The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-10-14

Almost none OF the trelBnJ steam
ers, big or little that were built
twenty years ago have the protection
of bulkheads against collision or the
sharp rasping of a reef. Most of these
older boats have a single collision
bulkhead in the bow, as if the theory
of probabilities were that in any col
lision they would do the ramming.
Gashed in any spot behind their col
lision bulkheads, these ships are as
helpless as they would be with. the
hull construction of ferry-boat. None
but the most modern freighters have
the inside skin" or double hull that
safeguards the giant steamships of
the passenger service A Mauretania
might have rent the length of the
ship put in her lower hull plates and
still make port; tottering old vaga-
bond out of Vladivostok would sink il
it collided with a sampan off Shimo-
noseki. Captain Ebenezer Hogue, of
the Castle Drummoch, who says he
stuffed a hole in the side of his ship
with beancake he was carrying from !,
Dalny to Nagasaki, and who swears
by the ten little Buddhas of Chinamp-
no that when the bean-cakes swelled
, with the water they ripped the side of
his ship like rippin' open an envelope,
b'gad!!' had only the rudiments of
imagination, after ALL
The fate of the Islander tells the
story of how small a strain of circum-
stance suffices to give the sea its toll
of unseaworthy ships. The Islander
was a freight and passenger carrying
nondescript which was pressed into
service at the time the gold fever set
a tide of adventures streaming to-
toria, b. c.. and Skagway, carrying on
each up trip as many passengers as
could be damned into her ancient sa-
loon. 1t was on the morning of
August Is, 1901, before the sun was
up, that the Islander, then off Douglas
Island on return trip from Skagway,
struck what the Atlantic captains
would call a "growler"-an iceberg
almost awash. She met the ice di-
rectly bow on. The shock shook
sleeping passengers out of their
berths. A sailor who was stirring in
the forecastle at the time of the col
lision heard a muffled cry of terror
sound directly beneath his feet. He
raced down into the hold and threw
open the door of the vessels collision
bulkhead in the bow-the only bulk
head division in the whole hull. A
wall of water, carrying on it's crest
= the dead body of the stowaway who
had screamed, toppled out of the bow
compartment into the unprotected
hold. AS the sea swiftly gathered the
rocking ship closer in it's grip, mad
ness ruled the decks. The 10S pas
sengers had deposited 100000 in dust
and nuggets with the purser when the
Islanders left Skagway. Now, with the
deck boards exploding under the pres.
sure of the water-driven air below, the
passengers, goaded by a gold lust
even stronger than fear, fought the
purser and one another for the canvas
sacks in the pursers safe. The sea
, snatched the ship from under their
tramIling feet. Sixty-seven of the to-
tai number aboard persisted.
They course the tracks of seven
seas, these dingy, laboring tramps-
these over-laden, wallowing banks. In
fair weather and in foul they go and
come. The Aleutians plot to trap
them with fog. Sable Island notes
their approach and whispers to all its
hurrying currents that they may throw
out their tentacles to snare. The
yellow waters of the China Sea feel
their keels and league with the hot
winds in racking typhoon. To the
t men who have carried shifty cargoes
of California wheat past the williwaws
of Magellan Strait, who have thread
ed the graveyard of ships at Belle
Isle and fought the crooked tides of
Hiogo, the sea is not pond, nor run
ming schedules things to be posted to
decide smokeroom wagers. The sea is
crafty, moody Presence, capable of
treacherous deceit and unrelenting
cruelty. The sea is a blind, i'm
penetrable mystery, whose shrouds OF
yelling mist never disclose the shape
of something terrible beyond under.
standing