The Hawaiian gazette., 1915-10-15
THRILLING STORY
Of A SA|PNRECK .
REACHES MIDWAY
Crew Of Schooner 0. N. Kellogg
Get There After a Months
Hard Effort
---i 'os
NAVAL TUG IS ORDERED
TO RETURN THEM HERE
!roquoiS' Men Will Hear a Tale
OF Hunger and Peril On
Arrival

ARRIVAL
Nine men and one woman, the crew
4 Of the American schooner o. NJ. Kel.
logg, reached Midway Island Wednes.
day from Laysan Island The schooner
piled up on Marc reef, September Is,
and is believed to be a total loss Her
crew got to Laysan in a ships boat,
and at Laysan chartered the sloop
Helene Of Max Schlemmer. In this
Midway was made.
The ten arrived at Midway exhaust.
ed from lack of food, according to an
Associated Press despatch from Midway
| via San Francisco last night.
| Today or tomorrow the omitted States
naval tug lrOquois, Bos 'un Frank Bruce
commanding, will sail for Midway to
bring the castaways to Honolulu. AID.
vices to the navy department from the
Midway cable station resulted in or
ders to send a ship being received by
Admiral C. J. Boush, comma ndant, yes
terday morning. He decided on the
lroquois, which arrived only yesterday
afternoon from San Francisco, convoy.
| ing the K-class submarines.
Party Adrift Two Weeks
Captain Lunn was master of the
schooner. The woman of the party is
his wife. They and the others were
atloat two weeks in the ships boat
and the Helene between Marc and Mid.
September 20, eleven days after the
schooner struck, and Laysan was reach.
ed in two days. The ten remained at
Laysan six days, and started for Mid
way October 4.
1t was fortunate for them that they
found Schlemmer on Laysan, for other.
wise they would have been in severe
straits, probably for food and at least
for a boat to make inhabited land.
Schlemmer went to Laysan three month
ago in the Helene with his son and
daughter and a Japanese.
Ma. sef is a submerged coral atoll
in 10 degrees, As minutes west, and
25 degrees, 30 minutes north. 1t is
a circle of coral boulders just awash,
with only it's fringe of white breakers
to show it to ship. 1t is on all
charts.
Piles UP While Returning
The o. NJ. Kellogg was a schooner
of 1893 tons gross, 33l net, $50 feet in
length, 80 feet beam and lib feet
depth. She was built at Fairhavon
California, in 1892, of yellow fir with
copper and iron fastenings. She sailed
from San Francisco for Apia July 8,
and arrived at Samoa August Is. She
departed September 2 for San Francisco
Thus she was thirteen days out when
she piled up.
Her presence near Marc would be ex
planned by her beating far north prior
to taking the northeast trades for San
Francisco.
Marc lies about seventy miles east
of Laysan, and is one of the Hawaiian
group. Dowsett g reef lies southeast
Of Marc. From Laysan to Midway is
about 400 miles, west by north. Marc
is about $40 miles from Honolulu.
In his LOG of the Kaalokai," Capt.
F. d. Walker describes the reef.
at consists of circle Of coral
boulders just awash-nOt an inviting
place TO be in bad weather. he says.
"We were getting on nicely, when il
suddenly came to blow. The current
ran to the northwest about three knots
an hour. Still, We hung around in the
interests of navigation As the sea
got heavier, we lay to during the night
and at daylight we tackled it again
Our object was to discover an en-
trance, and if there existed an achOr
age inside.
"Al day we were plunging into the
sea; but it was evident Providence did
not want us to know much about the
place. AS we felt disinclined TO dis.
pute the wishes of Providence, we left
and started for Laysan, again. think
1t is always bad weather at Marc Reef
In the winter months, when the heavy
westerly seas, which roll like noun.
tains, set in, the Marc Reef must pre-
sent a truly magnificent spectacle. So
sublime! If only it could be viewed
from a balloon.
Such was the reef on which the o.
NJ. Kellogg struck.
Sohlemmer Formerly Here
Schlemmer, who formerly had a
guanO contract on Laysan, returned
here after the Japanese poaching raids
and served as custodian Of the Odd Eel
lows building, but went back to the
island during the summer. He would
not have provisions to feed ten extra
mouths, which would make almost four
times the number he had provided for,
and it probably pinched him to give the
castaways enough to make Midway.
The cable station could care for them
for a time, but as II has only twelve
to fourteen men, the ten newcomers
would increase consumption there al,
most 100 per ss,t. For T. saason, the
station wishf d tae sthuo1e!'s crew
taken off as sq0o as posstL d 10 as not
to deplete its supplies too much.
The IroquoiF sapuld maize Midway
and return in eisbt er teIi days. She
! used TO run thsra ffgpiaTly when she
was station ship here and when the
government had nariaet Oh the island.
She Is about a tehAnot ,iip. Minor
Il ~. u - "A A a ~. ! IA.