The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1911-03-17
FATALITIES OF HAWAIIAN
WATERS--LOSS OF MOI WAtINE

The channel waters Of Hawaii have
witnessed many a gallant eight for life,
have buffoicd many a struggling swim.
mer, sucked down departing ones and
WISHED 20 shore many one afto hours
and even days Of almost uperhumau
battle against she clements, but the
recent plucky eight Of old Captain Sam,
neventy-seven years Of age, against
waves and tide and winds in the
Nolokai channel, will rank as one Of
the greatest endurance tests and dis.
plsys Of grit and courage ever recorded
in the history Of the Pacific.
It. was half past eight in the evening
Of Monday February %, under clear,
starlight sky, that the little schooner
Moi wahine was suddenly smashed into
amidships by the steel bows Of the
lighthouse tender Kukui. Who was
responsible, why the accident occurred,
against whom is the blame to be laid
are now questions for judicial deter
mination If the Moi Wahine was
actually slipping through the waters of
the channel, with only the CLEAN of the
phosphorus in her wake to mark her
presence there, or if she was burning
all the lights required by the navigation
laws, is a question of veracity between
two shippers. That the steel PROV Of
the tender crashed through the frail
structure of the little schooner is fact
established beyond controversy, told in
mute eloquence by the fragments Of the
wreck gathered hours afterwards from
the deck of the steamer, and later, after
he had undergone an experience that
few men, even in the hardest days of
their youth would have outlived, by
the only survivor of the crew of eight
that manned the little craft.
Captain Sans Account.
az was at the Wheel says Captain
Sam, the hero of the grim tragedy,
''and we were bearing away on the star.
board tack. My men were sleeping
about on the deck, resting peacefully
after their days work. The night was
a clear one and, as the waters there
about were as familiar to me as are the
streets of Honolulu, l was not watch.
ing very closely. Everything was right;
there was no pilikia. The canvas was
drawing well. We were making fair
time.
''Looming through the dark before
me stood the mountains of Molokai.
Before me, across the waters, blinked
the lights of steamer, growing closer
and brighter. Danger from collision
was the last thing 1 was thinking Of
even when the steamer bore down closer
and closer to me. That the lookout of
the steam vessel could not see us as
plainly as saw his vessel never
doubted, and ! continued on the star.
board tack, without changing my course
Closer and closer came the steamer and
I saw that to cross my bows she would
be almost upon me, but I thought she
would make it and on swept, taking
my sleeping crew to their deaths.
Awoke to Death.
"When, at last, / saw that our vessels
would come too close together for Ger
tain safety, / shouted. My call woke
one or two of the crew. The others haC
no intimation of danger until, with 6
smash and grinding, the steamer crash
ed into us, passed over and our little
schooner went down beneath our feet.
fThere was nothing / could do. The
disaster had come so Unexpectedly, Sc
swiftly, and my boat was wiped out Sc
without warning that ] could scarcely
my life, surrounded by other struggling
forms and by the floating wreckage tina
alone was left of the Moi Wahine.