The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-07-30

Albert Bigelow Paine, in Pearson's
Monthly for August, has an article en-
titled "A Sailor of Fortune, Being
the Personal Memoirs of Captain B. s.
Osbon, in Maximilian's time, Admiral
of the Mexican Navy; ana during the
Civil War period, Fleet Signal Officer
! to Admiral Farragut," as the preface
reads. After describing Osbon's early
| sailor days on merchantmen and
American warships, he tells of his
cruise on the American whaler Junior,
Captain Silas Tinkham, which cleared
from the port of New Bedford, Deem
Der 10, 1S47. The vessel cruised in the
Antarctic, then went to the Arctic
choring off Honolulu.
AT this stage the author relates an
interesting history of the old warship
st. Mary's, now the school ship St
Mary's at New York. He says:
after a fairly good passage south
ward we arrived at Honolulu in the
Hawaiian Islands, where we found
several whalemen and two French
n-of-war These two French men
of-war had attracted our notice but #
the time we did not understand why
they were there and paid no particular
attention to them. A day or two after
we arrived, the ST. Mary's, American
sioop-of-War, came in from China
the same old st. Mary's which has
since become a school ship and lies !
at the foot of East Twenty fourth |
street. New York City. But the vessel |
was in active service, then, though
with most of her crew i'll of an epi |
demic disease. AS soon as her anchors
were down the sick men were landed
under the guns of the little fort on the
beach, and I remember very well how
the Dlupper-hunters cussed the captain
Of the man-of-war for putting his men
on the sandy beach where there was
the northward We're beautiful grass and
;ocoanut trees. During the afternoon.
however, boat from the ST. Mary's
visited each whale-ship and reuuested1
ne captains to come on board. The
conference between the captain of the
man, of-war and the whaIers lasted
'erhaps an hour, when each returned
o his ship and announced the fact
nat the two French men-of-war were
here for the purpose of taking nos
essioh OF the Hawaiian Islands, and
nat the ST. Mary's men had been land.
under the fort to keep the French
rom hiring upon it. We We're asked
we would volunteer to go on board
the st. Mary's and man her guns.
very man Jack volunteered, we were
My too anxious to serve orr country
THE FRENCHMEN OUTWITTED
The men from the different sbios
ere told Off in divisions and went on
GARD and We're taught how to handle G
er guns. They got enough men from
ne Junior and several other whalers '
complete the full complement of the
I. Mary crew in case she went into .
ctlon. For forty eight hours. NIGHT :,
40 day. the whalers We're drilline On |
he man-of-war's decks. "Old Rill,, ]
no had been in the British NAVY. and C
yseif' who had served a short time
the United States Navy. We're So s
cted among the gun captains. The y
'eichman was evidently very much Il
'iprised that the st. Marys, with p
ore than half of her crew on the II
ch-ist, yet had her decks full of ac-
We men, and after looking the situa-
'h over for several days concluded
at there was wisdom in discretion
icy left Honolulu, and never again