The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1905-11-15
NOEAU WAS IN
DANGER OF SINKING



The vessel got away yesterday morn
! ing shortly before II O'clock She had
cargo in her hold and as deck load
carried 80 tons of coal a quantity of
cases of coal oil forward, $4,000 feet of
lumber in her alleyways and some tubs
of sah in the after part of the vessel.
She had a large cargo aboard but not
as large as she could carry according
to statements this morning by the
officials of the company. 1t was stat
ed by others however, that she was
| loaded deeper than she should have
been for when she went out she was
down to II feet 6 inches at the bow and
10 feet inches aft, whereas her maxi
mum mark is 10 feet forward and y
feet aft. on the other hand it is
claimed that the trouble arose from the
fact that the freight was not stored
properly in the hold and that some had
to be put on deck.
In any event the vessel ran into a
strong northeast swell as she rounded
Diamond Head. About 1880 o'clock
yesterday she suddenly plunged her
nose into what seemed to be tremen-
dous sea that swept over her and from
that time on, she was constantly buck
ing into the seas. The water sub
merged the forward part of the boat
completely flooding the forward deck
and the alleyways and getting down
into the forecastle so that nobody could
remain inside. The forecastle was
battened down and every effort made
to check the water getting below. 1t
was stated this morning that some of
the deck load of coal which had been
put aboard on a rush order for one of
the Hawaii plantations which was
short of coal got washed into the Soup
pers and checked them so that the wa
ter could not run off. The result was
that the nose of the vessel was held
down. The vessel had no life and was
laboring all of the time under the
seas that constantly swept over her
Had not the engineers closed the doors
the engine room would have been flood
ed.
1t was first thought to cut away the
forward bulwarks in order to allow the
vessel to free herself of the water that
held her down and threatened at any
time to send her to the bottom, but it
was impossible to do this and Captain
Peterson did not give the order. Some
of the coal oil cases were swept over
board. Most of those aboard the YES
sci thought that their time had come
and the natives got into the life boats
to be ready to get them away
from the vessel in case she started to
founder. At 12:10 p. m. Peterson or
dered the propeller but down from
10 revolutions to 60 revolutions a min
ute but even under a slow bell the
vessel could not stand up to the seas
and at 12:47 p. m. he decided to put
back to Honolulu. The vessel was
brought about and reached the wharf
yesterday afternoon at 2:15 p. m:
The officers of the vessel refused to
go to sea in the vessel unless her
load was reduced and this morning the
local harbor of the Masters ana Pilots
Association held meeting and ordered
that no member of the organization
should take out the vessel if she was
loaded as deeply as she had bezn. The
decision of the harbor was accepted
by the company for most of the load
was removed and the vessel was light
ened so that she was able to resume
her run shortly after 10 o'clock this
Peterson taking her out
1t seems probable that incident over
there being too much load on deck
would not have arisen had not there
been an urgent order for more coal
yesterday The fuel was sorely needed
on Hawaii so it was thought that the
vessel would be able to pack the load
as she had carried as large and even
larger loads in the past. When it be-
came apparent that the sea Yas too
rough for such a thing to be attempt
ed there was nothing to do but take
a sufficient quantity off to make the
vessel higher out of the water. This
was done and the vessel sailed.