The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1912-04-13

d Japanese JUNK these were the most
deeply imbedded in the sand and seem.
ed to have been but recently brought
to light by some storm wave which
had cut the sand from around them.
The drift of Japanese junks across the
Pacific is one of the most interesting
and least understood chapters of I'M
written discovery history in that great
sea. In Hawaiian records We find note
of a visit of a strange vessel with
strange people who came to the is
lands in stress of gale and were wreck.
land in safety; here they were absorb
ed in the Hawaiian population, but
until quite modern times the descend
ants of these wanderers were known
in the carefully kept genealogles and
there is good reason to regard the
waits of the sea as Japanese.
On the sands of Oregon the storms
sometimes sweep into sight large
bricks of beeswax, each stamped with
, character which has been recognized
as a Japanese or Korean ideogram, Ep-
, parently the memorial of the wreck
, of some junk which the Indian Tecol-
lection was too inert to hand down to
. present memory. II is quite evident
, that at some time a junk strayed to
Midway and went to pieces. Nothing
, could be more simple; junk once
: driven from it's course in sight Of
, land would thereafter be no more than
driftwood upon the sea, for its crew,
a, without instruments or any knowledge
of the art of sea navigation, could but
sail hit or miss and come to land
they knew not where or drift a char
mel hulk until the sea should tear her
no pieces.
, This pile of wreckage was reported
, five years later by Surgeon Frank f.
Mccullough. U. S. N, of the Nero
+, when she visited Midway in the end
. of May, 1899, when engaged upon the
;. cable survey. He reports the keel
+ and other fragments of several YES
o sells lie on the beach about half mile
=, from the harbor entrance and judging
from their honey-combed and weather
o beaten condition must have remained
o there a number of years.
! The same authority records two
: more recent wrecks. After noting
= the existence on the highest portion
!of the island at a point about thirty
yands from the beach of the one
q roomed hut erected by the Pacific
Mail company in 1867 he continues
I "A placard within announces that the
writer thereof, the commander of a
4 schooner, had been wrecked on the
! island in September, 1888, and had
, remained there until February, 1890;
= that during that time he had buried
four of his crew; he also stated that
z by digging four feet at an indicated
: point water, and good water too,
lcould be obtained, The Wandering
y Minstrel, while surveying for the Ha
4 waiian Government, was also wrecked
n here soon after, and her captain and
tcrew rescued after a residence of
r fourteen months. There were alsO
, numerous evidences of subsequent oc.
3 cupation by Japanese"
1t is quite evident that DR. McCol.
. Tough has mixed up the history OF
=. wrecks. If the schooner's captain was
q rescued in February, 1890, that period
3 must overlap another wreck of which
I we have better and more detailed in,
= formation. 1t was in 1887 that the
Wandering Minstrel, a small bark was
4 wrecked on Midway.
! Capt. Walker had his family with
. him, and it was only by the narrowest
b sort Of a close shave that all hands
4 escaped from the wreck and found g
s WAY from the sea reef of the atol
i across the lagoon to Sand Island. The
s wreck lay in a position inaccessibl,
= to them and it proved impossible tC
( save any of her stores; therefore tn,
e party was forced to depend on tn,
Q scanty. resources Of the island, rea
abundance made scanty because o
s their ignorance of the resources wheel
y might be made to support life The,
l. were able to catch few fish and thei
e principal reliance YVES on the bird
E. and eggs.
II Several OF the crew died of scurv,
e on Sand Island, where the water wa
n good. but that disease did not toucI
T. the few who were living on Easter
k Island. where the water supply is IA
lie less potable but apparently NOR
lie wholesome. The NARROWING of Capt
At Walker and his family and crew di
h really endure for fourteen months, III
in til at last they were rescued by
lie schooner sent out from Honolulu i
8, search Of them.
se Capt. Brooks in 1859 went throug