The Hawaiian gazette., 1908-01-28
FORT GEORGE IS
winner OF RACE

The Fort George won the race of the
bound for Honolulu and Kahului, after
an. The statement was made in the
afternoon papers that the ship Erskine
NJ. Phelps. Captain Graham, had
reached Kahului Saturday and was the
winner, but the, arrival of the Fort.
George has shown that the Fort
George outsailed her larger rival and
won the contest. ''i a,i
The Fort George. which arrived in
this harbor yesterday afternoon at
o'clock, was off Kahului last Friday
afternoon at O'CLOCK, and the Phelps
was not then in sight. Investigation
has shown that the Phelps did not
reach the Maui port till late Satur- ,
day night, so late, in fact, that she
did not get into the harbor till Sunday
morning. The officers of the Fort
George state that off Maui they had
southerly weather. with light squalls,
which kept them close in. They pass
ed very close to Kahului, and the
Phelps was never sighted.
The start of the race must have been
beauty. All four vessels, the Irm-
gard, Girard c. Tobey, Phelps and Fort
George, sailed early on Sunday mora
ing, the Tobey in the lead and the
other three following in the order
named. The Fort George was the
third to start, but cast off her tug
the Phelps was lowed past her. At
ten o'clock in the morning the Irm-
gard was in the lead, about three miles
ahead, with the Tobey close second
and the Phelps and the Fort George
behind. Before the day was over the
other three had outstripped the Fort
George and she was left behind. The
Tobey was sailing beautifully, and,
when last seen, had taken the lead
from the Irmgard.
Only once after this did the winner
of the race see any of the vessels. That
was at 10 o'clock on the next morn
ing. There was a heavy haze, and
when it lifted for moment the Phelps
was seen about two miles away on the
port quarter. From then on it was a
case of sailing as fast as possible and
not a vessel in sight. When Captain
Fullerton arrived here, he expected to
find that the Irmgard and Tobey were
already in port.
In speaking of the race yesterday,
Captain Fullerton did not have very
much to say. He was satisfied with
what his ship had done, and that was
In regard to the trip, he made
the following short statement:
I'VE had fine weather all the way
down and made a fairly good trip. on
Tie llSt udy, Will ldli WlhQs NhO
others started to run away from me,
but with my own weather a little
later on, it was different If the
Phelps had beaten us to Kahului We
surely would have seen her, as we
were close in, with a southerly wind
and loafed along Maui very near the
shore. At o'clock Friday afternoon
we were directly off Kahului, and I
am sure that the Phelps did not get
into that port till late Saturday night
at the very BEST
The Fort George will hoist the flag
of the Matson Navigation Company
as soon as one can be made for the
purpose. She is one of the vessels OF
the Planters Line, which was recently
bought by the Matson interests and
was transferred in San Francisco the
day before she sailed. She brought
down a cargo of 800 tons of coal, con-
signed to Hind, Rolph & Co., and
will take a full cargo of sugar around
CAPE Horn. She will be handled while
in this city by Castle & Cooke.
Her actual sailing time from San
Francisco to this city, from the time
Of leaving one dock to reaching the
other, was fifteen days and six hours.
a good trip. though not by any means
a record.