The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-03-01

welded the harpoon and steering oar
III quest of the oil-bearing whales of
the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea.
Purdy has had an adventurous career
since he was a young fellow of six
teen, serving in whaling ships in the
40 s and SOS, IN old paddle wheel
steamers plying between London and
Mediterranean ports, participating in
the Crimean war as a sailor on steam
transports for the British government;
carrying a musket in the Civil War
as a soldier, and then enlisting in the
navy, with which he remained until he
was retired for age, after having serv-
ed in the battle Of Manila Bay on
Dewey s flagship
In the latter connection there is an
interesting story told of Purdy, who
was one of the few remaining old type
bluejackets of the @marline-spike days,
in that squadron. Like all old salts he
is crammed full of superstition, and one
of his fancies was that May was not
a good day for a fight. It is said that
this information was conveyed to Ad-
miral, then Commodore, Dewey as the
squadron swung over from Hongkong
to Manila Bay. Purdy moved along the
deck into the sacred precincts trod by
the Commodore who was standing with
a man who represented the New York
Herald. The Commodore asked Purdy
what he wished to say. Purdy, and
this story is told in the New York Her
aid of that day, begged pardon for max
ing suggestion, bat inquired if the
Commodore knew the following day
was May /. The Commodore said he
knew that fact. Purdy went on to say
that it would be pretty good day to
fight on but May or 3 were not good
days When asked why the latter
dates were not so prepitious Purdy call
ed attention to the Union defeats at
charlottesville ana other battlefelds
which took place on May 8, with the
request that the engagement planned
take place on any other day than the
third of the month. The battle was
fought on May l, and a decisive victory
it was for the American eolors.
Gilbert II. Purdy's trying life at sea
and on the American battlefields of the
Civil War gave him an iron eonstitu-
ton. Despite the fact that he was
born in 1928, and is therefore eight-one
years of age, he IS yet a stalwart, we'll
proportional man, looking twenty years
younger, and just as full of the vim
and ginger of robust manhood as any
young Jack Tar. In fact it is difficult
to believe this man to be four score
wears, when he talks Of his experiences.
Closing one eve and listening to his
deep voice. his hearty laugh, his jokes
and up-to-date slang, one imagines a
healthy young bluejaeket just ashore
from the warship for day.
Purdy was born in Duchess County
n. Y, near Poughkeepsie ON January
% 1923. He lived there until 1916
when he set out for New Bedford, at
tracted by the adventure to be found In
sea life. He went aboard the Amer
lean ship Marengo, eaptained by Theo'
Cole. On that ship Purdy got his first
whale. The voyage lasted two years
and seven months. The vessel stopped
at the Cape de Verde islands and then
passed around Cape Horn into the Pa
cifie, stopping at the Galapagos where
terrapin was shot. Then the yeSsei
headed straightaway for the "Sand-
wich Islands as they were then
known. arriving at Lahaina, the then
important town of the Hawaiian group
on April 6, 1916. He remembers a fort
there with Hawaiian soldiers, but some
had hardly any uniform on at all. About
seventy whalers were lying in the road
stead and Lahaina was a very iayeiy
town. The vessel came up to Honolulu
for mail. cit was not much OF a
town. Purdy remarked.
Then off to the Boring Sea. then
back to Lahaina, on down to the
equator. back again to the Islands,
dropping anchor in Kealakekua Bay
Hawaii, where quantity of provisions
was taken on board The ship took
off some passengers from Kealakekua
sailors who had deserted their ships
Mt Lahaina. and then another trip to
the frozen seas.
AT Petropaulovsk, Purdy had his
first bear hunt. He asserts that it was
man hunt. with the bear doing the
pursuing. He had read stories of how
bears were killed and one picture stuck
in his minds eyes, and that was the