The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1907-10-01
John Charles Peterson
Passes Away in
Hospital.
(From Saturdays Advertiser.)

(fTom saturdays Advert1Ser.)
Diamond Head Charlie" yesterday
afternoon at o'clock sighted a ship
for which no three whistles were
blown, whose coming was to take him
out on the ocean of eternity. He who
for nearly thirty years has been the
lookout at Diamond Head passed
away at the Queens Hospital, dying of
chronic nephritis. He was sixty-seven
years of age and nearly two-thirds of
his life was spent at sea.
John Charles Peterson was born in
Gothenburg, Sweden. He went to sea
as boy and for some time Travelled
between New York and Liverpool in
both good and bad ships. loving the
sea if he did, not love all that went
with it. Tiring of the monotony of
the same run time and time again, he
shipped for Callao and was wrecked
off the coast of Chile. walking with
others of the crew to Callao. a consid-
cradle distance, and suffering many
privations. From Callao he sailed for
San Francisco, but again the ship that
bore him was wrecked off Santa Bar
bara. Peterson then enlisted aboard
the revenue cutter Lincoln and went
| to Alaska. Later he went from San
Francisco to China, thence to India,
Manila, around the Cape of Good Hope
to Spain and Italy and finally to New
York, whence he came to Honolulu in
a schooner in 1879, then going into the
steamship service.
iPotorSon IaouaS ono danOhfar NTf~c
Melika Peterson, who is in Honolulu,
being employed as stenographer at the
Territorial nursery on King street. He
left no other relative here. The funeral
will be held at $3.50 o'clock this after
noon from the Williams undertaking
parlors and interment will be in the
Nuuanu cemetery. Following are the
pallbearers: Hon. NJ. P. Robinson,
Hon. John C. Lane, Gen. John H.
Soper, Capt. Thomas Clarke, S. B.
Rose and George P. Castle.
Peterson was generally liked and
never Christmas passed without the
merchants and others of his friends
of Honolulu getting up a substantial
purse as holiday present and as a
token Of their appreciation of his ser
Head Charlie it was whose eyes first
caught the smoke of the approaching
steamer, the topmast tip of the COM
ing windjammer or the first sign of an
island boat.
In days before the cable the tidings
of the nearing of steamship with
mail and newspapers from the big
world beyond, sent over the telephone
wire to town long before the vessel
was near the harbor, was glad news
to Honolulu people and they blessed
the man who gave them the first intel
ligence of the coming communication
with the outside world.
Diamond Head Charles life as a
lookout on the slope of old Leahi was
not a career of excitement and con-
stant entertainment by any means. At
times he was almost lonely. and he
would have been very, very lonely ex-
cept for his telescope, dog, cat and the
telephone.
In recent years there was less pos
sibility of loneliness, for tourists dis
covered the lookout and found visit
to his station an interesting feature
of q visit to Honolulu. For his back
ward he had an extinct volcano, an un-
usual thing in back yards. and for his
front garden he had the breadth of
the Pacific where everyday there grew
something new and interesting in the
way of ships from all the corners Of
the world Charlie could spot vessel
at a remarkable distance and call her
Alright. Seldom did he announce
vessel by any name except the name
she bore.
For several weeks past Peterson was
in the hospital and little hope was
held for his recovery.
Close on the allotted three score
years and ten. he has now sighted that
mysterious bark whose captain is call
ed Death