THE SWIFT. ALWAYS.
| But We had a sea dog to reckon with,
and a stern one. The Kinau straight
ened out, too, in marvellously quick
time, and came booming along behind
us with bone in her teeth. Not a
doubt of the fact, that Captain Free
man meant to give US a run for our
money.
The Mauna Loa rounded the buoy
going beautifully and with all sail set.
The Kinau was SO close behind her
| N'AS ~ S%ShiCo YOU Couiu nave tossed
an apple from one ship to the other
And all the passengers who had not
begun to feel the qualms of their true
inwardness as the boats dipped to the
outer swell. watched the race with the
most vivid interest. Presently, Purser
Conklin came around, his face alight
with confidence in his ship, but with
a hint OF something like relief in his
voice, too. as he said:
I'VE will beat her an hour into La
mama. She must stop at Kaunakakai'
But there were more things to come
before either boat had crossed Molo-
kai channel. The Mauna Loa held her
lead past Waikiki. and a little more
than held it. 1t seemed that the XII
nau, despite the most gallant effort
was to see nothing but heels for her
1rst trip under the Inter-IsIand flag
which gave a touch OF pathos to her
!, coming abreast of the Beckley resi-
dence at the foot of Diamond Head
where the Wilder pennant, absent now