The Holbrook news., 1912-08-23
4 NazIVE ERAsT

~ ACK of. Duke Kahanamoku, the
 a @ fastest short distance swimmer N in the world and one of the
 ten men who will represent the United States in the world swimming contests in the Olympic games at Stockholm, is a long ances- ny of semi-amphibious humans. From he day he was born till the hour he lies the Hawaiian is never wholly out of sound of the sea. From the time 1e can walk, and sometimes before, he begins to dabble in the ocean. Duke Kahanamoku may win honors in speed 1t the Olympic games, but he cannot begin to touch in these games the his countrymen and countrywomen. Here is a typical instance:
 Not long ago a Sunday school pie aic party started out from the Island of Molokai for a days junket down the coast. In the crowd were old women and young ones. There were a dozen or so children not more than three years old, and a score of half grown ooys and girls.
 About two miles of shore a sudden gust upset the schooner and left the Sunday school party in the water. If that had been an English or an Amer Ican Sunday school picnic party, pos sibly one or two might have reached the shore, but all these people were Hawaiians. Men, women, boys, girls and babies-they padded gayly back 10 land. Except for the loss of their luncheon their days outing had not been spoiled. It had merely been shortened.
 Some of the stories of their. big swims sound like fiction, but they are 1ot Here are two of them:
 At half-past eight on a Monday evening in February year ago. .J un- fer clear star-lit sky, the little schooner Moi Wahine was rammed amidships by the steel prov of the lighthouse tender Kukui, and the lat ter put into port, believing that every nan on board the Moi Wahine had teen lost.
 Not Afraid of Sharks.
 Seven of the eight men who made up the crew have never been seen since. They were Corean sailors. The eighth, who was captain and owner of the little craft, old Capt. Sam Manu, 77 years old, was a Hawaiian. He alone escaped, and this Is the way he tells his story:
 q don't know how long I swan and fioated about the spot where the bones of my ship went down. My sailors either were drowned at once or drifted away from me. And then the stern lights of the steamer dis appeared, and I was alone there in the darkness, swimming for my life, and miles away from land.
 Tn my younger days I would have thought little of swimming across the few miles that separated me from dry land, but when a man gets to be over 70 an all night swim is a little more than he cares to make. But 1t wasn't what I wanted to do; 1t was what I had to do, so struck out As float ed, working of my clothes so I could | swim easier, something bumped into | my side.
 q had never been afraid of sharks. | [ have swan and dived and played | with sharks, like other Hawaiians, but | when I felt that thing bump into me | [ think my heart stopped beating. | didn't mind being drowned not so | much, because my boat was gone, and | was old, but I didn't want my old | body torn to pieces to make kaukau | (food) for sharks.
 '"But 1t wasn't a shark that hit me It was just a good friendly piece of | board, as I found out when I hit out | against 1t, determined to make fight for my life. I ought to have known a | shark wouldn't come smelling me that | way. I stuck the board under my arm | and f1oated around a bit more till I | found another-a two by four piece about four feet long. The two boards | were about of a size and I crossed them into an X, put my arms over them and struck out with my legs.
 ''Molokai was about 25 miles away. Lanai, the next nearest island, was a little further, but the wind was off shore from Molokai, and I decided to make Lanai my port. The wind and current helped me and the stars wheel ing their way across the sky told me | my course and measured off the hours for me.
 Lots of Time to Think.
 "When the gray morning came tt found me strong, feeling well and rid of all nervousness and excitement. By reading water when the waves lifted me up. l could see the hills of Rnai