The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-08-19
PEARL HARBoR

cit will not be so monotonous at
sea, I promised my fellow voyagers
on the Shark. FsThe sea is filed with
life. 1t is so populous that every day
new is happening. Almost
as soon as we pass through the Golden
Gate and head south wen pick up
with the flying fish. Wen be having
them fried for breakfast. We il be
catching bonito and dolphin, and spear
ing porpoises from the bowsprit. And
then there are the sharks sharks
without end. =
We passed through the Golden Gate
and headed south. We dropped the
mountains of California beneath the
horizon, and daily the sun grew warm
er. But there were no fying-fish, no
bonito and dolphin. The ocean was
bereft of life. Never had / sailed on
so forsaken a sea- Always, before, in
the same ATTITUDES, had L encountered
flying fish.
seNever mind I said. .Wait till
we get off the coast of Southern Cali
fornia. Then we II pick up the flying
fish. .
We came abreast of Southern Cali
fornia, abreast of the Peninsula of
Lower California, abreast of the coast
fish. Nor was there anything else. No
life moved. As the days went by the
absence of life became almost uncanny.
s'Never mind, = said. "When we
do pick up with the fying-fs we II
pick up with everything else. The
hving- fish is the staff of life for ali the
other breeds. Everything will come in
a bunch when we find the flying fish. =
When I should have headed the
Shark southwest for Hawaii, / still
held her south. I was going to find
those fying-fsh Finally the time
came when, if 7 wanted to go to Ho-
nolulu, I should have headed the Shark
due west Instead Of which | kept her
south. Not until latitude 10 deg. did
we encounter the first, flying fish. He
was very much alone. ] saw him. Five
other pairs of eager eyes scanned the
sea all day, but never saw another. So
sparse were the fying-fsh that nearly
a week elapsed before the last one on
board saw his first flying fish. As for
the dolphin, bonito, porpoise, and all
the other hordes of life-there weren It
any.
Not even a shark broke surface with
his ominous dorsal fin. Bert took dip
daily under the bowsprit, hanging on
to the stays and dragging his body
through the water. And daily he can
vassed the project of letting go and
having a decent swim. / did my best
to deter him. But with him I had lost
all standing as an authority on sea
life
eff there are sharks he demand
ed. "why don t they show up2''
/ assured him that if he really did
let go and have swim the sharks
would promptly appear. This was a
bluff on my part. | didn t believe 1t
It lasted as a deterrent for two days
The third day the wind fell calm,
and it was pretty hot. The Shark
was moving knot an hour. Bert
dropped down under the bowsprit and
let go And now behold the perversity
of things. We had sailed across tive
thousand miles and more of ocean and
had met with no sharks. Within hye
minutes after Bert had finished ms
swim the fin of a shark was cutting
the surface in circles around the Shark
There was something wrong about
that shark 1t bothered me. 1t mao
no right to be there in that deserted
ocean. The more / thought about 1T
the more incomprehensible it became
But two hours later we sighted lanc
and the mystery was cleared up. Ht
had come to us from the land, and MOI
from the uninhabited deep. He hae
presaged the landfaI. He was the
messenger Of the land.
Twenty-seven days out from Sal
Francisco we arrived at the Island O.
Oahu. Territory of Hawaii. In tn
early morning we drifted around Dla
mond Head into full view of Honolulu
and then the ocean burst suddenly mt
life. FLYING fish cleaved the air IN gilt
tering squadrons. In five minutes w
saw more of them than during tn
whole voyage Other fish, large ones
of various sorts. leaped into the ar
There was life everywhere, on SCI
ana shore We could see the masts an
tunnels of the ships in the harbof, Tn
hotels, and bathers along the beach a
Waikiki. the smoke rising from tn
dwelling houses high up on the yoleanI
slopes of the Punchbowl and Tantaiu
| The custom house tug was racing tf
ward Us, and big school of porpols
| got under our bow and began cuttln
the most ridiculous capers The POI
doctors launch came charging out a
us. and a big sea turtle broke the su
face with his back and took look
| us.
| Never was there such a burgeonin
of life. Strange faces were on OF
decks. strange voices were speaking
and the copies of that very morning
newspaper, with cable reports from a
the world. were thrust before our eye
Incidentally, we read that the snar