Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-09-19
TO BE SENT To MIDWAY
RELIEF OF PASSENGERS OF THE
WRECKED MONGOLIA.
Desolate and Barren Island Used as q
Cable Station Scene Of
Similar Disaster.

Permission was granted by the Treasury
Department and the Department of Com
merce and Labor today for a relief ship
under foreign registry to be sent to the aid
of the wrecked passengers of the steamer
Mongolia, which is now on reef Off Mid
way Island. The nearest available vessel
is a cable ship Of the Commercial Cable
Company, the Restorer. now at Honolulu.
She has recently been bought and has not
yet been put under American registry. The
agent of the company at Honolulu was
afraid that she might be violating the
coastwise navigation lawsIn taking
cargo Of supplies even to Midway. which Is
an American possession. But the officials
of the department here said that If it was
question, of emergency relief to the pas
sengers on the Mongolia, they would take
the responsibility of little thing like
breaking the law to get it to them. How
was found covering this point, so the Re-
storer will be loaded with supplies and
wrecking outfit and be sent to the scene OF
the trouble Immediately
Scene Of the Wreck.
The reef off Midway is about as out-of-
the-way a place as a vessel could choose
to go ashore. 1t Is 1.2OO miles from Homo
lulu, the nearest habitable point, and is,
normally populated by about forty persons.
Before the cable stopped there it was not
populated at all except by pelicans and
few other sea fowl. The island Is coral
atoll with two sandy islands inside, one OF
them properly named Sand Island. and the
other Green Island, for the sufficient reason
that there is not green thing within loo
miles. The entrance to the atoll Is too shall
low for deep draft ocean steamers. but
there is a fine harbor inside. and when an
appropriation can be made for 1t the cable
company wants channel blasted through
CO hot sale inC
discharge their cargoes close to the cable
station. 1t would also make an excellent
harbOr of refuge in that part of the Pacific
AS the case stands now the water Is shoal
about two miles off the atOll, and that Is
where the Mongolia has now gone aground.
She has aboard about 500 persons, and as
the cable station is not equipped for that
sort of crowd the relief ship will have
to be hurried to her to keep the people
supplied with something to eat, drink and
smoke
There are usually about eighteen cable
operators and employees at the station and
about half a company of marines, under a
petty officer. to keep order and stand off
Chinese pirates and other light-fingered cut
Threats who infest those waters. But the
large increase Of population will turn the
island into a center of metropolitan gaiety.
A Former Disaster.
= 1t is good thing, however, that the
wreck did not happen about a year after
the operators came near having to live on
pelicans and nest eggs themselves. They
were getting as low in supplies as the
company usually lets them. and vessel
was sent off with few eatabes and other
luxuries from Honolulu. She got as far
Midway, when she went on a reef not far
from where the Mongolia Is now resting.
and was total loss. Not even a box of
crackers or canned tomatoes was washed
ashore. Things began to look rather seri-
Gus for the operators, and hurry orders
were sent to an available vessel al Manila
to rush supplies to Midway. She obeyed
the orders so literally that she did not stop
to get out of the way of Guam, which is
about half way between Manila and Mid
way. She went bang on a reef there and
was also a total loss.
Meantime the cable operators were tell
ing San Francisco in their off moments
how bootleg. soup tasted and what 1t was
to have kittens a la Newburg on the menu.
They had to put out the small harbor light
on the island to get oil enough for lighting
the cable offices at night. and things were
looking pretty serious when a relief ship
finally reached them
Plenty Of Applicants.
This is the spot that the Mongolia has
chosen to go aground, and 1t is question
able IL she could have found a more DESC
late and forsaken spot to drop her pas
sengers. But, strange it may seem, the
cable company has no dearth Of applicants
for the posts on the island. The wages are
good. and about $250,000 has been spent in
a gymnasium. club house and that sort Of
thing to make the place tolerably habtable,
while there is no way in the world for
man to spend any money except playing
poker with his fellow operators, so that by
the time man has served a twO-year tour
of duty on the island he usually has pretty
good wad of back salary coming to him.